Author of Finding Lights in a Dark Age, Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future and A Small Farm Future
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Posted on January 31, 2023 | 16 Comments
I’m still a little too deep in book-writing mode to resume normal service on this blog, but hopefully things will start to open up soon.
On the subject of my book writing, I’ve just taken delivery of the Czech translation of A Small Farm Future – a handsome looking volume, as you can see. My sincere thanks to Alena Souskova and Hynek Hruska for undertaking the hard work of making it happen. Small Farm Future goes multilingual!
In relation to the interesting discussion under my previous post, it’s probably not too much of a bombshell to reveal that my new book involves making the case for agrarian localism in counterpoint to the latest ecomodernist iteration regarding food and farming in the form of the Reboot food campaign and associated books, organisations and influential figures. On which note, some here may be interested to tune in to the debate tomorrow at Dartington between Simon Fairlie and George Monbiot on such matters. You’ve heard of the rumble in the jungle. Prepare for the fracas in the forest garden.
And talking of books, I’ve read some cracking ones lately, including some that have been in the in tray for a while. I’d thoroughly recommend Glenn Davis Stone The Agricultural Dilemma, Douglas Rushkoff Survival of the Richest (thanks to Christine for the tipoff), Giorgos Kallis Limits, James Rebanks English Pastoral and Jim Handy Tiny Engines of Abundance. Currently reading the fascinating Open Ecosystems: Ecology and Evolution Beyond the Forest Edge by William Bond – one in the eye for the tree fetishists.
Another one I read late last year was Peter Zeihan’s The End of the World Is Just the Beginning and I hope to sneak out a little review blog post of that in the next week or two.
Until then…
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Certainly interested in your take on Zeihan. And congrats on the “foreign” press.
You’ve heard of the rumble in the jungle. Prepare for the fracas in the forest garden.
This sort of stylistic charm is one of reasons I follow your blog …
The battle over cattle?
I love the design of the Czech translation
If the English version is reprinted can the Czech artwork be used
Oh dear! I haven’t caught up yet from the last time I added a bunch of books to my reading list (though the Jim Handy is already on the list).
I like trees as much as the next person, but I can’t eat lignin, and trees take a while to start producing serious calories…. having plenty of firewood available is all well and good but not a lot of use if there’s nothing to cook on said fire. Beans are much faster. Has anyone here tried growing runner beans as herbaceous perennials? I’ve read about it being possible with scarlet runners, but not yet tried it myself.
Runner beans are not frost tolerant , I could hardly grow them in the hills of North Staffordshire , peas were easy and broad beans , painted lady , a old heirloom would manage in a decent summer by the new hybrids just sulked then rotted off !
I would be interested to read a review of Jan Douwe van der Ploeg’s New Peasantries.
Thanks for flagging up the Fairlie-Monbiot event, Chris, I would have missed it otherwise.
It prompted much to reflect on, and no doubt you’ll be looking deeply into this in your new book.
One good question among many toward the end of the discussion concerned how synthetic industrial foodstuff like precision fermented protein would put a further barrier between the public and the natural world. Monbiot’s answer cited the UK’s tiny percentage of working farmers (the numbers!), and his desire to see people ‘rewilding’ themselves in a more feral future countryside largely purged of large farms and farmed animals. I couldn’t hear all of the audience’s questions clearly (some mic outage issues) but can’t help think that Monbiot’s well-meaning wish jars with people eating ever more ultra-processed food (not to mention the food industry getting its teeth into an ever bigger stake – sorry! – in individuals’ bodies, a concern that Monbiot acknowledges and purports to address in part by urging people to choose which side they are on both politically and technologically… good luck with that!).
Another major beef for me was I expected (misguidedly no doubt) to hear a debate that centred on the technology Monbiot is now championing most rabidly. Instead it was more a discussion of the pros of small mixed farming done well (Fairlie), and the ills of Big Farma (Monbiot), with barely a mention of precision fermentation. Monbiot himself said, to paraphrase, “it’s something people don’t like to talk about, nevertheless we are on the cusp of a new revolution in how we produce food,” and then didn’t really go into any depth on the nuts and bolts at all. Perhaps ‘on the cusp’ means it’s still largely a (antiseptic) pipe dream.
I guess I’m just a neophobe (though I am partial to Marmite, so maybe I wouldn’t be a dead loss in a brave new world), but should big tech break through this cusp, why stop there? Why not go the whole hog with more ersatz fats, synthetic carbohydrates, genetically-engineered ‘essential’ amino acids, and so on?
