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EBookClubs

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Book Bet the Farm

Download or read book Bet the Farm written by Beth Hoffman and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Eloquent and detailed...It's hard to have hope, but the organized observations and plans of Hoffman and people like her give me some. Read her book -- and listen." -- Jane Smiley, The Washington Post In her late 40s, Beth Hoffman decided to upend her comfortable life as a professor and journalist to move to her husband's family ranch in Iowa--all for the dream of becoming a farmer. There was just one problem: money. Half of America's two million farms made less than $300 in 2019, and many struggle just to stay afloat. Bet the Farm chronicles this struggle through Beth's eyes. She must contend with her father-in-law, who is reluctant to hand over control of the land. Growing oats is good for the environment but ends up being very bad for the wallet. And finding somewhere, in the midst of COVID-19, to slaughter grass finished beef is a nightmare. If Beth can't make it, how can farmers who confront racism, lack access to land, or don't have other jobs to fall back on hack it? Bet the Farm is a first-hand account of the perils of farming today and a personal exploration of more just and sustainable ways of producing food.

Book American Harvest

Download or read book American Harvest written by Marie Mutsuki Mockett and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic story of the American wheat harvest, the politics of food, and the culture of the Great Plains For over one hundred years, the Mockett family has owned a seven-thousand-acre wheat farm in the panhandle of Nebraska, where Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s father was raised. Mockett, who grew up in bohemian Carmel, California, with her father and her Japanese mother, knew little about farming when she inherited this land. Her father had all but forsworn it. In American Harvest, Mockett accompanies a group of evangelical Christian wheat harvesters through the heartland at the invitation of Eric Wolgemuth, the conservative farmer who has cut her family’s fields for decades. As Mockett follows Wolgemuth’s crew on the trail of ripening wheat from Texas to Idaho, they contemplate what Wolgemuth refers to as “the divide,” inadvertently peeling back layers of the American story to expose its contradictions and unhealed wounds. She joins the crew in the fields, attends church, and struggles to adapt to the rhythms of rural life, all the while continually reminded of her own status as a person who signals “not white,” but who people she encounters can’t quite categorize. American Harvest is an extraordinary evocation of the land and a thoughtful exploration of ingrained beliefs, from evangelical skepticism of evolution to cosmopolitan assumptions about food production and farming. With exquisite lyricism and humanity, this astonishing book attempts to reconcile competing versions of our national story.

Book Faith  Farming  and Family

Download or read book Faith Farming and Family written by Caitlin Henderson and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young farmer’s wife draws on her life with kids, cows, and a front-porch view to help us see God’s goodness and beauty wherever we are, reminding us that the simple life is not a place to be but a way to be. “Grab a cup of coffee and join Caitlin on her porch to hear the lessons God has taught her through the good and hard of everyday life.”—Vivian Mabuni, speaker and author of Open Hands, Willing Heart: Discover the Joy of Saying Yes to God When Caitlin, a small-town girl, fell in love with a farm boy named Jake Henderson, she had little idea what farm life—or marriage and motherhood—would bring. But raising a family on a farm is teaching her more about God’s goodness and grace than she could have imagined. Faith, Farming, and Family is a rich, story-filled walk through farmhouse hallways, harvest-ready fields, and God’s bountiful dreams for our lives. As Caitlin reflects on everything from wayward tractors to watching a marriage grow from surviving to flourishing, she reminds us to see the redemption in our own stories. Join Caitlin in exploring biblical truth through the eyes of a farmer’s wife, whether you are wrangling kids onto a school bus, sowing creative seeds in a business meeting, or walking the pastures of your own family farm. Faith, Farming, and Family invites us to recognize God’s beauty right in front of us so that we might find the courage to take the next step—or the first step—into His incredible calling.

Book Greetings from SweetAire Farm

Download or read book Greetings from SweetAire Farm written by Arthur T. Johnson and published by Dorrance Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-23 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greetings from SweetAire Farm: A Lifetime of Stories By: Arthur T. Johnson Greetings from SweetAire Farm: A Lifetime of Stories is a collection of human interest stories from a family living on a small farm and engaging in farm activities. It includes humorous, pathetic, philosophical, and interesting descriptions of incidents encountered over the years. Most of these stories have been shared with family, friends, and farmers' market customers through a weekly email message that has proven popular with about 400 recipients. Readers will share vicariously in rural or life experiences that they otherwise may not have access to.

