There’s only a week left to take advantage of our March Book Fair Sale, and if you’re anything like us, you’ll want to get the most bang for your buck! To help you out, we’ve found 10 titles that cost less than $10 each.
1. Simple Green Pest and Disease Control: Bob’s Basics
One of the biggest challenges of growing an organic garden is keeping away pests and diseases without using harmful pesticides. But as Bob illustrates in this necessary guide for any organic gardener, it is possible to keep your garden chemical-, pest-, and disease-free all at once. A master at growing organic produce, Flowerdew outlines the best natural methods, from building effective physical barriers and pest traps out of plants and recycled materials to using such natural pest predators as birds, reptiles, and even other bugs.
2. Surviving Ourselves
Surviving Ourselves is about the vital relationship between Nature and the human spirit. Herm reveals their parallel behavior- how one affects the other in the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of our daily lives. In much of our human activity, including our intensive agricultural systems and many ill-conceived business and political policies, this relationship has become fragmented, affecting the attitudes and expectations of all involved. Through his own personal experiences, as well as the inspiring stories of others, this fourth-generation farmer relays a message of revolution and evolution that starts within ourselves. The resulting transition will help humanity adopt a more sustainable paradigm of existence.
3. Street Farm
Street Farm is the inspirational account of residents in the notorious Low Track in Vancouver, British Columbia—one of the worst urban slums in North America—who joined together to create an urban farm as a means of addressing the chronic problems in their neighborhood. It is a story of recovery, of land and food, of people, and of the power of farming and nourishing others as a way to heal our world and ourselves. Sole Food’s mission is to encourage small farms in every urban neighborhood so that good food can be accessible to all, and to do so in a manner that allows everyone to participate in the process. This book chronicles the challenges, growth, and success of this groundbreaking project and presents compelling portraits of the neighborhood residents-turned-farmers whose lives have been touched by it.
4. Storey’s Guide to Raising Meat Goats
This updated edition of Storey’s Guide to Raising Meat Goats thoroughly explains the basics of selecting a breed, buying, and raising healthy animals. Sayer explains how goats think and how to handle, house, and transport them properly. There is plenty of basic health-care information for preventing disease, addressing common ailments, and breeding safely. Finally, a wealth of information is offered on catering to ethnic populations and marketing the product. With this invaluable resource, experienced and novice farmers alike will find raising goats to be immensely satisfying and profitable.
5. Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production
In Defending Beef, Hahn Niman argues that cattle are not inherently bad for either the Earth or our own nutritional health. In fact, properly managed livestock play an essential role in maintaining grassland ecosystems by functioning as surrogates for herds of wild ruminants that once covered the globe. Hahn Niman argues that dispersed, grass-fed, small-scale farms can and should become the basis for American food production, replacing the factory farms that harm animals and the environment. The author ― a longtime vegetarian ― goes on to dispel popular myths about how eating beef is bad for our bodies. She methodically evaluates health claims made against beef, demonstrating that such claims have proven false. She shows how foods from cattle ― milk and meat, particularly when raised entirely on grass ― are healthful, extremely nutritious, and an irreplaceable part of the world’s food system.
6. Grassroots Rising
A passionate call to action for the global body politic, Grassroots Rising provides practical solutions for how to survive – and thrive – in catastrophic times. Author Ronnie Cummins asserts that the solution lies right beneath our feet and at the end of our forks through the transformation of our broken food system. Coupled with an aggressive transition toward renewables, he argues that the restoration of our agricultural and grazing lands will not only mitigate and slow down climate change, but actually reverse global warming. Educational and inspiring, this book shows that a worldwide grassroots Regeneration Movement based on consumer activism, farmer innovation, political change, and regenerative finance can offer realistic climate solutions while also meeting our everyday needs.
7. Fruitful Labor
As the average age of America’s farmers continues to rise, we face serious questions about what farming will look like in the near future, and who will be growing our food. Many younger people are interested in going into agriculture, especially organic farming, but cannot find affordable land, or lack the conceptual framework and practical information they need to succeed in a job that can be both difficult and deeply fulfilling. In Fruitful Labor, Mike Madison meticulously describes the ecology of his own small family farm in the Sacramento Valley of California. He covers issues of crop ecology such as soil fertility, irrigation needs, and species interactions, as well as the broader agroecological issues of the social, economic, regulatory, and technological environments in which the farm operates. The final section includes an extensive analysis of sustainability on every level.
8. Going Over Home
This incisive memoir deftly unpacks deep-seeded agricultural myths while addressing the history of racism and wealth inequality, and how all of it has come to bear on our nation’s rural places and their people today. Charles Thompson, Jr., grew up in southwestern Virginia and witnessed the demise of every farm in his family. In Going Over Home, Thompson recaps stirring reflections and stark revelations, each exposing the unvarnished realities of rural America.
9. Patrick’s Great Grass Adventure
This beautifully illustrated educational and entertaining book introduces 4-7 year-olds to Greg the Grass Farmer through the eyes of Patrick Pigeon. What better way to discover ecology-enhancing grass farming than from an aerial view? Grass as crop, insect haven, and diversity blanket comes to life as Patrick Pigeon watches and reports on Greg the Grass Farmer’s activities. Discovering a real farm from a real farmer through captivating explanation and illustration brings a local grass farm to life.
10. Organic Revolutionary
Grace Gershuny weaves her personal journey through the transition of the organic movement into an organic food industry. She takes on the challenge of turning an ecological philosophy into a federal regulation — a huge effort that put a legal framework on a process that flows from seed to table. Her book is the inside story of the people and events that led to the organic market and regulation we have today. Grace alternates her personal story with clear explanations of the rationale for the organic regulations as they were developed. She shows the difficulties of changing a holistic philosophy into a process, not product, guarantee. It’s essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how the organic movement started small and grew into the mainstream.
