A publication of The Land Institute Number 66 Spring 2000 The Land Report

The Harvesters Pieter Bruegel the Elder Contents

“Farming Like the Forest” and “The Fields Need the Forest” by Raymond Epp . . . . . 3

Ourselves by John Daniel ...... 8

Soil Cultivating Citizens: An Agrarian Contribution to Civic Life by Norman Wirzba...... 9

The Grower of Tomatoes by Mary Mackey ...... 13

Did The Horse Fail? by Howard Johnstone...... 14

Epilogue by Ellen Bromfield Geld ...... 15

Quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower ...... 18 The Need of Being Versed in Our Mission Statement Country Things by Robert Frost ...... 19 When people, land, and community A Medieval Art and Photo Essay by Wes Jackson . . . 20 are as one, all three members prosper; when they relate not as members but as At The Land ...... 22 competing interests, all three are About the Authors ...... 25 exploited. By consulting nature as the source and measure of that member- Position Available...... 25 ship, The Land Institute seeks to Gifts and Memorials...... 26 develop an agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned while Donor Acknowledgements ...... 27 promoting a community life at once prosperous and enduring. Prairie Festival 2000 Registration ...... 31

The Land Report is published three times a year. Editor: Wes Jackson Associate Editor and Production: Cover Photograph: Elizabeth Granberg The Harvesters, Graphic Design: Arrow Printing Pieter Bruegel Circulation Manager: Laura the Elder (1565, 1 1 Underwood 46 ⁄2" x 63 ⁄4"). Arts Associate: Terry Evans The Metropolitan Printed by Arrow Printing Company 2440 E. Water Well Rd. Museum of Art, Salina, KS 67401 Rogers Fund, 1919 STAFF: Ron Armstrong, Marty (785) 823-5376, phone (19.164). Reprinted Bender, Andrea Yoder Graber, with permission. Elizabeth Granberg, Stephanie (785) 823-8728, fax Hutchinson, Wes Jackson, Dennis [email protected] Back Cover Lambert, Patty Melander, Joan Photograph: Olsen, Chris Picone, Bob Pinkall, www.landinstitute.org Steve Renich, Steve Renich, Alice Sutton, Laura Propped up barn, Underwood, David Van Tassel, Ken ISSN 1093-1171 1999 Warren, Bev Worster.

Above: Raymond BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Sally Epp, handful of Cole, Terry Evans, Pete Ferrell, bokashi, 1999 Charles Francis, Wes Jackson, Rhonda Janke, Paul Johnson, Eulah Laucks, Mary Laucks, Conn Nugent, Victoria Ranney, John Simpson, Donald Worster, Angus Wright

The Land Report 2 “Farming Like the Forest” and “The Fields Need the Forest” – Complimentary Ideas in the Search for a Sustainable Agriculture

Raymond Epp

I live and farm in the land F. H. King visited 90 Japanese agriculture, traditional fertilizer making, and years ago after which he penned the book Farmers of describe how my experience growing Kabocha squash (a Forty Centuries. I’m a newcomer to this place, having Japanese variety of Cucurbita maxima) has changed over been invited to farm by a small group of people in the my years influenced by traditional farming and Sir Albert Mennonite Churches of Sapporo on the north island of Howard. I hope this essay can stir our imaginations and Hokkaido, Japan. Our hillside farm – seven acres of be a contribution to the search for a more excellent way forest, two acres of paddy field, and 11 acres of upland of farming. fields – sits on the north side of the Maoi Mountain At the time F. H. King visited Japan 70 percent of range. The land, terraced 30 years ago for rice growing, the working age population of Japan were farmers and as resembles a gigantic staircase. We receive on average 35 late as 1950 more than 52 percent of the population of inches of rainfall a year. Snow covers the ground from Japan were farming. Traditional Japanese farmers did not December until late March. The last frost comes around have a carefully worded philosophy of how to live and May fifth, while the first killing frost comes toward the how to farm. Farming was part of who they were; they end of October. We grow 40 different vegetable crops felt no need to write it down. The methods were both plus rice for 80 families, supplying some local hotels and practical and necessary for maintaining a population restaurants and a buying club on the main island with density in 1907 of 2,349 people per square mile.1 produce. We host over 500 guests a year and people from Industrialization of the countryside began in earnest after more than 25 countries have found their way to our farm. World War II and in the nation’s hell-bent efforts to catch I left The Land with more questions than I had up with the West; traditional methods of farming have answers for and it will perhaps take the rest of my life, nearly disappeared. There has been a 45 percent and then some, to make sense of it all. I have chosen to population shift from rural to urban in the past 50 years, return to my ancestral tradition of being farmers. But perhaps the largest and fastest population shift of any personal convictions and lessons learned while at The industrialized country. My neighboring farmers, mostly Land have changed the ways in which I farm. After in their 60’s and 70’s vaguely remember farming participating in perennial polyculture research, work that methods which I am wanting to learn and keep alive. But seeks to mimic the prairie to create prairie-like grain- they mostly laugh at me and say, taihen. Which basically fields, I try to farm by mimicking the forest. Sir Albert means too much work. Howard wrote about the need to “farm like the forest” My fieldwork begins not with a trip to the machine since “nature is the supreme farmer.” Using “nature as shed to get the tractor. Instead I go to the forest bordering measure” as a guide to good agriculture has a long my fields. It is here that I collect locally adapted history and has been written about best by Wendell microorganisms, fungi and bacteria that have evolved in Berry. I have learned some good things from this place in much the same way as traditional Japanese approach, which has made work easier and increased farmers have done for millennia. It was while on one of vegetable quality. The wildness of nature, however, is these trips to the forest that I realized the vital connection more than just a reservoir of ideas for creating a sustain- between forest and field. The microorganisms are able agriculture in our domesticated fields. From my cultured and mixed with any organic waste to make what contact with traditional Japanese agriculture I have found the Japanese call bokashi, a kind of fertilizer. When there is a practical connection – the health of the spread to the fields the soil life, which abundantly existed domesticated fields cannot be maintained without the before the forest was turned into field, is reinvigorated. wildness of nature. The fields need the forest. The extra time and labor required to gather the I would like to share with you what I have learned in forest’s microorganisms are worth the effort in accelerat- the process of blending traditional farming methods with ing crop maturity and increasing crop quality. I’ve Sir Albert Howard’s idea of “farming like the forest.” noticed the dramatic effect, especially in rice growing. More specifically I want to share some things about For three years I grew rice using organic fertilizers

The Land Report 3 Akiko Aratani and Raymond Epp (wearing Land Institute jacket), 1999

portion of this organic matter is predigested with soil or subsoil before it is applied to their fields, and at an enormous cost of human time and labor, but it practically lengthens their growing season.2

The use of bokashi contributed to the earlier maturity of my rice and its increased quality. It is the only change from previous years. Japanese biotech companies are trying to create low amylose rice varieties to satisfy Japanese consumer tastes. It appears to me that tradition- al fertility management would achieve similar results.

My Experience of Growing Kabocha Squash

Being a newcomer to this place my presence predis- poses the land to abuse. I knew nothing of the winds and rains nor about this soil. Fortunately my neighbors were very friendly and in spite of my poor Japanese they were gracious enough to listen to my poorly worded questions and even more gracious to answer. Four years ago I began intercropping oats with kabocha by tilling out strips in the field, incorporating purchased commercially, ones lacking indigenous fungi purchased organic fertilizer and transplanting kabocha and bacteria. My rice was always three to four weeks plants through plastic mulch. Spring-planted oats didn’t later in maturing than the surrounding fields, and my provide much of a windbreak and I found that some of rice samples contained a large number of green, imma- the plants twisted off in the strong spring winds. As the ture grains. Yamazaki san, my neighbor, always tells me kabocha plants grew I noticed that the weeds in the bare the reason my rice is so late is because the cold spring soil next to the plastic mulch grew vigorously. I ended up winds and the cold water in the paddy field slows the hoeing these edges but found at harvest time the vast biological activity making my organic fertilizers unavail- majority of the weeds in the field were to be found along able when the plants most need fertility, especially nitro- these narrow strips. “Nature abhors a vacuum,” the say- gen. He always adds at the end of the conversation that I ing goes – so should I get a narrower rototiller so there need to add a little chemical nitrogen fertilizer. I shoot will be less bare soil? Should I plant more cover crop back, “I grow the best green rice in our town, I don’t seeds in the soil along the edge of the mulch? need it!” We both laugh. But this has all changed this When the vines were about three feet long I laid past year using bokashi. Maturity was nearly simultane- them on top of the plastic mulch, cut all the oats with a ous with the neighbors and tests conducted at the end of gas weed trimmer, and then trained the vines so they the year showed that my rice had qualities prized by the would cover the ground. I noticed that the tendrils would Japanese. Upon analysis my rice had the lowest amylose grab hold of the oat stubble and keep the plants from content in the neighborhood at 18.6 percent compared blowing around in the wind. A farmer I had helped one with the town and neighborhood average of 19.4 per- summer clean tills between his rows of kabocha, sprays cent. Low amylose gives rice a sticky consistency that herbicide, and then uses string lines in his field to tie Japanese like. F. H. King, in his travels took note of the down his plants. Too much work. Let them tie themselves importance of traditional fertilizer preparation: down. They’re more than willing to do so. As the plants age and lose their vigor they are more They have long realized that much time is susceptible to insect and disease. In August I observed required to transform organic matter into forms localized aphid infestations. On closer observation I saw available for plant food and although they are that the aphids preferred to feed on the oats, minimizing the heaviest users in the world, the largest the damage to the squash and revealing an unforeseen

The Land Report 4 benefit of intercropping. Removing the plastic mulch at out, knowing that the loss of soil I was witnessing was year’s end was one of the biggest jobs. Our first year, we the result of my poor judgment. The drumbeat pounded just burned the mulch right on the farm, sadly contribut- this message home. I was writing a chapter in the book ing to a growing incineration problem in Japan. of my relationship to this place. Never again I vowed to By mid-summer of that first year I sensed that myself. In farming with nature, timing is everything. growing cover crops with the kabocha was a good thing Getting the crop out of the field and getting the cover but spring-planted cover crops didn’t provide the protec- crop in is now one of my top priorities. If I could achieve tion the small kabocha plants needed. I tried planting this, come spring, a cover would be tall and would pro- strips of winter wheat, red clover and white clover in the tect the young plants from the wind. Rye seemed the fall to give the cover crops a head start on the kabocha cover crop of choice for its height and allelopathic effect the following year. but I would have to wait until next year. There would be ••• no cover crop planted this year. The second year’s most significant observation ••• occurred as I cut the winter wheat cover between the The dioxin released from the incineration of plastics rows in late June. I noticed a lark dragging its wing as it in Japan is becoming a serious problem. In Saitama ran along the ground. I followed the bird and it took Prefecture plastic waste from Tokyo is incinerated and flight. I returned to where I first noticed the bird and last year the Japanese media reported that elevated dioxin soon found a newly constructed nest. I marked the place levels were found in tealeaves grown in the area. so I wouldn’t endanger it again and could keep an eye on Consumer fears of dioxin tainted vegetables led to a col- the nest later. In a week’s time there were four eggs in lapse in the sales of vegetables from the Saitama area. If the nest. I took my wife, Aki, and my then-one-year-old- plastic is a problem why should I make it worse. But son, Kazu, to see the baby birds. The beautiful, tender how do I kick the habit? smile that spread across Aki’s face and my son’s excite- ••• ment told me that this kind of farming is good. It was This past year was the greatest year of discovery for good because it allowed us to take pleasure in the field me. Springtime came and the rye emerged from its while at the same time using the field to gain our suste- winter rest in good shape. By the time I was ready to nance. Farming this way is so much more complex and transplant the three-week-old plants in the second week physically demanding that, to be honest, I sometimes of June the rye was headed out and stood over six feet wonder if it’s worth all the effort for the meager returns tall. I cut four-and-a-half-foot wide strips out of the field we receive. But my calculating mind was put to shame every ten feet for the transplants. I laid down on the when I realized that what I was witnessing in that freshly cut straw in the strip to get a feel for what the moment was of far greater importance than the end-of- squash plants’ new home would be like. Warmth bathed the-year balance sheet. I saw that, given a proper scale, my face and the spring winds, which cause the field to the fields and forest, the world of humans and nature look like a waving flag from above, were barely notice- could exist together. able. I closed my eyes and thought, The purpose of using ••• plastic mulch is to suppress weeds close to the plants and In my rotation the kabocha follow potatoes so it’s to warm the soil. The rye will suppress the weeds but important to plant the cover crop after harvesting the how am I going to warm the soil? I lay there for a time, potatoes. In the fall of the third year, 1997, the potato thinking and resting. I became aware of the sun’s warmth harvest again ran late. While winter farming I always on my eyelids. That’s it! I opened my eyes, got up, and seem to plan to do more than what is physically possible. went back to work. I had found my answer. The tall rye We finished the potato harvest around September 23, between the strips, besides protecting the plants from the with just a few days to spare before it would be too late wind and suppressing weeds, would create a warmer to plant the fall cover crop. I got on the tractor and tilled microclimate for the new kabocha transplants. Two the fields to make a fine seed bed. The soil behind the weeks after transplanting the kabocha plants, strong tiller came out soft and loose. It was the texture of soil I spring winds blew and heavy rain fell. The rye bent over loved to walk across with my bare feet as a child. I the top of the young plants much like a hen covers its decided to prepare all the fields that needed to be planted chicks with its wings. I walked out to the field at night in with cover crops in spite of the growing evidence of rain. the wind and the rain to see the rye protecting the young I finished tilling and while preparing the grain drill one plants. I went back to the house and slept well, knowing of those cats and dogs type rains came down. I ran to the the plants would be OK until morning. My conversation house, took off my wet clothes, and ran upstairs to look with the land thus far yielded answers to questions about out over the fields. The rain was pounding the soft, vul- wind protection, weed suppression, and soil warming. nerable soil, puddling the surface. Soon the soil began But there were still other questions needing answers. sliding in sheets toward the sea. The rain beat a deafen- One question presented itself as my friends and I ing drum cadence on the tin roof. I stood there looking raked the cut rye off to one side of the strip: How will I