Book Life on the Family Farm

Download or read book Life on the Family Farm written by Tom Heck and published by . This book was released on 2014-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "You are the most God-gifted writer I've ever had," Tom's college professor told him. However, Tom quit college; his love of farming drew him back to the farm. Thirty years later, Tom picked up the pen again, drawing readers into farming adventures with him. In these exciting and uplifting true stories, he shares his love of farming, family, and God. His unique writing style brings the reader right alongside him and his family as they work on their northern Wisconsin dairy farm. Tom's stories have spread like wildfire from his hometown newspaper to papers across America. Readers tell him, "Please don't quit writing." Others ask him, "When are you going to make it a book?" Due to popular demand here it is. From quotes like "Dad, I really enjoyed fixing that with you" to "She's a dead cow don't call me anymore," these engaging stories will keep you turning the pages to read one story, then another. As you do, you will be blessed as so many others have been. Come, read, and enjoy our farm life with us.

Book Gaining Ground

    Book Details:
  • Author : Forrest Pritchard
  • Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
  • Release : 2013-05-21
  • ISBN : 0762794380
  • Pages : 341 pages

Download or read book Gaining Ground written by Forrest Pritchard and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With humor and pathos, Forrest Pritchard recounts his ambitious and often hilarious endeavors to save his family’s seventh-generation farm in the Shenandoah Valley. Through many a trial and error, he not only saves Smith Meadows from insolvency but turns it into a leading light in the sustainable, grass-fed, organic farm-to-market community. There is nothing young Farmer Pritchard won’t try. Whether he’s selling firewood and straw, raising free-range chickens and hogs, or acquiring a flock of Barbados Blackbelly sheep, his learning curve is steep and always entertaining. Pritchard’s world crackles with colorful local characters—farm hands, butchers, market managers, customers, fellow vendors, pet goats, policemen—bringing the story to warm, communal life. His most important ally, however, is his renegade father, who initially questions his son's career choice and eschews organic foods for the generic kinds that wreak havoc on his health. Soon after his father’s death, the farm becomes a recognized success and Pritchard must make a vital decision: to continue serving the local community or answer the exploding demand for his wares with lucrative Internet sales and shipping deals. More than a charming story of honest food cultivation and farmers’ markets, Gaining Ground tugs on the heartstrings, reconnecting us to the land and the many lives that feed us.

Book Beyond the Bend

    Book Details:
  • Author : Barry Blackstone
  • Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • Release : 2021-02-22
  • ISBN : 1725291584
  • Pages : 146 pages

Download or read book Beyond the Bend written by Barry Blackstone and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-02-22 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journey with a family through six months in “the valley of the shadow of death” as an aggressive lung cancer takes a beloved, firstborn son through the worst battle of his life. A Purple Heart recipient from the Afghan war, Scott’s war with cancer will highlight and underline the survival on a distant battlefield only to die on a familiar home front. Share the thoughts and memories of a dad reflecting on the irony of the number forty, and read of his memories of his past that helped him endure one of the greatest tragedies of his life, the death of his son in his fortieth year. Witness the miracles in the midst of the misery as family and friends rally to help this family cope with an incurable disease. Note the sadness that comes when this father’s father passes away at the height of his grandson’s struggle for survival. Hear the glimmer of hope that comes from looking “beyond” to happier and fairer days coming in the blessed place called heaven. See the faith that sustains through insomnia and illness, heartache and heartbreak. Learn the precepts from the Bible that that will not only help one understand the process but understand the purpose of why someone so young passes away. This book is more about departing than dying; more about heaven than earth; and more about acceptance than bitterness.

Book Social Movements for Good  How Companies and Causes Create Viral Change

Download or read book Social Movements for Good How Companies and Causes Create Viral Change written by Derrick Feldmann and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-01-21 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Create real change in the new social movement paradigm Social Movements for Good is a guidebook for driving change, by taking advantage of the social "currency" that makes movements go viral. Author Derrick Feldmann has spent a career showing organizations how to best reach donors, activists, and employees, and engage a new generation of supporters. In this book, he shares his secrets alongside the stories of today's most successful social good movements by companies and nonprofits. You'll learn about the leaders behind these movements, the individuals who responded, and the approaches that made it work. Modern social movements operate within a new paradigm, and this informative guide walks you through how these movements are created, why people get on board, and the strategy and support network that must be in place for it to succeed. Just going viral isn't enough to make a movement successful—there must be a plan, and the right people with the right skills to follow through with the execution. This book shows you who you need on your side, what they need to do their jobs, and which tools and methods are proving most effective every day. Read the stories of today's most successful social good movements Understand how modern social movements are created Learn how to truly activate a new generation of activists and supporters Formulate an approach that makes the public respond to your issue Effective social movements don't arise by accident. People don't spontaneously come together and effect real change. If you want your movement to succeed, you need a solid strategy and the tools to follow through. Social Movements for Good is your roadmap to viral success and the advancement of your cause.

