Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food, by Wendell Berry. Counterpoint, 2009.
Wendell Berry wants you to bring the food to the table, but he suggests you grow it yourself or buy it at the nearest country market or grocery store. He also suggests you buy in season. He is against long area shipping which ages the product and has no guarantee of its freshness nor under what conditions food has been produced. "A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one's accurate
consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes." According to the "food movement" becoming common today, there are food markets popping up in many areas, where one can purchase food locally grown, organically grown, and /or coming from pastures, instead of from sheltered and close- knit chicken and animal houses. These are healthy signs, according to
Berry. But America has a long way to go before coming to the stage of learning healthy production and eating habits.
Berry himself has set the stage for a reverence for Mother Earth by living simply on a small farm whose land he has "recovered" by healthy planting systems. His aim is to produce all his own food, thus controlling the growing and production of any food that comes to his table.
Part two of his book contains a series of stories about the wonderful production habits of Amish communities. Most of them are farmers who own and reverence a small acreage, large enough to feed the family. These farmers are owners of their land and again most of them bought run-down worn- out pieces of property and "nourished " them back to good health and wonderful productivity. These
farmers are not such that they plan to live on these a short time and move on. They are here for life, and hence they take great care of their small acreage. They serve as models for "the hit and run" type of farmers so often found in America's heartlands.
This book ends with a few stories of how farmers farmed in the early days of this country, with few pieces
of equipment, with equipment that was outdated, and with household items which sound odd to today's farm wives. This book is a great mentor to farmers and farm communities in all areas of America. It's practical and worthy of the attention of all Americans.
(Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman OP for this review.)