The Land Report 5 Raymond Epp cutting back the rye, 1999

incorporate fertilizer into the soil? My agronomy I decided we would try planting one row without training at the University of Nebraska taught me that incorporating the fertilizer. We would just dig holes for fertilizer placement is very important – especially for the plants, place them right into the rye stubble and then phosphorous. Six inches to the side and six inches below spread the cut rye straw around the plants. Ben Watkins, the seed is the rule. Conventional agriculture tells me I a WWOOFER (Willing Worker On Organic Farms) from would have to till in the fertilizer (causing weed prob- Australia, began digging the holes in that first row. My lems), or else knife it in with a fertilizer machine (which curiosity got the best of me when I saw the soil Ben I don’t own because it’s too costly). The wisdom and brought up with the post hole digger. Usually the soil is practice of traditional agriculturists in Japan and Korea loose but this time it was different. The soil came out in provided me a way around this dilemma. Their advice blocks the same size as the digger’s jaws. Squatting on applying traditional fertilizers turned the wisdom of down on the rye stubble, I picked up the block and conventional agriculture on its head. raised it up in front of my face. The block wasn’t hard; it was soft and loose, interlaced with a net of roots and Apply the compost with indigenous micro- superfine roothairs holding the soil together in a porous, organisms (bokashi) to fields, not plowing it in breathable mass. I dropped my lower hand so that I the fields but put on the surface because soil now held the block from the top with only one hand. I fertility moves downward.3 shook the block and it wiggled but didn’t fall apart; it reminded me of Jell-O. “There is no way that I can These fertilizers act like the fertility of the forest, where improve on this soil structure by tilling it,” I said as I composting and the resulting fertility is found on the soil showed my discovery to the others who’d gathered to surface. help that day. We’ll just have to trust that those guys We spread bokashi at the rate of 1.2 tons/acre in a (traditional farmers) knew what they were talking about two-foot wide band on the surface of the strip and and that the fertility will move down as they said. As a followed this with a top coating of composted cow hedge I did, however, place a handful of phosphate manure at the rate of 1 ton per 300 feet of row. I wanted fertilizer in the holes before placing the plants in their to get out the tiller. I had a hard time shaking the influ- new homes. ence of my university training and I couldn’t quite trust We didn’t till any of the strips in the entire field. this traditional wisdom despite its 4,000-year pedigree. This was my first time with not tilling the soil before But I knew that incorporating all that fertility into the planting a crop. As the vines grew I continued to cut soil would produce a flush of weeds that would feed on back the rye until all the strips of rye were down. The the fertilizer leaving less for the kabocha crop. I would tendrils held onto the rye stubble keeping the plants then have to use plastic mulch to hold back the weeds. I stable and stationary in the wind. The end result was a wondered, What should I do? bountiful crop yielding as well as previous years.

The Land Report 6 Harvesting the crop is made much easier in wet years to Japan’s serious disposal problem. Pre-transplant due to the existence of the rye mulch. tillage is eliminated, saving time and fuel costs. My My conversation with the field yielded answers to conversation with nature helped me reduce the use of the problems and questions I faced, but the answers non-renewable fossil fuel energy required by the tractor didn’t come all at once. The dialogue began and for tillage and for manufacturing plastic mulch, both of progressed, yet I was never sure where it would take me which represent a source of pollution that threatens life. nor what the field would look like in the end. Looking back, I feel my questions of nature were honored and Conclusion listened to, and I came from the fields satisfied. Satisfied because I, too, listened to and sought to honor my limit- In this article I have introduced myself and my farm, ed knowledge of how nature works. And on top of all of shared some things about traditional Japanese agricul- this, and in spite of the hard work, it was fun. ture and shared my conversations with my fields as I’ve My satisfaction lays also in the fact that this kind of attempted, and continue to attempt, to find ways of conversation with the fields yielded answers that were farming like the forest. In addition to conversing with both liberating and economical. Contrary to expert the fields I am also indebted to the generations of opinion, there is more than one way to grow a crop. I farmers who have over the millennia maintained the learned that nature and traditional farming methods can practice and belief that the fields need the forest. Their be trusted to provide clues and insights into innovative methods and insights are opening up new ways for me to ways of farming that can free farmers from the tyranny think about farming, ways that protect the soil and pre- of modern agriculture. In introducing modern agriculture serve the belief that forest and field are indeed one. to traditional culture the first step is to destroy or In sustainable agriculture circles today it’s widely discount traditional methods by saying it’s not rational accepted that “Farming cannot take place except in or based on scientifically replicated methods (funded by nature.”4 Less obvious is that traditional agriculturists governments and agribusiness companies, of course). In may have something to offer us: experience demonstrat- traditional agriculture the process of farming is based ing the domesticated field’s need for the wildness of upon what is locally available, whereas on the modern nature. What is needed is a Green Revolution in reverse, farm the suppliers of inputs control the process. Modern a revolution where we take the time to learn about the farmers are locked into a system of farming in which virtues of methods and practices of traditional farmers both the process and the end product are controlled by so that scientific inquiry can enhance rather than destroy forces outside the farm. traditional knowledge. F. H. King demonstrates the kind Conversing attentively with the land is economical. of humility required: I no longer need to purchase expensive, ready-made fertilizers. I make my own during the winter months We had long desired to stand face to face with when the work schedule is slack and when I most need Chinese and Japanese farmers; to walk through exercise. I also needn’t buy plastic mulch and contribute their fields and to learn by seeing some of their

Akiko Aratani planting three- week-old plants into the field, 1999

The Land Report 7 methods, appliances and practices which into plant fertilizer. Such caring for soil he had not centuries of stress and experience have led these witnessed before. Can such caring come again? oldest farmers in the world to adopt. We desired to The rebirth of an agriculture watchful of the learn how it is possible, after twenty and perhaps connection between field and forest will need the thirty or even forty centuries, for their soils to be commitment of dedicated farmers who understand the made to produce sufficiently for the maintenance workings of the forest. It also requires the support of a of such dense populations as are living now in human community, sharing a common frugality and a these three countries. We have now had this oppor- healing love, as well as a desire to work hard alongside tunity and almost every day we were instructed, farmers to see that crucial connections are maintained: surprised and amazed at the conditions and prac- the link from forest to field to table – and back. We must tices which confronted us whichever way we begin conversations in our towns, villages and neighbor- turned; instructed in the ways and extent to which hoods, and also in our fields, with nature – for in these these nations for centuries have been and are con- conversations we may learn to transform agriculture and serving and utilizing their natural resources [and] our lives in ways as yet unimagined. May the day come surprised at the magnitude of the returns they are when one day a visitor comes to the farms of America to getting from their fields.5 (emphases mine) record America’s forty centuries of agriculture.

Dr. King, university professor and former USDA Endnotes: employee, walked the fields of Asian peasant farmers, a 1Sir Albert Howard, An Agricultural Testament, New York: Oxford University powerless and exploited class, and listened to their expe- Press, 1940, p. 10. rience gained over millennia. Dr. King heralded these 2F. H. King, Farmers of Forty Centuries or Permanent Agriculture in China people as “leaders in the maintenance of their nations.” Korea and Japan, Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press Inc., 1911, p. 11. I, too, am continually “instructed, surprised and 3Han Kyu Cho and Atsushi Koyama, Korean Natural Farming: Indigenous amazed” by the genius and frugality of traditional agricul- Microorganisms and Vital Power of Crop/Livestock, Chungchungbook-do, ture in Japan, by practices that demonstrate how the field South Korea: Korean Natural Farming Association Publisher, 1997, p. 85. needs the forest. I am becoming increasingly aware that 4Wendell Berry, What Are People For?, San Francisco: North Point Press, such genius and frugality can only be practiced on a par- 1990, p. 207. ticular scale of farming beyond which these qualities are 5King, p.2. lost. Mechanization has made large-scale farming possi- ble, freeing up laborers for the industrial economy. But this shift towards larger-scale farming extracts farmers from nature’s economy and places them on the rack of the money economy. Cash flow is needed to satisfy the Ourselves executioner. Many of the farmers around here have been convinced that farming is about making money – John Daniel economic logic is primary. This has led them to forsake When the throaty calls of sand hill cranes traditional fertilizers because their manufacture is too echo across the valley, time-consuming and “unproductive.” Thus these natural When the rimrock flares incandescent red materials go unused and purchased fertilizers take their and the junipers are flames of green on the short grass hills. place. Time-wise, it is more efficient. This is perhaps the In that moment of last clear light sharpest critique modern agriculture, be it American or when the world seems ready to speak its name, Japanese, has for traditional Japanese agriculture: it is meet me in the field alongside the pond, without careers for once, inefficient in its output per unit of human labor. But the without dreams or anger or knife cuts both ways, for this is also the sharpest critique the rattle of fears, of modern farming. Modern agriculture exists because it We’ll ask how it can be that we believes it can still afford to waste – there’s still some fat walk this ground and know that we walk, alive in a world that didn’t have to be beautiful, left. Where will the traditional wisdom be found, where alive in a world that doesn’t have to be. will its practitioners remain, and how will we find the way to an enduring agriculture when the fat is gone? With no answers, just ourselves in silence F. H. King did not complete his book Farmers of we’ll listen for the song that waits to be learned, Forty Centuries. He died before writing the closing the song that moves through the chapter, “Message of China and Japan to the World.” I passing light. wonder what Dr. King would have written? He was struck by the frugality of the people, and the willingness to do whatever work was necessary to transform organic matter

The Land Report 8 Soil Cultivating Citizens: An Agrarian Contribution to Civic Life