In muddling this over, I chanced on a 1999 title, Robert M. Proctor’s The Nazi War on Cancer, and found some interesting parallels with where we are today. To cut and paste an excerpt from one review:
Proctor “addresses the complicity of science under fascism but also the complicity of science within fascism” and the disturbing fact “that Nazi doctors and public health activists were . . . involved in work that we . . . might regard as ‘progressive’ or even socially responsible [and] . . . that . . . was a direct outgrowth of Nazi ideology” (5). Proctor quotes Herbert Mehrtens’ apt characterization of “irresponsible purity” in studying the “blind-eyed failure to reflect and resist” of the representatives of “good science” in the Third Reich (6). For Proctor, in line with much recent research on the history of science and society under Adolf Hitler, the important issues are not the old exculpatory dichotomies between “survival” and “suppression” or “collaboration” and “resistance” but rather the complicated mix and clash of opportunity, ideology, and pragmatism among factions within both the Nazi regime and the German scientific community.
In all, it was a very stimulating evening that raised so many questions I would have loved to have followed the group, post-talk, over to the White Hart for a good old fermented brew.
Is some German publisher in contact with you or how does this work? I absolutely believe this should also be available in German.
Thanks for the replies, and thanks for your query re a German edition, Gregor. The way other language editions works is basically that my publisher (Chelsea Green) negotiates a contract with a publisher in the relevant language/country. If anyone wants to pursue this further do drop me a line via the contact form and I can put you in touch with my publisher.
Chris, thanks for the kind words, it was our pleasure to help your book to be published in Czech.
And we are looking forward to your next book to be out, as it looks like it is one really needed. The arguments against agrarian localism grow louder, opening space for some kind of shortsighted (agro)technological optimism with many – one would like to say – suspicious or unpremeditated implications. I am afraid that path is being promoted also from a bit naive deduction that it might seem (!) to be a walkable way out of some of our troubles with even more naive hope that the rest of how things work could somehow be preserved. And the level of misunderstanding just reflects the extend of our disconnection from the nature, physical world and its limits.
If there is someone considering publishing A Small Farm Future in some other language edition, we are ready to share our experiences if needed. With some enthusiasm and dedication you can shepherd the publishing process even if you are new to the business.
Kind regards and many thanks for all the reading suggestions!
Hear, hear! Alena.
How long did it take you to translate the 300 or so pages? (It looks like you might have not translated the ‘Notes’ section, is that so?)
And when selecting a foreign publisher, how stringent is Chelsea Green? Do they insist on recycled paper, etc?
Dear Simon,
It was not me personally translating the book but our friend/translator and small farmer Tomas Hakr. He has been working on the translation for app. 5 months, during winter time when the farming season is more relaxed but he still was running his homestead during that time. He has translated the complete book, including the notes. Chelsea Green has the condition that the complete work has to be translated, what is understandable. There was later on a significant time spent on corrections and editing the translation with more people included to ensure there are not any shifts in meaning etc and that the language aspect has been taken care of. Another time was needed for the technical preparation for the printing, making the index etc. As the Czech edition was produced as locally as possible, by most people with personal relation to the topic of small farming, homesteading, local communities etc, the complete process was I guess slower than if an established publisher house would get the same job. There has been some challenges as Covid consequences, impending shortages of print paper, rising prices of all the services and energies etc. In Chelsea Green they of course have some conditions but they have been always very responsive, kind and helpful and it was a pleasure to work with them (although after you sign the contract you do not need that much of cooperation with the original publisher unless/until you face some issue). We have printed the book on FSC certified paper although it was not specified in the contract. The extra charge you pay for FSC paper is actually not so high and not that significant amount in all the expenses of the finished book. … so to make the long answer short – the cooperation with CHG is smooth, they are not overly demanding + are supportive, and yes, the other language version takes some time … not sure if it says what you have been asking for, but do not hesitate to ask more.
… and I have to add, Czech Republic does not have so big business potential – being a small market, with not so many potential buyers/readers – so it might be well so that the CHG conditions for a significantly bigger market (German, French, Spanish version of any book) could be different, but hard to guess …
That’s a very comprehensive answer, thank you very much.
On , off , topic ?
Good news
https://www.axios.com/2023/02/04/fake-meat-impossible-beyond-burger-crash