Local Food Is Key To Living A More Connected Life
"There is healing in working the land. I have found it myself and it is what launched me on this journey."
This quote encapsulates the spirit of A Call to Farms , an inspiring new book by journalist Jennifer Grayson. Grayson's book offers clear examples of the enormous impacts our consumption choices have on our physical and mental health, the health of the planet, and the strength of our communities.
Grayson, who lives in Los Angeles, found herself stuck in overly cramped living conditions with her husband and two small children during the pandemic. They decided to return to the land in an open-air adventure in Sisters, a town in rural Oregon. Grayson worked a summer internship at a regenerative "market garden" operation in Sisters called Mahonia Gardens while her daughters played in the nearby rivers and ate their fill of fresh farm produce.
Regenerative agriculture focuses on managing land, plants, and animals symbiotically with local ecosystems, improving the soil by sequestering carbon, reducing or eliminating the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers, and producing more nutrient-rich and healthy food than the products of "conventional" (i.e., industrial) agricultural methods. Market gardens use regenerative methods to produce an enormous variety of vegetables on small plots.
At Mahonia Gardens, Grayson suddenly realized the extent to which most Americans—herself included—felt adrift without a sense of place and community. Growing food requires an intimate understanding of an area's particular climate, soil, and plant and animal life, so provides a powerful antidote to feeling adrift.
Perhaps a more important key to being grounded in a place and community is human connection. Every chapter of Grayson's book emphasizes that farming and ranching are team endeavors that cannot be accomplished alone. Neighbors and seekers assist with the local growers featured in Grayson's book, offering a glimpse into how small, conscientiously tended operations spawn vibrant, engaged communities.
Starting with Mahonia Gardens, Grayson's book is a series of chapter-long vignettes describing her visits to small-scale regenerative farming and ranching operations across America—from regenerative ranchers in New Mexico to regenerative luffa farmers in North Carolina . Her stories paint a picture of agriculture in vivid contrast to the demographic average of American growers, a 58-year-old white man living in the Midwest.
Each chapter focuses on a particular location and community. Grayson opened my eyes to the Gullah Geechee culture of the Southeast and the idea of an "agrihood," a sub-rural (rather than suburban) community centered around agricultural operations rather than a golf course. The locations featured in the book are both intensely unique and surprisingly similar.
The uniqueness is derived largely from the growers' very different life stories. A taciturn, Yale-educated rancher courts a statuesque blonde outdoor woman with handwritten letters sent from a canvas tent. A woman realized life's ephemeral nature after surviving a near-fatal auto accident, sought out an intentional community in which to best live out her one very precious life and now operates a regenerative farm and earthskills school in the mountains of North Carolina. A single mother left an abusive relationship and tried to survive in a food desert until deciding to start an urban garden to grow healthy food to heal herself, her children, and her neighbors. An upper-middle-class Jewish girl, awkward in school and beset with anxiety and depression, turned to drugs, then found her way to health working at an organic farm in Italy.
The stories are similar in that each speaks of the passion required to enter the life of a grower, considering the profound financial difficulties they face, the intensely hard work, vast creativity, and depth of knowledge required to succeed, and the distinct sense that those following this path swim against a very powerful current of popular culture.
That powerful current—in the form of the ubiquitous supply of cheap, mass-produced, chemically engineered food substitutes—has had an enormous impact on our nation's health. Grayson points out that seventy-four percent of American adults are either overweight or obese, but the harm to our culture and the cohesion of our communities has been as profound as the damage to our health. In the words of an agrihood project developer, "We have removed what I think are the two most important things for a vital life: connection to nature and connection to each other."
A vivid example of the positive effects of a community-focused regenerative food grower is that of the accident survivor mentioned above, Natalie Bogwalker, the founder of farm cum school, Wild Abundance , based near Ashville, North Carolina. Ashville was hit hard by hurricane Helene and many families in the neighborhood lost their homes and livelihoods. Bogwalker's farm escaped without serious damage, and she has been providing free food, labor, and equipment to help her community, even partnering with a local charity to create the Wild Abundance Relief Fund .
Grayson's book is well-written and inspiring. It will not teach you how to be a regenerative farmer or rancher but offers a beautiful and unvarnished look at the lives of those on this path. Reading Grayson's book, I and the friends to whom I recommended it developed a much greater appreciation for the food we eat and for the stewards of the land who bring that food to us.
This book was so thought-provoking for me, I have written a separate on the importance of developing a greater intimacy with our land and the food it provides entitled Cast Your Vote For Better Food And Stronger Communities. Check back to this column to read that at the end of the week.