Norman Wirzba

Over 150 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville life if we do not at the same time assume responsibility observed that Americans are especially good at taking for the cultural and biological contexts we depend upon. their destiny into their own hands. Through a mix of In this century especially, with the mass migration individualism, self-interest, ingenuity, and tenacity, of an estimated 90 million farmers from the land, we seekers in the “new land” achieved a level of prosperity have witnessed the erosion of the conditions that would that was the envy of people from around the world. The enable us to learn the precise character of our dependen- costs of this prosperity, however, did not go unnoticed cies on each other and the earth. The reason is that urban by Tocqueville, who, in Democracy in America, wrote life differs from agrarian life in ways that are crucial for that Americans “never stop thinking of the good things the development of personal and civic health. Put they have not got.” Their minds, he said, are “more anx- simply, city life fosters, even if it does not make ious and on edge” because they “clutch everything and inevitable, the anonymous and autonomous existence of hold nothing fast.” its members, whereas life that is attuned to the land Our own time does not mark an improvement on encourages the development of a cooperative and this general malaise. Given the massive amount of accountable spirit. The fact that people in many urban money spent by millions of Americans on Tylenol, centers are now promoting “neighborhood associations” Tums, Prozac, Xanax, and Viagara, one would have to is an indication of a common anonymous condition that conclude that, though we may be prosperous, we are not needs to be overcome. well. For many, the pursuit of the American Dream The difference between urban and agrarian life can leaves them either depressed, anxious, tired, stressed or more specifically be seen in the contrasting conceptions bored. Moreover, we are encountering great difficulty of freedom and responsibility that are operative in both. establishing and agreeing upon the conditions that would In the city, people often have a diverse array of opportu- allow us to judge a life as complete or fulfilled. Having nities from which they can choose their friends, their assumed that our destiny is a matter of our own prefer- work, and their extra-curricular activities. If the initial ence, we have at the same time cut ourselves off from choices made do not work out or are no longer perceived the common destiny we share with each other and with as desirable, the possibility for a different choice always the earth. We have, as Wendell Berry once noted, taken exists. In other words, a person’s choices are less bind- flight into the hypothetical air of our own ambition and ing. The paradox in this, however, is that the person who greed, and in the process forgotten or despised our so “freely” moves from association to association is at “native ground,” the soil, water, and air that sustain, the same time enslaved to a host of foreign influences: complete, and unite us. creditors, bosses, a consumer media, technical experts, The cultural and political debates that have attempt- etc. The many responsibilities of urban life are thus ed to address these concerns have been deficient insofar often perceived as onerous, as negative obligations rather as they have neglected to engage seriously the perspec- than positive commitments. Furthermore, as urbanites tives of agrarian thought and life. By agrarianism I mean have become specialists in one segment of a huge and the traditions of thought rooted in the concrete practices often fragmented workforce, they have found it more of taking care of the earth, practices that are attentive to difficult to see how what they do matters, affects, or and responsible for the long-term health and vitality of contributes to the well-being of larger groups. the biological sources that make life possible. Since we Agrarian life, on the other hand, is founded on the are biological beings – we must eat, drink, and breathe – acknowledgement of a variety of responsibilities and it is clear that our individual and social well-being commitments that curtail the spontaneous freedoms requires that we be mindful of the ecological parameters, characteristic of urban life. Farmers, if they are to be the possibilities but also the constraints, within which successful in the long-term, must be attentive to and our lives must move. In other words, we will not have an respectful of the land and animals they work with. They adequate account of what it means to live a fully human must also live with certain forms of helplessness in the

The Land Report 9 face of natural forces like weather, disease or pest infes- Agrarianism teaches interconnectedness tation, birth, growth, and death. The responsibilities of and interdependence. agrarian life, however, cannot be properly understood as onerous since they contribute directly to the maintenance Agrarians have long understood what ecology and flourishing of life, human and non-human. Whereas repeatedly demonstrates: we do not simply live among urban happiness is often taken to consist of a flight from soil, water and air; we live from and within nature’s ele- responsibility – the get-away long weekend or the vaca- ments. These interdependencies are necessary, practical, tion far from home – agrarian happiness would find its and concrete, but they have been dissimulated or forgot- realization or expression in the acceptance of tasks ten, particularly since the modern period, as we came to viewed as essential and praise-worthy. believe we were autonomous, self-legislating beings able In contrasting agrarian life with urban life, I aim to to choose a life for ourselves. From an agrarian stand- suggest that agrarianism, because of its concrete prac- point, this idea is ridiculous and dangerous. Ridiculous tices, promotes the proper ethos for recovering civic and because, without soil, water and air of a certain quality communal responsibility, and thus personal and social we would cease to exist, or continue to exist badly. On a well-being. In making this claim I obviously nod toward scientific level, there simply is no clear separation Cato and Jefferson in their adulation of the farmer. But it between ourselves and the air we breathe, the food we is not my argument that we should all become farmers, eat, the water we drink. At the most fundamental level – since this would be impractical and unnecessary. What at the level of respiration and nutrient absorption – we would be desirable, however, is if people could learn and are permeable beings, non-specific sites for the live within an agrarian ethos: people appreciating and exchange of elements and energy. But our myth of understanding as practically as they can the connections human independence is also dangerous because this and dependencies between people and land, the connec- ignorance then becomes the basis for a colossal tions that urban life severs by insulating us from nature’s arrogance that makes today’s unprecedented environ- forces. It is as possible for non-farmers to operate from mental damage all but inevitable. That we have become the perspective of an agrarian culture as it is for non- a nation that willfully erodes and poisons billions of tons industrialists to live within the assumptions of an indus- of topsoil per year, depletes and contaminates its water trial culture. supplies, and pollutes its atmosphere, indicates our Agrarian practice can make three specific contribu- ignorance of the practical, incarnate knowledge of our tions to civic and communal life: Agrarianism teaches interdependence with the earth. interconnectedness and interdependence; Agrarianism Agrarian practice may represent our best hope for teaches responsibility; and Agrarianism teaches realistic recovering this essential knowledge. It does so because and healthy goals for human life. it demands intimacy with the land and promotes

Solomon D. Butcher, Sod house of Isadore Haumont. Nebraska State Historical Society. responsibility for our occupation of places. To take care preservatives because they want food that’s fresh and of land one first must know the limits and possibilities healthy. Nor will they mistreat their livestock, since of specific places, and this requires repeated and vigilant daily contact breeds affection. (By contrast, consider the attention and care. Obviously this cannot be accom- rapid turnover in the industrial farm labor force, as plished by the sorts of agribusiness we might see if we workers leave in disgust over the tasks they must per- ride down an interstate highway. Agribusiness has form and the conditions in which they must perform severed a responsible attachment to the land for the sake them.) Moreover, agrarians will make the long-term of quick, short-term profits. The land is made to fit our effort to preserve good soil and clean water since these wants, instead of us remaking ourselves to fit within its are the indispensable conditions for healthy life. possibilities. Authentic agrarian practice, in contrast, rec- Agrarian life also contributes directly to civic life ognizes that in taking care of the land we simultaneously because it fosters the mutual accountability that is essen- take care of ourselves, whereas in taking care of our- tial to a vibrant citizenry. What an individual does has selves first – especially if this comes at the cost of the implications and repercussions for the many others who land’s degradation – we eventually harm both. depend upon that individual. Moreover, these implica- Moreover, it is less and less the case that agribusiness tions are seen and felt, since the local character of farmers actually live on what they produce; it gets agrarian life makes it more difficult to hide ourselves shipped off to markets far from home, while farmers buy from the damaging effects of what we do. Farming is by what they need from a supermarket like everyone else. nature a cooperative enterprise – it requires working Agribusiness practices contribute to the sense that we do with, rather than against, land, animals, and other not live intimately with nature’s elements. These ele- people. It makes concrete the knowledge of ourselves as ments always come to us from somewhere else, pack- interdependent beings, and thus shows the deception of aged and prepared. Agrarian practice, on the other hand, an autonomous view of humanity. To exist properly is to keeps the distance between production and consumption exist with others in relations of care and responsibility. short. This not only serves the interests of greater health, Agrarian practice builds upon and gives concrete expres- but also keeps our minds attentive to how we actually sion to the knowledge that we need each other, and that subsist in being, how our health is inextricably tied to this need is a good, if not always pleasant, thing. the health of the lives we depend upon. There is, of course, a danger in romanticizing an agrarian life, when the reality is that farm work is diffi- Agrarianism teaches responsibility. cult and continuous. It’s difficulty, however, does not eclipse its joys and its ability to provide its practitioners Our present economic order provides the conditions with the sense that what they do – cultivate and nurture for massive irresponsibility. The problem is simple: the conditions for life – matters and is valuable. given the relative isolation and anonymity of urban life, Agrarian responsibilities are ones it makes sense to and given our separation from the land, we rarely have commit to since they are clearly attached to goals that to live with the effects of what we do. When I buy food are known to be indispensable and life-promoting. in a grocery store, I have no idea how the food was pro- duced. I don’t know if the chicken I buy was raised in a Agrarianism teaches realistic and factory that de-beaks birds, feeds them steroids and healthy goals for human life. antibiotics, and pumps their waste into the ground and the above-ground water supply. I don’t know if my veg- People have always chafed under restraints on their etables grew on land that is dependent on exhausting our actions. This is especially the case today. For many water supplies or is heavily laced with pesticides and “can” simply signifies “ought.” The roots of this extrava- fertilizers, or if they were harvested under near slave gant way of thinking go well beyond the myth of labor conditions. Obviously the list goes on and on, ourselves as autonomous beings (consider Socrates’ from acts like turning the thermostat dial to putting our battle with Protagoras, or Augustine’s ruminations on garbage at the curb. We no longer see the effects of our our sinful nature). We see a form of the problem in the actions, much less live with them. Nor do we appreciate, contemporary political debate between liberals and com- and thus put ourselves in the position to knowledgeably munitarians. Liberals, as is well known, stand for the condemn or promote, the practices that contributed to advancement of personal rights, the idea that individuals the production of the elements we consume. are in control of their goals in life; whereas communitar- Agrarian practice makes it much more difficult for ians stand for the enhancement of good, the idea that an us to live this way since its attention is primarily local. individual’s conception of the good in life is socially Agrarians know what they eat and how it came to be rather than individually determined. While this descrip- because they were intimately involved in its growth and tion vastly simplifies things, liberals adamantly protect a harvest. They will not lace their food with poisons and person’s independent “inner core” and that person’s right

The Land Report 11 to be free of externally derived constraints. As Will better life for ourselves. It is rather that we learn to Kymlicka in Liberalism, Community and Culture puts it, conceive “better” with full attention to the interdepen- “Nothing is ‘set for us,’ nothing is authoritative before dencies that make human life possible. our judgment of its value.” This sentiment stems from The temptation to expect more for ourselves than the liberal belief that the self is prior to its ends, that we we ought can be combated with an agrarian ethos. live lives that are “led from the inside.” But is not such a Agrarianism serves the important role of keeping us view steeped in hubris since it clearly denies that we are humble. It reminds us that we are but one piece of a natural, biological beings necessarily tied to nature’s much larger whole, that our human economies are part ends? What happens to a self when it thinks, judges, and of a much greater ecological economy. The responsible acts from an “inner core” that has dissimulated its thing for us to do is scale our wants to the limits and connectedness with the world around it? possibilities of the land. No doubt this will be difficult One strong possibility is the growth of wildly since so many of us have been trained to see the life of unrealistic goals and expectations. For example, leisure and comfort as a divine right. We may be helped, Americans who routinely believe that they should live however, if we can recognize that the source of true comfortable lives, secure and free from any pain or dis- value does not reside in our fabricated economies. Any comfort, fail to realize that the ancient mind would have value that we do find there is borrowed from the larger seen such a life as the life of a god. How did we come to natural economy. Our environmental crises should teach this expectation? One element of the change was the us at least this much: we need to learn and appreciate erosion of an agrarian ethos and culture. As we became how vast and intricate, how fundamentally mysterious, industrialized, technologized and urbanized we also this ecological economy is. We ought to reconsider our insulated ourselves from the “real” world, i.e., the world favorite ideas of progress and growth, and perhaps pro- attuned to the fragile laws of life and death. So ceed on the basis of ignorance rather than knowledge, of insulated, we have also grown naïve and arrogant to the possible guilt rather than naïve innocence, since it is point that some of us think we can overcome death and clear that we have not known all the ecological effects of other biological limitations through medical wizardry. If what we do. The massive environmental destruction all we believe we can forestall death and illness, it is but a short step to believing that we can also have everything our imaginations desire. The problem with setting these Above: Solomon D. unrealistic goals is that they often come at the expense Butcher. Miss Alice of the world and others that make them possible – Butcher. Nebraska State i.e., human “success” and ease is based on the destruc- Historical Society. tion of natural habitats and human communities. The point is not that we should give up on establishing a

The Land Report 12 around us ought to confirm that in fact we have been guilty of ignorance and hubris. If we are successful at redirecting our planning in terms of agrarianism, the ramifications for a great many of our cultural institutions will be immense, ranging from our educational systems to our political economies.

