Nature as Measure
The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
An essential and timely collection of wise and compelling essays from one of the longtime leaders of the sustainable agriculture movement in America.
Wes Jackson, “a well–known and admired advocate for sustainability especially as it relates to agriculture, has the rare ability to transform his convictions into captivating prose . . . Jackson’s thoughts are still as significant and profound as they were nearly 20 years ago” (Publishers Weekly) and can teach us many things about the land, soil, and conservation, but what most resonates is this: The ecosphere is self–regulating, and as often as we attempt to understand it, we are not its builders, and our manuals will often be faulty. The only responsible way to learn the nuances of the land is to study the soil and vegetation in their natural state and pass this knowledge on to future generations.
“[A] small book rich in ideas” (The New York Times Book Review), Nature as Measure collects Jackson’s essays from Altars of Unhewn Stone and Becoming Native to This Place, presenting ideas of land conservation and education that are written from the point of view of a man who has practiced what he’s preached and proven that it is possible to partially restore much of the land that we’ve ravaged. Wes Jackson lays the foundation for a new farming economy, grounded in nature’s principles and located in dying small towns and rural communities. Exploding the tenets of industrial agriculture, Jackson seeks to integrate food production with nature in a way that sustains both. His longtime friend Wendell Berry provides an informative, contextual Introduction.
“For those concerned about what will be left and how many billion will be starving in twenty years, this is a must read.” —Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
“A good introduction to a thinker whose ideas on agriculture are radical both in their technical approach to food production as well as in terms of the economic, social, and cultural context within which it is practiced.” —Review of Radical Political Economics
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jackson, a well-known and admired advocate for sustainability especially as it relates to agriculture, has the rare ability to transform his convictions into captivating prose. His sentences are simple and yet express profound thoughts: Soil is a living organism which is larger than the life it supports But it is itself now dying. Very little is out of bounds in his essays, including reworking the tenets of Judo-Christian religion in The Religious Dimension. Explaining how the U.S. is poised for significant change, he ruminates, it isn t the first time the country has experienced a major consciousness shift because after all, change is the rule. Jackson fervently supports the American farmer and in Falsehoods of Farming attempts to defend the occupation itself. His examination of the World Trade Center-Pentagon attack in the context of our consumptive culture is sobering. If there is any criticism to make, it s that few of these essays are new, but have been repurposed from books originally published in 1987 and 1994. Jackson s thoughts are still as significant and profound as they were nearly 20 years ago, making it just as easy to relish his inspiring words in 2011.