Book Farm Life and Agricultural Epitomist

Download or read book Farm Life and Agricultural Epitomist written by and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Wisdom of Dirt

Download or read book Wisdom of Dirt written by Charles Pike and published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2022-11-03 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American farmer is largely misunderstood as a career choice of hard work but lack the ability to contribute to the true meaning of life in everyday living. This book was written to help the nonfarmers (98 percent of the population) understand why and how farmers think and feel about living in a less complicated but aEURoecommon senseaEUR way of life. It is written from a singular point of view (mine) but with the knowledge that I have grown up and managed a fourth-generation farm that has lived through the Great Depression, World War II, and runaway inflation of the 1980s and the major economic corrections in the early 2000s. This book was written mostly for future generations in my own family, but the life lessons learned from a seventy-year-old farmer apply to anyone who wants to live a aEURoecommon senseaEUR life. Enjoy the Wisdom of Dirt.

Book Centered

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jason Brown
  • Publisher : WaterBrook
  • Release : 2021-02-09
  • ISBN : 0593193350
  • Pages : 234 pages

Download or read book Centered written by Jason Brown and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This riveting story of a top-earning NFL center and his family who walked away from it all to follow God's call to alleviate hunger as farmers—a life they knew absolutely nothing about—illustrates the sacrifice and ultimate reward of obedience to our heavenly Father even when it doesn't make earthly sense. “A remarkable story where family, deep self-reflection, and an unshakable belief in a path predestined by God triumph over fortune and comfort.”—John Harbaugh, head coach of the Baltimore Ravens NFL lineman Jason Brown had everything in the world. He was the highest-paid center in the game. He lived in luxury. Millions of people saw and admired him every week. Then in 2012, Jason heard a call from God that changed everything. Leaving behind an incredibly successful football career that paid millions, Jason turned toward a life he knew nothing about: farming. It was only the beginning of his journey. Through third-party mismanagement and a run of bad luck, Jason lost most of the money he’d saved from his NFL days—the same money he’d planned to use to start his new career and donate fresh produce to hungry kids. Only a miracle could save Jason’s new dream. And that’s exactly what happened. Centered is an inspiring riches-to-rags-to-true-riches story of one man willing to risk it all for the sake of his family. For the sake of loving others. For the sake of seeking God’s dreams first—and reminding each of us to do the same.

Book Congressional Record

    Book Details:
  • Author : United States. Congress
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2017-10
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 84 pages

Download or read book Congressional Record written by United States. Congress and published by . This book was released on 2017-10 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Rooted Resistance

    Book Details:
  • Author : Norie R. Singer
  • Publisher : University of Arkansas Press
  • Release : 2020-09-01
  • ISBN : 1682261433
  • Pages : 319 pages

Download or read book Rooted Resistance written by Norie R. Singer and published by University of Arkansas Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From farm-to-table restaurants and farmers markets, to support for fair trade and food sovereignty, movements for food-system change hold the promise for deeper transformations. Yet Americans continue to live the paradox of caring passionately about healthy eating while demanding the convenience of fast food. Rooted Resistance explores this fraught but promising food scene. More than a retelling of the origin story of a democracy born from an intimate connection with the land, this book wagers that socially responsible agrarian mythmaking should be a vital part of a food ethic of resistance if we are to rectify the destructive tendencies in our contemporary food system. Through a careful examination of several case studies, Rooted Resistance traverses the ground of agrarian myth in modern America. The authors investigate key figures and movements in the history of modern agrarianism, including the World War I victory garden efforts, the postwar Country Life movement for the vindication of farmers’ rights, the Southern Agrarian critique of industrialism, and the practical and spiritual prophecy of organic farming put forth by J. I. Rodale. This critical history is then brought up to date with recent examples such as the contested South Central Farm in urban Los Angeles and the spectacular rise and fall of the Chipotle “Food with Integrity” branding campaign. By examining a range of case studies, Singer, Grey, and Motter aim for a deeper critical understanding of the many applications of agrarian myth and reveal why it can help provide a pathway for positive systemic change in the food system.