•••

It is tempting, given our present socio-economic order, to view agrarians as relics of the past, and the The Grower of Tomatoes possibility for developing agrarian practices today as an Mary Mackey impossibility. I think this is a false temptation. There is no reason why small farmers, who wish to take on lives that are attuned to living within the limits and he’s out possibilities of nature, cannot increase their numbers. in the garden And for the rest of us, there is no reason why we straw hat freckles of urbanites cannot learn, practically as well as shade on theoretically, the lessons of agrarian life, either through his lips direct or indirect experience. Directly, we might begin the man who with something as simple as growing a garden or being loves responsible for and accountable to the life of another. everything Indirectly, we can become knowledgeable about food even the production practices and then act upon that knowledge. weeds Or we can befriend local farmers and develop economic especially the relationships with them, as when we buy their food weeds direct and give them our compost. the slugs the diaphanous But our efforts must not stop here. It is essential moths that we bring agrarian concerns and insights to the attention of our political, religious and business leaders. tomatoes so juicy At present the discussions in each of these areas are they change deficient since they assume that we are not biological shape in beings, or that our biological nature serves only the his hands concerns of rabid consumption. Though they may speak simple earth of the need to recover civic and social responsibility, with nothing their proposals will remain inadequate or seem arbitrary mixed in if they are not tied to the agrarian insight that individual but the spray from the hose and social well-being depends on the well-being of the and an eye many elements that sustain life. for the sparrows

and joy of course always

joy.

The Land Report 13 The following article reappeared in the Spring 2000 issue of The Draft Horse Journal. The author, Howard Johnstone, was a friend of Maury Telleen, founder and recently-retired publisher of that journal. Howard was a real horseman. During World War II he was captured by the Germans, who allowed him to send home one post card. Howard wrote, “Captured by the Germans, breed my two grey mares to a Jack. Howard.” He eventually escaped with a superior ranking officer who, not knowing much in the way of survival skills in the country, turned himself over to Howard to get them safely through the lines. They traveled at night and hid in Now let’s take this same trip today. The fields barns during the day. Howard would go below at night are still there, but most of them much bigger. Most and milk the cows, being careful to take near equal of the fences have been torn out in some areas, amounts from each quarter so as to not raise suspicion. It many of the barns and outbuildings have been torn is a great treat to listen to an exchange of stories about down and others are falling down, homes that Howard between Wendell Berry and Maury Telleen. echoed to the laughter of children and the wisdom Howard, who was also a friend of mine, farmed near of age stand silent and empty, instead of a variety Dover, Kansas, and died two or three years ago. His of crops with a healthy mixture of grasses and remarks are resurrected here because they raise questions legumes the earth seems to be black for miles, all our culture seems to lack the ability to answer. under the plow, and of course, there are no horses. And there is also a distinct shortage of people, as reflected in the run down appearance of many small towns that no longer (the experts say) have a right to live. The wheat and corn don’t grow any faster, and the hay doesn’t cure any faster. The machine that replaced the horse didn’t raise the price of farm products. The machine that replaced Did the Horse Fail? the horse didn’t increase the fertility of the soil. The machine that replaced the horse does not Howard Johnstone reproduce itself. But, the machine that replaced the horse has replaced millions of Americans on the land, crowding them into our urban centers. The Come with me down the country roads of the power of the farm vote and the farmer’s voice has farm belt on a day 50 years ago. The fields on been diminished; the cheap food is regarded as a either side are growing an assortment of crops, birthright. Not cheap automobiles, or cheap with quite a lot in pasture. The substantial farm tractors, or cheap boats, just cheap food. The homes with big barns, good outbuildings and ade- farmer has had to be subsidized by the rest of the quate fences (making salvaging of crop residues by populace to continue to operate so that he can pro- livestock relatively easy), dot the 80’s and the duce foodstuffs at an acceptable level, that is lower 160’s. Big, drafty horses and mules are working in and lower. Farming tenancy leading to land owner- the fields, sometimes in big hitches and many just ship, has become a social relic, and has instead in teams. Mares with colts at their sides attest to become a hereditary privilege for fewer and fewer the fact that an adequate supply of farm power is young men and is now called agri-business. in the making. Depending on the time of year, Is this a success story? Did the draft horse fail we’ll see a six horse hitch of Percherons, some as an efficient source of farm power? grey and some black, plowing with a gang plow; a pair of Belgian mares on a spreader with colts run- ning alongside; a nice team of Clydes mowing hay; a team of bay geldings hooked on a stationary hay baler pulling it to a new location in the field, four head on a binder, all going about the business of planting, cultivating, and harvesting a crop. Or rather, a variety of crops.

The Land Report 14 Epilogue

Ellen Bromfield Geld

In his will my father left his estate in trust, to be they could never have elsewhere. And as people walk administered by the law firm of Patterson, Belknap and through the house with their dedicated guide reciting Webb. In doing this, I know that his main concern was Bromfield myths and legends along the way, I’m sure our sister Anne who, brilliant and vulnerable, would they get a feeling that all the beautiful things within it, never be able to live fully on her own. In his heart he gathered from around the world, were a part of every- must have known that – even without inheritance taxes, day living. That, rather than collected as an investment, mortgage, and an economic situation that was ruining each item once acquired had been placed in a spot many a farmer – Malabar with its Big House at the cen- someone had in mind for it to occupy, if possible, ter of everything was no guarantee for Annie’s needs. forever. They belong in an extraordinary house, which Time has proven as well that nothing could have turned is part of a farm where, during Louis Bromfield’s life, out better for everyone concerned than what happened everything produced was made use of – from the fruits to Malabar Farm as a result. and vegetables that filled our larder to the profits that Today the farm belongs to the state of Ohio. And I were turned back into the land to make it more fertile am sure no one would be happier than my father that it than it had been when first he found it. has become a park with a twist that has made it unique So it is that, thanks to those who run it, now as ever in all the world. For in no other park is there combined a great deal goes on at Malabar that appeals to every an atmosphere in which people may wander amid a kind of person, from those who are simply curious to wilderness of forests and streams and marshes to come those who seek to learn about the practicalities of sus- out upon a farm operation, going on in all its integrity. tainable farming. And though I would like to see more One which, as my father would have had it, considers happen in this latter direction, my greatest gratitude is the orderly farm and the wilderness as parts of an insep- that, rather than being sacrificed to urban spread, the arable whole. Nowadays this commonsensical way of place has been kept intact, a beautiful piece of Ohio looking at things is known as sustainable agriculture scenery and history that everyone can richly enjoy. and, as when Louis Bromfield was alive, people come Still, as the house to me has been absented of its by the thousands to ride to the top of Mount Jeez and soul, when I return to Malabar it is more than anything see what it is all about. to look out over that country from Mount Jeez. And Out of curiosity they come as well to walk almost invariably when I do, someone asks, “But through the Big House. To enter, one is obliged to go wouldn’t you sometimes like to return to stay? Don’t through a gift shop where once there was a garage, and I you feel a nostalgia for the old days?” To be truthful, I will admit that at first this was not an easy thing for me can only answer, “No.” Therefore in the shocked silence to do. But now I must say I quite enjoy it as I walk that generally follows, I hope that my inquirers listen as through the dining room door to follow enthusiastic I go on to say, “because I think one of the greatest guides on what is for me a kind of mystery tour of what opportunities we can be given is to able to do our own was once my home. The more times I go on that tour the thing in our own way.” more sense it makes to me that everything has been left So it is that my sister Hope and her husband Bob as it was. have lived for years in Montana, their ranch a wildlife For the French furniture in the living room with its preserve where, among other things in a very busy life, mirrored walls flamboyantly decorated with a golden Hope gives haven to critters who have been stolen from eagle and stars; the grand piano in the hall where we their habitat and maltreated by man. It is as beautiful had held Farmer’s Cooperative meetings and danced and peaceful a place as anyone can imagine. And from ballet; the bust of Voltaire in the bay window of my it, through the administration of a fund called the father’s bedroom have a particular meaning there that Fanwood Foundation, she dedicates herself to helping conservation organizations establish themselves and work in various corners of the world, including Brazil. She loves this work and, by it, follows the premise also Reprinted from The Heritage: A Daughter’s Memories of laid before her as a child, that the fullest way to live is Louis Bromfield, with by doing what you like to the best of your ability. permission from Ohio For my part, if I’ve no real nostalgia for Ohio now, University Press. I’m sure it is because when we came to Brazil, we came to stay. And as immigrants do, we brought what

The Land Report 15 mattered most with us in our minds to root in a new stands, rambling and many-windowed. With no archi- land. Since then I have often laughed, remembering tect to guide its building, it is full of mistakes that can- myself as a romantic young woman of nineteen, jobless not be repaired. But these defects have been softened by but confident, sitting at the kitchen table in Ohio draw- greenery and the treadings of time so that the house has ing the design of the house we would one day build in a become a part of everything around it until it no longer country we knew of only by hearsay. Its most important matters which is the front door and which is the back. feature, around which everything else would fall into What matters is that when people step from the place, would be a U-shaped patio large enough to sunlit patio into the coolness of its living room full of accommodate an enormous tree. And incredibly unmatched furniture, books, paintings, and treasured enough, that’s the house we built, which we have lived bits and pieces collected over the years, they say, “What in for nearly forty years and hope to occupy for the rest a pleasant house!” And I think, yes, in fact it is. One of our lives. whose rooms are worn, its fireplace black with use, its The enormous tree is a Pau Brasil, the exploitation doors always open for the comings and goings of dogs of which provided the Portuguese emperors with a and children and absent-minded grownups on half means of luxurious living five hundred years ago. It is a forgotten missions. One in which the moment my father splendid tree whose tannery bark children peel and use entered, he would have felt relievedly at home. as boats in the bath tub. From within the labyrinth of its feathery leaves and yellow, orchid-like flowers we can hear the snap and flutter of hummingbirds and watch Above: Louis Bromfield and the housekeeping of finches who glue their porched daughter Ellen nests with spittle and spider webs to the utmost ends of inspect corn at Malabar Farm, its twigs. Beneath its ever-spreading shade our house ca. 1942

