On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm. - Review - book reviews

On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm by Michael Ableman Chronicle Books, $18.95

Alternatives to the environmental calamity of modern agriculture are best presented by farmers themselves, as Gene Logsdon and Michael Ableman ably demonstrate in their latest books. Logsdon, author of The Contrary Fame, has little use for poison-dependent, monocultural farms devoid of livestock. That the unfortunate critters eat in confinement, sometimes a thousand miles from the harvest, scandalizes him. Logsdon revels in diversity, raising sheep, hogs, chickens, ducks, cattle, and corn on 22 acres in rural Ohio, two miles from the farm where he grew up.

Already disenchanted with "get big or get out" farming methods in the 1950s, he quit his job as a writer for a mainstream ag magazine, Farm Journal. "I had learned the dark and dirty side of agribusiness.... I knew that large-scale farming was a money game, like writing copy to fill the blank pages between advertisements. Neither had much to do with the human artfulness that I was seeking." That artfulness was found in the "garden farm," whose creation Logsdon recalls in fond detail, explaining his choice of crops, how he converted "pitifully exploited cropland" to pasture, and how he minimized his overhead (no $150,000 combines) to net $200 an acre, compared with $30 for the typical grain farmer.

He also increased the diversity on his land, planting scores of species of native wildflowers. "This project, coupled with introducing new tree species, was delightfully unending."

Logsdon is a devout disciple of the prophetic farmer/writer/nature-lover Wendell Berry, but seems to have more fun than his mentor, whether exchanging farm yarns or enjoying eccentric rituals like presenting the neighbor's cow with a gift-wrapped bale of hay--something that he did after he was "mesmerized by an elemental peacefulness" while sitting on his cow, meditating on Christmas.

Urban farmer Ableman's story parallels Logsdon's in many ways, though in an entirely different operation--an organic fruit and vegetable farm on 12 acres in the midst of Southern California tract homes. For Ableman, as big a problem as weeds and bugs were the neighbors and zoning officials who objected to his compost heap, his produce stand, and even his rooster, which the district attorney charged with being a public nuisance. Eventually, though, Ableman won the battles--and some converts--as neighbors began to enjoy and appreciate his farm.

Ableman switched from a single crop of peaches to a variety of fruits and vegetables that fill the tables for 125 local families. Like Logsdon, he loves agro-diversity: "I went from being a struggling peach farmer to a kind of ringmaster. When I decided to reduce the emphasis on peaches and turn Fairview Gardens into an all-purpose cornucopia, I couldn't stop."

Abelman and Logsdon are gracious rebels who know that industrialized farming wrings the lift out of both soil and communities. Their joy in stewardship and in people celebrates that life being restored, a psychic sustainability that won't appear on spreadsheets. Because the authors embrace saner ways to farm and show how it can be done, they should be read by everyone interested in food production and food policy, from the small farmer to the secretary of agriculture and members of Congress.

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