Will Harris runs a regenerative farm in rural Georgia and this book is about the land he farms and how and why he came to be farming it in the way he does and what his way of farming has done for the health of his land, his animals, and his community.
It’s a great story, the man has a way with words (credit also goes to his ghost writer who helped get the essence of him onto the page and to him for acknowledging her work!) but it’s not just a story, it’s about how industrial farming happened, what he did when it didn’t make sense to him anymore and the unexpected benefits and pitfalls of doing it. I particularly enjoyed the story of his farm deciding to get into chickens and creating an all you can eat buffet for the local eagles…
As someone who tries to eat as ethically as I can, I will admit I really struggle with the idea that to save the planet we should all be vegan and eat impossible burgers. I can’t see how eating UPF’s that are vegan are better for you and the planet than buying decently raised meat and fish.
Harris has come to understand and believe in closing his loops and having multiple outputs, not just money, for him, the resilience of the land, animals and community is an output. He believes that this way of farming is better for the environment (George Monbiot would disagree) and it’s an argument that makes sense to me, but it’s not a free for all on eating meat as so much of it is not raised regeneratively. He also argues that with food and farming, you have to put your money where your mouth is and that’s really hard to do and very hard to do perfectly.
I’m probably not explaining it very well but Harris does and he’s really lived it and you should go and read this book, I can’t recommend it enough.
Nic Dempsey 