The Land Report 16 Our favorite meal here is Sunday breakfast. For everywhere in Brazil. With what pleasure my father then there is time for everyone to sit at a table heaped would have noted that, in these crop lands once creased with fruits in season – mangos, bananas, acerolas, by gullies, there was no such thing as erosion. And that guavas, and passion fruit side by side with such as the grass roots formed their protective tangle, they “exotics” as grapes and plums and pears. On the side- also rotted to create a balance in soils which, scourged board fresh orange juice, pots of hot coffee, and milk by a punishing sun and torrential rains, are always in stand beside platters of very yellow scrambled eggs need of new organic matter. All this we would have found amid overgrown fence rows in the nests of discussed in the shade of pecan trees from which incorrigible, country-bred hens who refuse to sit in a whatever nuts are left by marauding parrots and hawks coop. To confront this bounty comes a stream of family provide a second harvest in what nowadays is known as and friends who heap their plates and push up their “layered agriculture.” chairs wherever they can. Slow to arrive, they are Talking along the way about legumes and rhizomes reluctant to leave for fear of not having the last word. and stolons, we’d have walked on to the vegetable gar- While they remain they participate in a contest that is den where at one end a fence is entirely lost in a hedge generally more inclined toward noisy wit than any form of blackberry brambles; at the other a tangle of passion of serious discussion. fruit vine. Mango and papaya trees shade beds where in At one such breakfast, I remember the subject was their different seasons everything grows, from lima inheritance, which so often brings out the worst in beans, eggplant, cucumbers, and peppers to snap peas, human nature, causing brothers to become enemies lettuces, tomatoes, and cauliflower. What a good time embroiled in lawsuits that, someone had duly decided, my father and Carson would have had, turning the com- “Left the lawyers rich and the brothers with nothing to post heap to see how it was rotting, and digging into the be heirs to but air.” At length, beginning to feel wearied newly made seedbeds to count the many earthworms in by the thought of dispersal, I decided to relieve myself one small turn of a spade. of its weight by saying, “That’s why the only thing we No doubt if he could have stayed here long enough can safely inherit is ideas.” For Maurice Vaneaux, a fine – in a guest room very much like The White Room at actor given to falling into a part at the slightest sugges- Malabar do Brasil – Louis Bromfield would have met a tion, it was the perfect cue. Rising ceremoniously, blue lot of people who shared the same interests as he. For eyes twinkling beneath bristling brows, with broad what with all the business of cattle and grass, Pau gestures, he proceeded to distribute ideas among the D’Alho has in many ways become a converging point family heirs. “Ten ideas for Louis Fergus, twelve for for people who love and work with the land. He would Andreas. Umm, I’m afraid I have only nine ideas for have delighted in the yearly futurity we hold for the sale you, Amanda. For Caio, six; Camila, two.” Rashly gen- of bulls and heifers for breeding, in which ranchers erous at first, by the thirteenth grandchild Lisah, there everywhere take part, from Belem in the Amazon to was nothing for our friend to do but work his features Santana do Livramento on the Argentine frontier. It is into a look of paupered impotency and declare that he just Louis Bromfield’s kind of fiesta in which some- had run out of ideas to dispense. In response to which, times the entertainment is a string quartet, sometimes a small but far from easily dismissed, Lisah let out a ballet; and every sort – from the vaqueiros who care for scream that sent dogs flying out from under the table the cattle to Coroneis who own vast stretches of and salamanders scurrying up the walls. wilderness – mingle to eat, drink, and dance to drums How I wished at the time and often have before and guitars and violas on the stone-floored patio and afterward that, by some supernatural feat, Louis beneath the Pau Brasil. But even without a fiesta he Bromfield could be with us. Instead, just as we had would discover that this convergence often happens reached the moment when at last we could talk as because, just as it did at Malabar in Ohio, the talk in the adults and friends, our conversations had been brought fields becomes so intense that people end up being abruptly to an end. What a good time my father would invited to supper and to spend the night. have had at that breakfast table that reflected so many Then, as seated on the veranda we watch the sunset memories of his own. and go on talking, it also often comes to light that, as a Breakfast over, boxer dogs in tow, we would then young person, our guest had read the books of Louis have walked together out over the fazenda – perhaps to Bromfield – an experience which had in some way the top pasture to catch sight of a Santa Gertrudis changed his life. “babá” cow keeping watch over a gang of naughty One such person of course was Carlito Aranha, calves while their mother cows spread out to graze. Or whose creation years ago was Malabar do Brasil. we’d have made our way down to the fields where we Another, Paulo de Sa, a young agronomist who has a plant numerous varieties of bermuda grasses for hay as missionary sense about saving and planting the enor- well as root stock to be used in the forming of pastures mous variety of tropical fruit trees which exist in Brazil

The Land Report 17 “Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”

—Dwight D. Eisenhower

before they disappear for want of recognition. And who, common. The Big House at Malabar and the tiny apart- having read my father’s books and my articles, came to ment in Brooklyn were both filled with music and books know us and to work with Carson and our sons – farmers and were alive with comings and goings. All three loved all – in the technical details of cultivating grass and trees. to sharpen their wits with card games and talk and Still another is our friend Nonó Perreira, a grower of laughter long into the night. So it is not surprising that soya beans, wheat, and corn who, gathering courage when they met, they got on like a house afire. But if from such books as Pleasant Valley and Malabar Farm, their friendship and respect went far beyond an restored the rundown, eroded lands he had inherited in evening’s enjoyment, I realize now that this was the state of Paraná. There, combining no-till and rota- because, though not particularly disciplined, they lived tions of his major crops with legumes and rye, he has by a similar set of rules and values they could not have devised a system he calls “planting in the straw,” which escaped even if they’d tried. And these have come to has not only increased his production but reduced his have an ever deeper and more sensible meaning for me expenses in everything from fertilizers to machinery. as the years have gone by. Unlike the flamboyant Louis Bromfield, this Brazilian As I go over their list I also see that, far from farmer is extremely quiet and unassuming. But having exclusively ours, the values belong to humanity. And if taken up the ideas and tried them, talking in his quiet, searched for, they can be found in the Bible and in relat- convincing way, Nonó Perreira has helped countless ed precepts that have contributed to enlightenment and farmers not only in Brazil but elsewhere in South the continuity of civilization through all the mess that America, Africa, and even Europe adapt “planting in the we greedy, self-deceptive humans daily throw in its way. straw” to their own conditions. “Be curious and listen and give value to everything Ideas, yes. Despite our laughter at the breakfast and everyone around you,” Solomon said in countless table, I do believe nothing better can be passed on to ways, as also did our parents. Certainly, as their future generations than the worthwhile concepts of those disciples, our habit of curiosity helped us here in the who came before us, to be adapted to the world in which beginning to work in a strange atmosphere with tools we we live. In farming the concepts have to do with con- had never used; and to listen, most of all, to the people serving our precious soil to deliver it in a better state with whom we worked in the fields, whose everyday than we found it, for this above all is the source of our comprehension of the things around them gave their survival. Yet for any of us, such practicalities can only observations an extraordinary worth. make sense if put into a far greater context. “Never take yourself too seriously,” for as our So it is that every morning when Carson and I walk forebears saw it, “lack of humor is synonymous with out over the fazenda, we are reminded – perhaps by the that particular lack of balance which leads to tyranny poor color of a field, or a fungus growing on the leeward and tragedy.” And surely one has only to look at the side of a tree – of the infinite details upon which battles and dictatorships, crusades and “martyrdoms” scientists are constantly at work to help farmers make a described in history to see how right they were. living from what is perhaps the most complex profession “There is no quality more valuable than beauty.” in existence. But if it is also our good fortune to enjoy This lesson, a part of daily life, also seems more clear as just admiring the fungus’s bright orange beauty, I think life continues on. Nothing more beautiful than a tree our luck has most of all to do with the manner in which whose upper branches provide shelter for myriad life, we were raised: I, in that unusual background that was and whose long-cast shadows in slanting sunlight offer part of but not exactly Ohio; Carson in a close-knit but peace to every soul. Unless it be a wildwood on the extremely open-minded Jewish family in Brooklyn, edge of a well-tilled field. For all these are linked to one New York. another, just as the practical is linked with the aesthetic Louis and Mary Bromfield and the widowed Jenny and spiritual to maintain the whole which surely Geld lived worlds apart and yet they had much in creation meant there to be.

The Land Report 18 And if such is true, then it must follow that every profession is a worthy one – from those of house and field, to law and trade and teaching, to that of artists without whose depictions our lives would be dull as those of ants. So lucky is he who can choose a profes- sion for which he has a talent, and use it to contribute to this entire scheme. Whose greatest challenge in our era, it strikes me, might well be that of repair. As a child I often heard Louis Bromfield say that good farming usually begins only when there is no more frontier land left to exploit. Now, living close to one of the earth’s last great frontiers, we can sadly see those words are true as ever, though obviously not only where farming is concerned. Everywhere in the world, looking at the decay of inner cities, the squalor of shanty towns; The Need of Being Versed viewing the countryside as it stretches along highways in Country Things in monotonous neon-lighted strips of parking lots and malls enjoining us to “buy, buy, buy!” it often seems Robert Frost that some single-minded effort is at work, bent on turn- The house had gone to bring again ing our earth into one vast junk heap, crisscrossed by To the midnight sky a sunset glow. open sewers under a starless sky. Now the chimney was all of the house that stood, Like a pistil after the petals go. There are those who insist – especially those who live isolated from reality within the modern fortresses of The barn opposed across the way, condominiums – that such plundering and waste is That would have joined the house in flame Had it been the will of the wind, was left necessary to productivity and progress. “To get things To bear forsaken the place’s name. started,” they say. But one has only to look at the dreari- ness and ugliness, the filth and misery this causes – oft No more it opened with all one end reflected in the bored, glazed eyes of youth – to see that For teams that came by the stony road To drum on the floor with scurrying hoofs this cannot be so. Desecrating land, air, and water, and And brush the mow with the summer load. consequently the lives of people, cannot honestly be called productivity, any more than productivity can be The birds that came to it through the air At broken windows flew out and in, meant to create the debt and waste of a throw-away Their murmur more like the sigh we sigh society. It should provide more people with comfort, From too much dwelling on what has been. health, and ease to make them free to enjoy all life has Yet for them the lilac renewed its leaf, to offer. But rather than this – out of short-sightedness, And the aged elm, though touched with fire; greed, and indifference – a growing imbalance has been And the dry pump flung up an awkward arm: created which indeed, if CIVILIZATION is to survive, And the fence post carried a strand of wire. will have to be set right, put on an even keel. For them there was really nothing sad. Repair being, as it is, always more difficult to But though they rejoiced in the nest they kept, achieve than destruction and suffering, it cannot be an One had to be versed in country things easy job. Yet nowadays how much more we know; how Not to believe the phoebes wept. many more tools we have to put to use than did our forebears. This being so, as I sit here before my fine tool of a computer, I cannot help but think of the enormous opportunities which exist, to link all our accumulated knowledge with the wisdom passed down to us by others over centuries, to make of this earth a new frontier. One where the most important goal is not a stuffy, nebulous something called “the bottom line,” but to enjoy living fully and usefully. And as we do so, seek that balance which can assure the children whom we have put here a world as it was meant to be – in all its bounty, variety and beauty – worthy of the life they have been given.

The Land Report 19 A Medieval Art and Photo Essay

Wes Jackson

close to the ground, perhaps because these people of the Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Harvesters 1500s wanted to maximize the length of straw for vari- (1565, 461⁄2" x 631⁄4", Metropolitan Museum of ous purposes on the farm or village. David Kline, an Art, New York) probably represents the months of Amish friend from Ohio says the straw is about as July and August. important as the grain in the overall operation of the Amish. Moreover, the mechanics of harvest made cutting easier when the stroke of the scythe stayed close to the ground. In this scene of medieval Flemish life (see cover), in Traditional barns in rural America today are usually the middle background on the left, a team of horses or similar in architecture to traditional European barns. If mules draws a wagonload of wheat or rye, presumably we could see where that team and wagon is headed in to be threshed. Some straw may become roofing the painting, there is a good chance its destination is to material, but likely most will serve as bedding in the a traditional barn. In rural America, most now need seri- barns to absorb urine and manure. Hauled from the barn ous repair (see photo on back cover), have already been during winter or early spring, this long-stem straw torn down, or have fallen on their own (see below). The serves as a sponge for returning to the fields the economic incentive to maintain the barn has mostly nitrogen of the urine and other nutrients. vanished because the energy to fuel the farm, the hay, Is the crop tall or are the people short? The standing no longer goes into the loft. The loft was the farm’s shocks to the right reveal a relatively small head length compared to the long stem. (A plant breeder of today might say that this crop has a small harvest index, which is a measure of the grain to the straw.) The stem is cut

Below: Steve Renich, Falling barn, 1999 “fuel tank,” which housed contemporary sunlight whose So, when one sees a traditional barn in disrepair or energy density is many times lower than the diesel oil in a heap, our eyes might wander to the diesel and housed in a metal tank (see below right). anhydrous ammonia tanks nearby and even speculate on The lower part of the barn, where animals were how long their tenure might be relative to the tenure of milked or housed, where that long-stemmed straw the traditional barn. absorbed urine and manure, was formerly an essential feature of farm life. With the industrialization of agriculture, energy and nitrogen density greatly increased and comes in a sack or tank (see above). So did labor productivity but only if time is the measure. The need to maintain both the loft and lower story mostly disappears. The farm no longer provides its own fuel and fertility. Perhaps a modest living could still be made with the loft and lower story if the farm was paid for, but even so, the temptation of less labor with industrialized farming was too great. Fossil fuel not only led to the loft’s obsolescence, it contributed to the reduced need for the lower story in that commercial fertilizer is fossil fuel based. The economics associated with these former low densities of resources is not there to support the barn. The cultural instructions of this ecological arrangement, which included nutrient recycling and non-global warming forms of energy, have been destroyed.

