We look at Chris Smaje’s new book on the value and importance of small farms, both from a global perspective, and also from his own experience as a small holder himself. The book is published by Chelsea Green and you can see more about it here.
A Small Farm Future reviewed
This book is a passionate argument for the value of small holdings, and small farms. Smaje is walking the walk as he tries to live the lifestyle that he is advocating for others globally too. The book aims to harness a range of examples and case studies from around the world. With the last year being the year that it was, there has certainly been a rise of interest in terms of people being more self reliant and self sufficient.
Same wrestles with the challenges that this approach does also throw up. It may not be the ideal path for everyone, and in many, large areas of the world, the trends are not towards small(er) farms, they are actually often the complete opposite. He begins the book with a thoughtful section on 10 crises, which explain his reasoning and why he feels the need to make this call to arms. The possible solutions are outlined, but at the same time he also recognises the massive challenges to achieve more sustainable and ecologically appropriate ways of living.
We found the book to be thought provoking, and clearly aimed to raise awareness. In his epilogue, titled ‘Does Goldman Sachs care if you raise chickens’ he outlines the challenges that are still to be faced. This does feel like it is still one of the biggest problems to be dealt with. To answer his, rhetorical?, question, it is likely that Goldman Sachs does not (yet) care if you raise chickens or not. Smaje hopes he can nudge more over to his point of view, but it is still currently an argument that is not yet accepted by all. Hopefully this book helps to nudge the needle.
More about the book here ->
In a groundbreaking debut, farmer and social scientist Chris Smaje argues that organising society around small-scale farming offers the soundest, sanest and most reasonable response to climate change and other crises of civilisation—and will yield humanity’s best chance at survival.
Drawing on a vast range of sources from across a multitude of disciplines, A Small Farm Future analyses the complex forces that make societal change inevitable; explains how low-carbon, locally self-reliant agrarian communities can empower us to successfully confront these changes head on; and explores the pathways for delivering this vision politically.
Challenging both conventional wisdom and utopian blueprints, A Small Farm Future offers rigorous original analysis of wicked problems and hidden opportunities in a way that illuminates the path toward functional local economies, effective self-provisioning, agricultural diversity and a shared earth.
About Chris Smaje
Chris Smaje has coworked a small farm in Somerset, southwest England, for the last 17 years. Previously, he was a university-based social scientist, working in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey and the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College on aspects of social policy, social identities and the environment. Since switching focus to the practice and politics of agroecology, he’s written for various publications, such as The Land, Dark Mountain, Permaculture magazine and Statistics Views, as well as academic journals such as Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems and the Journal of Consumer Culture. Smaje writes the blog Small Farm Future, is a featured author at www.resilience.org and a current director of the Ecological Land Co-op.
Reviews and Praise
‘Food is the core of culture, and modern industrial culture is rotting from the inside out due to its reliance on fossil-fueled agriculture. The only viable future is one based on small, ecologically regenerative, labor-intensive farming. Chris Smaje’s brilliant book presents the rationale, surveys methods and issues, and supplies an abundance of insight derived from the author’s twenty years of experience. Every young person should read this book.’—Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute
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