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Attention and questionsHere is Nicola Harvey in her first chapter: 'As we near the end of our first season rearing calves, the story that farming and specifically cattle farming, is destroying the planet suddenly lands on the the front pages of newspapers around the world.' (Page 13) Harvey quotes a whole bunch of headlines such as The Guardian's ‘Avoiding Meat and Dairy is the Single Biggest Way to Reduce Your Impact on Earth'. Then she says: '–the list goes on, and I pay attention. And I start to ask questions.' (ibid) Content in our own worldsNot all of us pay attention. We are often content in our own worlds. Moreover, asking questions not only demands effort but may provoke answers uncomfortable to hear. Harvey however asks the questions, hears disturbing answers and is pushed for the rest of the book into enquiry and experiment. She reads; she talks to experts by phone and skype; she travels in Aotearoa and in Australia to find out more. Then during the pandemic she and Pat lock the gates of the farm, and despite her father's scepticism, go their own way. Their own wayWhat they are doing is being called these days, 'regenerative agriculture'. It features ceasing to use artificial nitrate fertilisers; it features ceasing to plough and re-sow annually; it features growing multiple feed plants in a grazing field and leaving them there; it features using the animals' natural compost. I've written about other 'regen ag' experiments – a story from New Zealand's Manitoto in Central Otago and an English book Wilding by IsabellaTree. IssuesFor Nicola Harvey, and for us as we read her words, moral questions arise. Should we kill animals for food, especially if we kill them young, before thay have had a naturally long life? A substantial part of the book involves such questions and the possibility of developing and eating 'clean meat' which is not meat at all but plant based equivalents. A fine balanceHarvey explains that in their new style farm, when she puts a spade in the ground she finds worms whereas in earlier days she found a dry sod. She says: 'Worms. So many of them. While others are chasing profits, I'm chasing life, and so much of it is barely visible to the naked eye. It's all life: us, them, the community we sell food to, everything that's thriving in the little ecosyten we've created. But it's a fine balance. If we push the land too hard, cracks will form. And so sacrifice is demanded – the cattle must be gone from the land before they grow to a weight that crushes these pummice soils, sending sediment and slips into the stream below. Gone before the animal's appetite outweighs what we can grow natuarally. Gone so that nutritious food, high in protein, iron, zinc and vitamin B12 is circulated into our community. Does that justify my work here, the kiling of animals for food?' (Page 166) I guess those who are willing to wrestle with such questions will read this book and those who aren't willing to, won't. PersonalThis is a very personal and passionate book. It begins with the author's miscarriage. It includes strains in her relationship with her father. It includes relating to her husband Pat in a new way as they work together. It includes delight at the birth of their daughter Clara. It covers agonising thought about world food supply and distribution. Global warming is a constant worry and a provocation to farm better. There is rejoicing over the return of diverse wildlife, but easy solutions are not found to earning income while farming and distributing their product as they want to. There is more to do. Nicola Harvey writes at the very end of the book: 'No, I say, I'm not done.' (Page 209) Serendipity - or maybe lazinessI received this book for my birthday. I read the first page or two and didn't like it so I decided to return the book and choose another, using the exchange card. However, I was too lazy and too slow to visit the shop where it was bought, so the exchange period ran out. Piqued, I picked up the book again and read it. Would you believe, I liked it! Indeed I think it's terrific. I wonder if you’ll think the same. □ John McInnes Friday 25 November 2022 Publication details: Farm, the making of a climate activist, by Nicola Harvey. Scribe Australia 2022 Paperback 978 1 922310 54 5; ebook 978 1 925938 91 3 ##########
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