Above: Steve Renich, Ammonia tanks, 1999

Right: Steve Renich, Fuel tank, 1999

The Land Report 21 At The Land

In support of the following examples of our Chris and David Van Tassel share responsibilities for increased program activity, our budget has edged up the Fellowship program. near $1 million. In March Dr. Doug Lammer joined us. Stationed at Washington State University-Pullman, Doug’s PhD is in plant molecular biology. With post-doctoral work in Natural Systems Agriculture (NSA) yeast genetics, he came to us to do more applied work in line with his concerns about ecology and agriculture. Research Center Doug works under the direction of Professor Stephen Our long-term plan is to construct a Center for Jones, who has developed a perennial wheat. Dr. Jones Natural Systems Agriculture at The Land Institute. The is a member of our Natural Systems Agriculture facility will include a visitor center and research space Advisory Team. that encourages interdisciplinary attitudes and practices. Its architecture will exemplify explicit and subtle NSA Advisory Team assumptions for the new Natural Systems paradigm and Our NSA Advisory Team, now 111 members, serve as a prototype for a twenty-first century research provides advice and critique and endorses our work. facility. Land Institute Advisory Team member and Staff-advisor interaction has increased. NSA Advisors University of Michigan landscape ecologist Joan referred half of our new Graduate Fellows, and NSA Nassauer visited to review and critique our ideas about Advisors supervise half of all Fellows in their graduate a building site. Professor Tom McCoy, University of programs. Throughout the year, Advisors provided use- Kansas School of Architecture, and Professor Emeritus ful information and assistance via countless phone and Ray Dean, University of Kansas School of Engineering, e-mail conversations. Our thanks go to each one. Our have been collaborating with us on building design and priorities have been to convene Advisors interested in organized the participation of a University of Kansas developing perennial grains and to meet with soil architectural class to brainstorm the project. scientists interested in sampling agricultural lands, Our goal is to carry out a 25-year research agenda native prairie soils, and conservation reserve land. to bring Natural Systems Agriculture to farm fields A half dozen Advisors led sessions for the Graduate sooner rather than later. Meetings are being held with Fellow Workshop during a week at Matfield Green. One various foundations and individuals toward an eventual met with staff, reviewed research, and led a one-day development of a consortium of funders to back this session with assembled NSA Grad Research Fellows. major new line of agricultural research. Another stayed on an additional two days to visit Salina and to review research with staff. Staff Scientists Advisor Charles Sing organized and arranged Our long-term plan for NSA calls for ecologists, NSF funding for a Montana meeting of twenty-five plant breeders, modelers, environmental historians, and scientists on Complexity Research and Biotechnology biotechnologists (but under strict conditions!), working in Agriculture and Medicine. Seven Advisors under one organizing umbrella. We believe it is possible participated. We visited four Advisors in Iowa to plan to open new interdisciplinary pathways as well as new the meeting held recently of scientists interested in ways of working, thinking, and interacting. For a more perennializing the major crops, eventually for a interactive science to take hold, this new paradigm polyculture. We met with ten members of our Advisory requires nothing less. Team at Stanford University and at University of We’ve added two scientists. Dr. Chris Picone California at Berkeley – agricultural biotechnology was joined us in September 1999 as he completed a PhD in a major topic of discussion. ecology from the University of Michigan. His thesis assessed how the conversion of tropical forests to pas- Research Agenda ture affects beneficial soil fungi. Here he is studying the Nearly everyone knows that Kansas is the Wheat mycorrhizal fungi in Natural Systems Agriculture, i.e., State and that it sits in the midst of the Great American whether a perennial polyculture can restore and main- Prairie. This auspicious geographic location and our tain soil fertility via diverse soil microbes. He is current assembly of scientists allows us to feature wheat measuring fungus diversity and species composition and as our central totem in our effort to develop perennial how they are affected by tillage and crop diversity. polycultures modeled after the prairie. Perennial wheat

The Land Report 22 is now growing in our greenhouse. Two members of the Attract and recruit potential Natural Systems wheat team at Kansas State University have participated Agriculture researchers at an early stage in their in an NSA meeting. In February, we hosted the first careers. Agriculture as a social and ecological issue meeting on plant breeding and genomics to consider needs to match the compelling case being made to perennializing the major crops: wheat (number one pro- attract students to medical research, wildlife ducer of human calories worldwide), corn, sorghum, conservation, social justice, and political reform. soybean and sunflowers were featured. The meeting Educate young scientists in the science and focus was to: 1) develop an outline for a paper in philosophy underlying Natural Systems Agriculture. Science or Nature to address the scientific questions and Many undergraduate universities do not offer to outline the promises and pitfalls expected in perenni- agriculture courses. Those that do emphasize industrial alizing the major crops and 2) to develop concrete steps agriculture, or high-input, chemically-intensive, mecha- to launch the program. Questions were: Who will do the nized land use. In January, we offered our first short work? How will researchers find the time? How much course to introduce students to the history and science can be done without extra money, and how much will of agriculture and the exciting opportunities in the area require new funding? How can The Land Institute NSA of Natural Systems Agriculture to pique their interest in Graduate Research Fellows assist in the research attending graduate schools where NSA can be a subject. agenda? Future meetings will address social ramifica- Screen the available pool of students. We are tions of perennialization, including appropriate use of searching for potential graduate students who possess genetic engineering should it be needed, privatization of a) the intellectual and academic tools to succeed in germplasm, and gaining a constituency of growers and graduate school, and b) a passion for agriculture and a other supporters. suspicion of the industrial mindset. With limited resources, our Fellowships support students who are philosophically and emotionally compatible with the NSA Fellows Program principles of Natural Systems Agriculture. Support the best through graduate school in the We exceeded our goal to expand the current hope they continue with our research mission. Graduate Fellowship Program from five in its first year Funding is scarce to support students who attempt to 1998 to 12 in 1999.We now have 13 Fellows. Our grow- combine ecology and agriculture in their dissertation ing science staff at The Land increases the assets avail- research. We have been filling that funding niche for able to the Graduate Fellows program. Each Fellow has two years and intend to continue funding a unique joined us in a week-long workshop in Matfield Green. group of projects. Many more funds are available in Within twelve years we hope the Fellows program mainstream agriculture and ecology. Without our will provide at least one NSA plant breeder and one support, these students would naturally turn to these NSA agro-ecologist on faculty at each of ten major other organizations where their research objectives agricultural research universities in the United States. In will almost certainly be diluted to conform with addition, we envision NSA researchers ensconced in reigning convention. major agriculture research centers in Australia, Canada, Involve undergraduates and graduate students in and other countries. This cohort of professors, Natural Systems Agriculture research. We are recruit- connected by The Land Institute, will be the nucleus ing students for a short-term work program. There is for the NSA research mandated by our long-term nothing like a hands-on experience in the lab or field to research agenda. educate students. In addition, they will discover whether We also want to see NSA-knowledgeable professors such research is for them, a valuable lesson to learn teaching lower- and upper-division biology classes in early. Finally, both graduates and undergraduates can small and large universities. The NSA paradigm will be contribute to research. Most academic research projects transmitted to succeeding generations of college stu- would be impossible without student help. NSA intends dents as some of our Fellows become faculty members. to tap into the enthusiasm and creativity available in We believe that a ten-year intensive effort to penetrate student researchers. the centers of higher education will generate the required core of researchers and teachers who are com- Our projected long-term outcomes and timeline mitted to NSA. To maximize our chances of generating are as follows. In order to succeed in placing 20 this academic nucleus we will try to expose undergradu- NSA-trained PhD-level researchers in ten of the major ates to Natural Systems Agriculture so that they are American agricultural universities by 2012, we may aware of NSA as a line of study and to provide need to have about twice that number participating in mentoring to assist them to find professors interested in our Graduate Research Fellowship program. Some pro- Natural Systems Agriculture graduate research. gram participants will not go on to careers in research,

The Land Report 23 but will make career changes after earning the PhD or energy sources. As Natural Systems Agriculture teach at liberal arts colleges. By involving five new becomes available to farmers, the Sunshine Farm data Fellows each year between 1998 and 2005 (eight years), will be very useful as a side-by-side comparison of the 40 PhD-level scientists will be ready for or in the work- energy required by a most-efficient conventional farm force by 2012. We expect to fund about 15 students compared to a mimic of a natural system. The Land each year. Of these, about five Fellows will be new and Institute expects this project’s published results will ten will be renewed for the second or third year. During contribute significantly to the future of food policy the last two years of the program (2006 and 2007), no considerations here and abroad. new awards will be made. The pre-graduate short course and work programs will serve to increase the pool of well- Rural Community Studies informed and passionate applicants for the Graduate Research Fellowship. The Matfield Green Consortium for Place-Based Education formed by The Land Institute under Bev Worster’s leadership comprises three central Kansas Sunshine Farm school districts: Baldwin, Chase County, and Flinthills. We are just completing the first of three years funded As part of The Land Institute’s mission to use by a grant from the Rural School and Community Trust. nature as measure for developing sustainable agriculture The following projects are examples of the schools’ and culture, the Sunshine Farm Project was formed. The broad interest in field studies in their communities and project explores the energetics of farming without fossil natural surroundings. fuels, fertilizers or pesticides by using renewable energy • The primary school children in Cassoday created an technologies and innovative practices to raise crops and original musical based on their prairie studies depict- livestock. The ten-year project, which began with a ing the history of the Flint Hills – from the emergence one-year feasibility study, begins its eighth field season of the grasslands, through settlement, to the current this spring. threat to native grasses from the exotic invasive plant Director Dr. Marty Bender has published three Serecia lespedeza. They will perform in area commu- papers in peer-reviewed research journals on biodiesel nities throughout spring and summer. fuel, plant nutrient uptake, and biomass conservation. • Students of several schools are landscaping parks and Two more papers are being revised for resubmission. education centers with prairie plants. All of these publications will contribute to the eventual • Middle schoolers in Chase County are watching the book on the Sunshine Farm Project. For the book, the various rates of snail reproduction in three classroom director is currently writing a chapter, “Energy produc- aquaria containing water from a local spring, treated tion in agriculture and society”, that explores the water from taps, and polluted water. implications of some of the project findings within the • Flinthills District teens are gathering visual and oral context of the energy demands of society. histories of local residents and will fashion a living Briefly, our computer database shows that the history, “The Prairies Burn in the Spring.” Sunshine Farm has been providing 40 percent of its • Several teens from the Consortium will present ideas own energy requirements, mainly through biodiesel fuel from their district’s community and environmental and animal feed. For every unit of energy spent in work at a Rural School and Community Trust- factory production of agricultural inputs used on the sponsored “Student Extravaganza” in Kearney, Sunshine Farm, about 1.6 units of energy were pro- Nebraska, on March 25. duced as crop and animal products. This ratio is better Our third annual summer workshop for teachers than published values for most conventional mixed crop (June 5-9) will explore the significance of watersheds in and livestock farms and is comparable to those for shaping the history, geology, archaeology, and natural Amish farms, well known for their efficient agriculture. history of the prairies. Twenty-five consortium teachers As far as we know, this study is unique. We are expected to participate. The Baldwin City District expect the exhaustive data to be useful to many other will host a one-day workshop for teachers (June 2) on researchers in their own work, as well as to provide a hands-on, experiential learning across disciplines. An benchmark for the best that can be done in the use of early fall workshop for the Consortium, “Entering the conventional crops when portable liquid petroleum fuel Web,” will train teachers to build school and community becomes unavailable or uneconomic. As policy-makers websites and link Consortium sites to each other and to and farmers plan for what we hope is the long term, more than 700 other place-based rural schools across they will increasingly be forced to consider alternative the nation.

