Graham Harvey's book The Carbon Fields: How our countryside can save Britain, does an intriguing job of connecting problems and changes that are not often associated. He blames the epidemic of human health problems, the decline of rural communities, and much of climate change on the shift from perennial grassland agriculture to annual grain farming. The corollary is that these problems could be dealt with by a shift back to grass farming.
The book does not offer much of a design or strategy for systemic change, other than to recommend that we buy and consume pasture-raised food. But it is an excellent introduction to the problems and their connections, and to the benefits of grass farming as a comprehensive solution. For those outside the grassfarming movement, or who don't read the Stockman Grass Farmer, this book will fill a gap. It includes a directory of pasture-raised food producers in the UK.
It can be ordered through grassrootsfood.com.
Posted 5 August 2009
Managing Wholes is a project of the Soil Carbon Coalition