Book The Changing Scale of American Agriculture

Download or read book The Changing Scale of American Agriculture written by John Fraser Hart and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few Americans know much about contemporary farming, which has evolved dramatically over the past few decades. In The Changing Scale of American Agriculture, the award-winning geographer and landscape historian John Fraser Hart describes the transformation of farming from the mid-twentieth century, when small family farms were still viable, to the present, when a farm must sell at least $250,000 of farm products each year to provide an acceptable level of living for a family. The increased scale of agriculture has outmoded the Jeffersonian ideal of small, self-sufficient farms. In the past farmers kept a variety of livestock and grew several crops, but modern family farms have become highly specialized in producing a single type of livestock or one or two crops. As farms have become larger and more specialized, their number has declined. Hart contends that modern family farms need to become integrated into tightly orchestrated food-supply chains in order to thrive, and these complex new organizations of large-scale production require managerial skills of the highest order. According to Hart, this trend is not only inevitable, but it is beneficial, because it produces the food American consumers want to buy at prices they can afford. Although Hart provides the statistics and clear analysis such a study requires, his book focuses on interviews with farmers: those who have shifted from mixed crop-and-livestock farming to cash-grain farming in the Midwest agricultural heartland; beef, dairy, chicken, egg, turkey, and hog producers around the periphery of the heartland; and specialty crop producers on the East and West Coasts. These invaluable case studies bring the reader into direct personal contact with the entrepreneurs who are changing American agriculture. Hart believes that modern large-scale farmers have been criticized unfairly, and The Changing Scale of American Agriculture, the result of decades of research, is his attempt to tell their side of the story.

Book So God Made a Farmer

    Book Details:
  • Author : Levi Lyle
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2021-08-30
  • ISBN : 9781421836935
  • Pages : 78 pages

Download or read book So God Made a Farmer written by Levi Lyle and published by . This book was released on 2021-08-30 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Start Your Farm

Download or read book Start Your Farm written by Forrest Pritchard and published by The Experiment. This book was released on 2018-09-10 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A totally modern, all-purpose handbook for today’s agricultural dreamers—covering the challenges and triumphs of launching any successful farm—from two leading lights in sustainable farming Do you dream of starting your own farm but wonder where to begin? Or do you already have a farm but wish to become more sustainable to compete in today's market? Start Your Farm, the first comprehensive business guide of its kind, covers these essential questions and more: Why be a farmer in the 21st century? Do you have what it takes? What does sustainable really mean, and how can a small (as little as one acre) to midsize farm survive alongside commodity-scale agriculture? How do you access education, land, and other needs with limited capital? How can you reap an actual profit, including a return on land investment? How do you build connections with employees, colleagues, and customers? At the end of the day, how do you measure success? (Hint: Cash your lifestyle paycheck.) More than a practical guide, Start Your Farm is a hopeful call to action for anyone who aspires to grow wholesome, environmentally sustainable food for a living. Take it from Forrest Pritchard and Ellen Polishuk: Making this dream a reality is not for the faint of heart, but it's well within reach—and there's no greater satisfaction under the sun!

Book Daffodil Hill

Download or read book Daffodil Hill written by Jake Keiser and published by Dial Press. This book was released on 2022-06-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A candid and heartwarming memoir of reinvention about a city girl who trades her career and her heels for five acres and a herd of goats “Jake Keiser is my favorite kind of woman—gutsy, tenacious, and not afraid to be vulnerable. And the animals are pretty f*cking adorable, too.”—Tara Schuster, author of Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies Jake Keiser was living the life in Tampa, Florida, running a high-powered PR firm and juggling drink dates, shopping sprees, and charity galas. But at age thirty-eight, following a failed marriage, a series of miscarriages, and a still-blistering breakup, she began to suffer from extreme anxiety. Hit with the realization that no amount of Botox could fill the hole in her heart, she decided to make the impulse purchase of a lifetime and bought a farm in the middle of nowhere, Mississippi. Suddenly responsible for more than seventy-five animals and five acres of land, and with only one bar of cell service, Jake begins her search for inner peace. She learns to fix a well, haul wood, shoot a gun, and care for baby chicks, goats, turkeys, geese, dogs, and a cat, playing spa music for them when they’re sick and naming them after her favorite fashion designers. The only problem is that she still can’t figure out how to truly care for herself. Unable to escape the accumulated pain of her past, Jake hits rock bottom. With nowhere left to run, she’s finally forced to confront a bracing reality: The farm won’t save her. Only she can save herself. Poignant, hilarious, and utterly charming, Daffodil Hill is for anyone who feels stuck—for those of us strapped to our desks and dreaming of an unconventional life, for those of us searching for something more. Most of all, it is for people who believe that the greatest love story of all is the one we write with ourselves.