The Land Report 24 Public Notices There she met and married Carson Geld, an agricultural student from New York. She has written for The Wall Our website went live during September 1999. By Street Journal and Atlantic Monthly Magazine, and con- February we were noticed by search engines, so new tributed weekly columns to Brazil’s leading newspaper, readers may find us. You may take a look at O Estado de Sao Paulo, as well as to various Brazilian www.landinstitute.org. There you will find full texts of agricultural magazines. She has published eight books in Wes Jackson’s “Clear-Cutting the Last Wilderness: various languages, most available through Doubleday in Compromising the genomes of our major crops” the U.S. The Epilogue is reprinted from The Heritage published in Land Report 65, and the recent articles in with permission from Ohio University Press. Utne Reader/Audubon and Newsweek. Mary Mackey is a poet and author of several Wes Jackson served on a panel of four invited by novels. Her poetry has appeared here before. She is a Sea Change Inc. and Environmental and Energy Study professor at California State University at Sacramento. Institute to conduct a Press Conference and Norman Wirzba, a southern Alberta farm-boy- Congressional Briefing on the benefits and risks of turned-philosopher, chairs the Philosophy department at agricultural biotechnology in Washington, D.C. In Georgetown College, Kentucky. His current focus is on October, Jackson spoke at the Conservation Land taking philosophers and their reflections “back to the Trust’s Meeting in Santiago, Chile. The meeting, land,” elucidating how philosophical reflection (despite “Environment and Development: The Challenges for a its heritage of being mostly an urban affair) is trans- New Millennium,” was designed to educate the political formed when it is informed by agrarian life. He is party headed by then-presidential candidate Dr. Ricardo working on a book on Creation, Ecology, and Ethics. Lagos. Lagos won the election by a narrow margin. Jackson delivered talks in California at the Land Report #64 Credits: Environmental Grantmakers Association Fall Retreat and The photograph of sisters Bertha Stover Swan and the 20th Annual Ecological Farming Conference. During Ina Stover printed on page 19 of Land Report 64 was autumn and winter, he spoke at: Denison University, provided courtesy of Luree Wacek of White River, Calvin College, McPherson College, Stanford University, South Dakota. Harvard University, Harvey Mudd College, Allegheny The quotes by Charles Allen Smart, printed College, and most recently at Oberlin College, throughout Land Report 64, were taken from RFD, a Michigan State, Evergreen State, Meredith College, and 1938 memoir by Smart, republished with a foreword by San Juan College. Gene Logsdon by Ohio University Press in 1998. Among recent media mentions are: Chronicle of Higher Education, US News & World Report, Utne Reader reprint of the Audubon article “Lessons from The Land Institute” (text on our website); Hastings Center Annual Report, and the Salina Journal in a half Position Available dozen articles. The Development Director will manage a comprehensive development program at The About the authors... Land Institute. Current annual fund raising is $1 million plus capital funds as appropriate. New John Daniels lives west of Eugene, Oregon, in the opportunities for funding make us optimistic that foothills of the Oregon coastal range. He is the author of our budget and programs could increase two poetry collections, Common Ground, and All Things significantly over the next five years. Touched By Wind. The Trail Home and Looking After, a memoir, are recommended reading. “Ourselves” is Job qualifications include a Baccalaureate reprinted from Common Ground with the permission of degree and successful experience in fund raising. Confluence Press. Copyright 1988 by John Daniel. A list of duties and responsibilities can be seen Raymond Epp was raised on a farm in the on our website in the “People” section at Mennonite community of Henderson, Nebraska. Ray www.LandInstitute.org. Letter of application with now farms because he wants to see what ecological ideas resumé may be mailed to: look like in his fields and to make the ideas practicable. Ken Warren, Managing Director Ellen Bromfield Geld was born in France in 1932, The Land Institute and raised from the age of six at Malabar Farm, outside 2440 E. Water Well Road Mansfield, Ohio. After graduating from Mansfield High Salina, KS 67401 School, she studied agriculture at Cornell University.

The Land Report 25 Gifts for: Karen Andersen from Janet E. & Carl E. Andersen Sam Anderson from Gaye Digregorio Memorials for: Kirk Barrett & Margaret McBrien from Bradley H. & Mary K. Barrett Wally Bakken from Jeanne E. & Lloyd Brian Runeberg Andy Jennings from Dr. Charles D. & Mrs. Gerry Jennings June Bergman from Roger C. Bergman & Wendy M. Wright Martin Kimm from Drs. Michael & Sue Lubbers Susan Bird from George H. & Elizabeth B. Bramhall Everett & Margaret Morgan’s 60th wedding anniversary Gordon Forsberg from Leroy W. & Marla Beikman from Wayne E. & Mary Ellen Lander Susan Morley & Don Russell Todd Francis from William D. & Dorothy M. Nelligan from Charles & Barbara Francis David Mosman Samuel Dale Hulse from R. T. & Dorothy Mosman from Dean & Nicki Jo Hulse Jessica W. Neukirch Katherina Lubbers from Paul W. Neukirch from Anne E. Lubbers Nunn-Clark Family Jim Peterson from Rosamond C. Makar from Harry & Lois Morgan Rev. Ben Poage’s retirement Michael Pihos from Kathy L. Miles from Deep Springs Student Body Elaine Shea & William D. Jones’s wedding Victor F. Saqués from Members of the Teacups Investment Club: from Richard L. & Wilma W. Righter Susan B. Biggar, Mignon R. Johnston, Betty Kessinger, Peggy R. Massman, Bernadette O. Mary Anne Schwartz Miller, Martha C. Newell, Mrs. Richard S. from A.J. & Jane E. Schwartz O’Neill, Martha Sue Olander, Mrs. Joe A. Ben & Mary Smith Pinkerton Jr., Marilyn T. Shutz, Barbara M. from Marcia S. & Michael W. Mayo Siemens, Joan S. Wells, Susan Williams Thomas Leroy Studer Sr. Perry Sheffield’s birthday from Willard & Rose Bidwell from John B. & Burnette T. Sheffield Virginia M. Webb Lee & Betsy Turner from J. Yannick Perrette from A. Chase Turner & Elizabeth A. Byrne Mildred M. Whipple Sarah Ullmer from Arthur P. & Jody Whipple from Mary M. Ullmer Howard O. Wright from Frank J. & Jeanette Anderson

The Land Report 26 Thank you to our contributors, September 1 through December 31, 1999

Donors $50,000 + George H. & Elizabeth B. Bramhall John M. & Susan S. Heyneman The Pauline-Morton Foundation Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Russell & Patricia Brehm John Hirschi Martin F. & Kyoko Peters Foundation for Deep Ecology John A. Brennan & Deborah Joy Walter & Virginia Hoffman Robert L. & Karen N. Pinkall Lazar James C. Hormel Dave & Betty Pollart Donors $25,000 to $49,999 J.C. Brenton Bruce F. & Debra K. Howard Frank J. & Deborah E. Popper Austin Memorial Foundation Eddie R. Broders Karl Fred Huemmrich Donna & Darwin R. Poulos Strachan & Vivian Donnelley Willis E. Brown Miles D. Huffman Robert B. Ragland Foundation Inc. The William H. Donner Foundation Paul T. & Genevieve D. Bryant Terry A. Hughes Patricia Ann & Rob Ramsey Inc. Richard F. Burke Dean & Nicki Jo Hulse Harris A. & Shannon Drews Rayl Jerry D. Busch Hunnewell Elevator Inc. Raymond & Gladys Regier Donors $10,000 to $24,999 Lorene & William A. Calder III Joyce G. Hunt Marcus & Hannah Rempel Eulah C. Laucks John & Kay Callison Logan L. Hurst Cheryl Umphrey & Stephen E. Richard A. & Cynthia C. Frey Carl John & Laura Hussey Renich Donors $1,000 to $9,999 Dale M. Carter, M.D. Duane & Mary Isely Jean I. & Stephen L. Retherford Professor Richard E. Andrus Hal S. & Avril L. Chase Harley & Linnea Jackson David A. Rettele & Janice K. Wendell & Tanya Berry Wayne A. & Judith M. Christiansen Dr. & Mrs. J. H. Jackson Jr. Baldwin The Susie Tompkins Buell C. L. Clark & Constance M. Mrs. Nancy A. Jackson David G. Rich Foundation Achterberg Scott Jamison, M.D. Peter W. Riggs Chez Panisse Foundation Classic Machine Design Inc. Geraldine L. Johnson Wilma W. & Richard L. Righter Chrysalis Foundation Jean & John B. Cobb Jr. Nicholas Jordan & Annette Jacob Janice M. & Hugh D. Riordan, M.D. Dr. Andrew G. Clark & Barbara M. George E. Comstock & Anne Dr. & Mrs. Charles R. Jorgensen Michael E. & Kathleen F. Riordan Andersen Hillman Peter M. Kalvoda Gordon T. & Barbara A. Risk Clubine & Rettele, Chartered Coronado Oil & Gas Inc. Kansas Corporation Commission Jeanne E. & Lloyd Brian Runeberg Sally Cole Edward J. & Mary Costello Roger A. & Cara M. Keller Jennifer M. & Mark E. Sabo The Charles DeVlieg Foundation Sage & John Cowles Jr. John E. Kellogg Niklaus N. Salafsky Sam & Terry Evans Paula C. & Terry A. Crabbs Robert G. & Judith Kelly Donald E. Sanderson Jeremy & Angela Foster William J. Craig Bruce Kendall George Schloemer, M.D. Paula R. & Van B. Hall Henry Crew Sally M. Kendall Kathlyn J. Schoof I & G Charitable Foundation Charles A. & Lillian Crews Raymond C. & Marianne D. Kluever A.J. & Jane E. Schwartz Dr. Leo Lauber William C. Cutler & Elisabeth Suter Amie C. Knox & James P. Kelley Gerald L. & Jean L. Selzer Laucks Foundation Inc. D. Alex Damman Gigia L. & Victor Kolouch Miner & Valetta Seymour Eileen M. & Paul F. LeFort Lance G. & Billie S. Darin Egon Kramer Stuart L. & Diane Sharp Jeffrey S. & Lea Steele Levin Dr. Ellen F. Davis Ronald A. Kroese Marion T. Sherk Rosamond C. Makar Dr. William D. & Kristine B. Davis Wendell & Judith Kurr Charlotte Shoemaker Terence A. & Katherine I. McDodge Deep Springs Student Body Terrence W. Larrimer John M. Simpson Sidney A. & Carole McKnight Jr. Double J Farms Inc. Jonathan Latham & Allison Wilson Thomas D. Sisk & Helen R. Don & Ann Morehead Gordon K. & Jane Dempsey Edward J. Lawrence Sparrow Frederick Morgan Douglass George W. Lawrence Curtis D. Sloan & Helen T. Duritsa Marian O’Reilly & Stephen M. Merlin D. & Sandra K. Dresher Paul E. & Carol G. Lingenfelter Boyd E. & Heather M. Smith Lockwood Myrl L. Duncan Ann R. Loeffler Marjorie Whitall Smith Oak Lodge Foundation Naomi F. & Dirk D. Durant Dr. Daniel B. Luten Jr. Larry Soll & Nancy C. Maron The Grace Jones Richardson Trust Dr. Donald N. & Selma N. Duvick Jay T. & Suzanne L. Holtz Lyons Robert C. & Nancy W. Sorenson Salina Arts & Humanities Professors David & Joan Ehrenfeld Tom Mahoney Robert F. & Judith D. Soule Commission David Engman Charles F. Manlove Betty C. S. & John R. Sterling Jonathan & Gail Schorsch Douglas D. & Catherine C. Kathryn A. & Peter B. Manning Howard & Margaret T. Stoner Simpson Foundation Engstrom Christina L. Desser & Kirk Richard G. Stout & Lynn E. Marek David S. Swetland Nathan E. Esau Marckwald Paul A. Strasburg Sylvan H. & Maurine C. Wittwer Arlen & Lana S. Etling Kevin L. Markey & Candice Miller Rita Joy Stucky & R.A. Christensen Donald E. & Beverly J. Worster Drs. John J. & Katherine C. Ewel Curtis Mason Connie & Karl Stutterheim Anne Zinsser Christian G. Fellner Ernest L. & Kathy M. Massoth Sunrise Consulting, L.L.C. Judith E. Jacobsen & John W. Firor Gordon E. & Evelyn M. Maxwell Harold Supernaw Donors $100 to $999 Dr. David R. & Nancy C. Flatt Elizabeth T. Maynard Alice & Willis Sutton Marian Aikman Don M. & Mary Anne Flournoy Marcia S. & Michael W. Mayo Marilyn Adam & Ralph Tauke Gregory S. & Jill Allen Ronald C. Force Mary Gayle McCall James T. & Rosa Lea Taylor Christopher E. Anderson & Susan Charles A. & Barbara L. Francis Clinton & Cyndia McClanahan Rebecca & Robert M. Thomas Jr. Fitzsimmons Barbara J. Francisco Carl N. & Mary F. McDaniel Beth E. Thompson ARK Industries Inc. Cyril R. & Donna B. Funk J. Kyle McDowell David P. Thompson Catherine E. Badgley & Gerald R. Tim & Sherry A. Gaines Bill McKnight A. Chase Turner & Elizabeth A. Smith Charles Gessert, M.D. James C. & Diana N. McWilliams Byrne John S. & Nora B. Baker Stephen W. & Marie Roth Gibson Sara Michl Walter F. Utroske Sarah Joan Baker Susan E. Gillies Keith B. & Ruth Douglas Miller Marjorie & Lynn Van Buren Bank of Tescott Grain Place Foods Inc. Mark L. & Julie Miller John H. & Sally B. Van Schaick Robert C. & Charlotte Baron Grace W. Gray Miller’s Bakery Charles A. Washburn & Beatrice Mark M. & Anne F. Bauman Jack Gray & Mary Jo Wade Roger & Margot W. Milliken Jr. Cooley Gene Bazan Nancy H. Gray Robert T. Moline Leonard J. & Margaret M. Weber Robert E. Beers Daniel G. & Norma A. Green James B. Moore Wallace N. Weber Leroy W. & Marla Beikman Dale & Mary Lee Guthrie Philip C. & Lona Morse Roger Wechsler John L. Bengfort, M.D. Joel C. & Joyce L. Hanes John Dirck & Suzanne B. Moyer Suzanne R. & Frederic D. Weinstein Kirk & Debbie Benton Ms. Margaret P. Hanrahan William D. & Dorothy M. Nelligan Kristin Willette & William James C. Wendell & Betty Berggren Dr. & Mrs. Garrett Hardin Paul W. Neukirch Wengs Robert J. & Elizabeth P. Berkebile Peter G. & Mary Jean Hartel Bruce & Barbara Neyers Jo M. & Stephen R. Whited Orville W. & Rose H. Bidwell Bert & Dawn Haverkate-Ens Jean G. Nicholas Thomas H. Willey Farms Paul G. & Mary W. Birdsall Lois F. & Charles M. Hayes Dale & Sonya Nimrod Wolf Foundation Aaron & June E. Blair Heartland Mill Inc. Charles L. & Patricia J. Novak Marjorie G. Wyler Steven N. & Jane P. Blair Peter R. Hegeman & Patricia Egan Michael & Kathleen J. Oldfather J. Lowell & Ruth Ann Young Arnold N. Bodtker Steffen A. & Janet M. Helgaas Robert C. Osborne & Vera Scekic David E. & Linda M. Zahrt Dr. Dennis M. & Jean C. Bramble James F. Henson Patrick P. Parke Ann M. Zimmerman

