I’m only a quarter of the way through this book, and I am already willing to give it great praise. If you by any chance read my reviews of Gulp by Mary Roach, decided to pick up that book, read it, and enjoyed it, you would probably enjoy this book too.
The introduction briefly discusses the farm to table movement, which is a way of creating dishes based on what you can get nearby. We are also introduced to the huge problem in our world, that we need to rethink that way food is grown and animals are raised, if we want to end the ravaging upon our planet and heal it so that it can survive.
The first of four parts in this book is about soil. In the first chapter, the author introduces us to Klaas Marten, an organic farmer. Klaas used to spray his fields with chemicals, but something happened to him one day that made him stop.
In the next chapter, we learn about the most abundant crop in the United States and the world, grains. Grains surpass vegetables by a multiple of 12 in quantity, but even though they are more plentiful, vegetables are more sought after and consumed in greater quantities. People will spend the extra time at a supermarket to select the perfect piece of produce, but they will just grab any loaf of bread. The way the author describes how people will put the extra effort into picking the perfect vegetable and just throw it together with a bread that they don’t give nearly as much thought towards made me want to start baking my own bread.
Chapter 3 goes into the history of wheat. I know this might sound boring, but reading about wheat was more interesting to me than anything I learned in any history class I was obligated to take in public school. I learned that until 1825, when the Erie canal opened, most people were eating wheat that was grown close to their homes. I learned about the structure of wheat, the nutritional parts of it, the difference between stone milled and roller milled wheat, which one is better for you, and which one has more flavor, which one has a long shelf life, and which one can turn bad in just a few days.
Weeds are a big topic in the next chapter. They are not just undesirable plants, a weed is anything that grows where you don’t want it to grow. And weeds sprout when the existing plants are not healthy. There is an easy way to get rid of weeds, and that is to make sure that the plants you want to grow are getting everything they need. You don’t need to spray your garden with chemicals, you need to make sure the soil isn’t missing anything. Easily enough, the type of weeds that are growing in your garden will tell you what the soil is lacking.
The relationship between animals and farming is discussed in chapter 5. When farms were small, livestock would walk around freely, eating and producing waste which would in turn provide nutrients back into the soil. Large farms need machinery and chemicals to survive, simply because they are too big for the farmers to know enough about what’s going on. The animals that once roamed free were brought indoors and the soil ended up losing the nutrients.
The final chapter of Part 1 talks about greenhouse plants and why if one plant gets sick, the rest will soon follow. We also learn why organic food tastes better and the relationship between obesity in America and depleted soil.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 