The Land Report 27 Donors $50 to $99 Lauree Hersch Meyer Robert V. Adams William McLin Hill & Laura Selleck Arllys G. & Lorado S. Adelmann Joe & Virginia Hillers The Agrarian Underground Inc. Helen L. & Rex Hodler Alfred Smeds Inc. Robert & Lynne Holt Janet E. & Carl E. Andersen John J. & Gloria J. Hood John H. & Marsha A. Anderson Mitchell Hough John M. Armstrong Edward N. & June P. Howard Stefanie G. Aschmann Gary R. & Michele Howland Suzanne P. & Roger W. Ashworth James F. & Catherine J. Hoy DeWayne Backhus Curtis E. & Karen J. Huber Bradley H. & Mary K. Barrett Brian T. Huston & Evelyn R. W. Reese & Donna Baxter Anemaet V. Louise Bequette Michelle Ippolito George W. & Marie Anne Bird Gerald J. & Kristin L. Irissarri Franklin Gene & Emma Evelyn Paul G. & Elaine D. Jantzen Bissell Dr. Charles D. & Mrs. Gerry Charles R. & Dianne E. Boardman Jennings III Evangeline P. Jilka Jim & Julie Bockheim Nina L. & Orval G. Johnson Mark W, Ellen & Lilly Bohlke Raymond N. & Lola A. Johnson Robert G. & Connie S. Boling Max D. & Helen Johnston Terry & Patricia B. Booth Gary & Marilyn Jones Jay K. & Sara Bremyer Walter & Mary Ann Jost More Ways Than One William A. & Joan Brock Jonathan M. Kimmelman & Sara L. Jack Brondum & Patricia McGowan Laimon To Help Our Work Martin E. Brotherton David E. Knox Betty Jo Buckingham Sally T. Koplin Many companies match their employees’ David L. Buckner Gayle Joy Kosh Thomas E. Bullock Larry A. & Sharon E. Kramer charitable contributions with an equal or greater gift. Janet D. Bunbury U. Beate & Mara Krinke Companies that have matched recent employee David L. Burris Alan & Marti Kruckemyer contributions to The Land Institute are named Roald & Lois E. Cann Gary W. & Patricia F. Kubly Diana B. Carlin L’Etoile Restaurant below – we thank each one for its generosity. Even W.F. & Ruth Cathcart-Rake Paul W. & Pamela P. Lander if not listed, your company may have a matching Dr. Samuel D. & Cynthea Caughron M. Daniel & Judi S. Lane plan. Please enclose your company’s form with your George & Marilynn Chlebak Loren C. & Elizabeth A. Larson Kenneth Church The Lasater Ranch gift. Thank you! Roland C. Clement Louis J. & Ann K. Laux Jr. David M & Debra J. Cloutier Jerry & Eleanor Leeper Aetna Foundation Inc. Robert & Carolyn Cohen Ron Lehmkuhl & Idalia T. Robert L. Coleman Mantautas BP Amoco Foundation Wallace & Nancy L. Condon Sally A. Leong The Chase Manhattan Foundation Coulter Farm Drs. Michael & Sue Lubbers IBM Corporation C.L. & Catherine Crenshaw William MacLeish & Elizabeth DAK Inc., Doug’s Optical Libbey Integrated Media Inc. Dispensers Charles W. & Ivy Marsh The John & Catherine MacArthur Foundation Robert Dautch Hugh & Joanne Marsh Merrill Lynch Matching Gifts Program Sabino L. & Janice C. DeGisi Marcie & John Marston Bill Beard Helen O. & Edwin J. Martin Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Mari & Ed Detrixhe Grant S. & Cynthia C. Mastick Nordson Corporation Gaye Digregorio Ronald M. & Lillian S. Mathsen Rockefeller Brothers Fund Steve Dinneen William J. Matousek Dr. John W. & Janet T. Doran Mary Love May & Paul W. Charles Schwab Corporation Foundation Drummond & Associates Gabrielson The Sun Microsystems Foundation Inc. Thomas A. Eddy Heather M. McCargo The Times Mirror Foundation Hilda L. Enoch Mildred N. McClellan Raymond R. & Akiko Epp Spencer C. & Hattie Mae McCrae US WEST Foundation Margaret S. & S.A. Ewing Helen McElree Dr. Daphne G. Fautin Cathleen D. & Jim T. McKeen Richard A. & Miriam L. Ferrell Susan T. McRory & John W. Maria R. Finckh Middleton Peace Roots Farm Sylvie J. Rueff & Glenn W. Garneau Jan & Cornelia Flora Margaret G. Mellon Kenneth V. & Ana M. Pecota Rebecca B. Rumsey Bernd & Enell Foerster Ronald Meyer C. Diane Percival Scott Russell & Ruth Ann Sanders J. Thomas Ford Kathy L. Miles Joy B. & James W. Perry Janice E. Savidge Carl W. Glamm Craig & Susan Miner John T. Pesek Jr. A. Anne Schmidt Adrian J. Good Harry & Lois Morgan Joan Peterkin Claire Lynn Schosser James T. & Margaret E. Good Dale L. Morris Paul J. & Karla V. Peters Karl Seeley LeRoy J. & Ruth M. Goodrick Diane & Robert L. Muelleman, Clifford B. & Lisa Lee Peterson Lynette S. Seigley Neil Grant M.D. Bruce M. Plenk & Julie Cisz Carolyn L. Servid & Dorik V. Robin & John McClure Greenler Christopher C. Mundt Eric E. & Lora Thompson Powell Mechau Joseph Griffin Bruce J. Noble William B. & Mary Anne K. Powell Charles Sesher Thomas F. Griswold Michael G. & Karen E. Ruff Noll Alison G. Power & Alexander S. John B. & Burnette T. Sheffield James L. & Karen J. Hamrick William J. & Shirley A. Nolting Flecker Richard B. & Audrey M. Sheridan John Hay Michael D. & Colleen M. O’Connell Raney Properties L.P. Donald E. & Elvera W. Skokan Daniel L. & Margaret A. Hebert Richard Ouren Mr. & Mrs. Paul W. Renich Nathan Smucker & Greta Hiebert John Heider & Donna Luckey John S. & Lee Sayre Overton David & Jane Richardson Linda Wellman Stansfield Professor Nicholas & Suzanne Joel D. Palmer Josef Ros-Botham Robert J. & Lyda L. Steiert Helburn Wesley & Helen E. Pauls Ross Agro Dennis & Mary Stewart

The Land Report 28 Jeffrey R. & Rebecca J. Stouppe Bruno Borsari & Julie Chiasson Adam S. Davis & Amy C. Hassinger Palmer R. & Lydia F. Haynes Gail E. Stratton Joel K. & Edith W. Bourne Marion B. Davis III Hedge Haven Farm Malcolm Strom Montie J. & Patricia Bowen Richard G. & Eleanor W. Dawson Marjorye & Barney J. Heeney Jr. Oliver A. & Eunice A. Stromberg Charles C. & Nina L. Bradley Susan B. Delattre Philip & Carmen S. Heilman Linda Suelter Cliff Bradley & Rita Jankowski- Louise Budde DeLaurentis Jeffrey & Cynthia Helkenn A.J. Swanson Bradley Diane Dempster Burton & Rosemary Hendrickson T. John Szarkowski Edward J. Braun & Jean B. Krusi Raymond G. & Nancy Dennis C.M. Hendrycks Apiaries Bron Taylor & Beth Corey-Taylor A. J. Bredberg Thomas J. & Linda M. Deves Allan P. & Mary F. Herring Professor Edith L. Taylor Sheryl D. Breen Edward G. Di Bella Anna Margaret Hersperger & Samir Maurice & Jeannine Telleen David M. Brenner & Anne Kimber Dennis R. Dimick K. Srivastava Margaret Thomas & Tom Brown Caroline C. Brock Professor John M. & Rosemarie A. Phillip O. Hext Robert W. & Linda B. Thomas Richard C. Broeker Dolan Eleanor C. & Kenneth Hiebert Robert E. Thompson Cheryl L. Brown Russ & Joan Donaldson Clinton R. & Nancy C. Hinman Patricia A. & Clarence W. Thomson Carole M. Brown Stephen & Joan Dorrell-Canepa Michael J. Hobbs Charles J. Transue Hugh J. Brown, Ph.D. Eric & Linza G. Douglas Amy & C.N. Hoffman Jr. William A. & Annemarie Turnage James G. & Christine S. Bruner K. David & Kathleen S. Drake John M. & Catrinka Holland Robert L. Untiedt & Lisa E. Dahill Dr. Paul C. & Joni C. Bube William R. & JoAnn Drews Jenny E. Holmes Thomas von Geldern & Cynthia Buckskin Valley Farms Marlo Duerksen Keim T. & Sylvia R. Houser Skrucrud Carl G. Buhse Gail Ellen Dunlap Jeffrey B. Hovermale Curtis S. & Evelyn S. Walseth Bill Burgdorf Phillip & Evelyn M. Durkee Jerold & Bonnie Hubbard Kenneth G. & Dorothy L. Weaber Erik P. & Jessyca C. Burke Albert Ebers Darrell K. & Bunny E. Huddleston Prof. Delane E. & Rev. Kay S. Julie Burkhart Bernard & Margaret Eck Vincent, Dawn, Julia & Henry Welsch Joshua W. Burnim Margaretha M. Eckhardt Hundt Paul West Mike Burton Ecological Agriculture Projects Helaine R. Hunscher Warren & Geneva Weston Peter J. & Toshiko Busch Richard A. Engelbrecht Eric G. Hurley Orval L. & Mary C. Weyers Suzanne Butler Eldon Epp James A. & Sara Lou Hutchison Marion P. & Joshua C. Whetzel III Catherine Bylinowski James P. Erickson C.J. Iremonger & C.C. Van Schaik Arthur P. & Jody Whipple Jimmy Byun Margorie L. Erickson & Wesley Roe Charles W. Isenhart Roger P. & Anita P. White Kenneth J. & Marlene Cain Patricia C. & S. Glenn Erickson J & E Farm Jeannine & Randy Wilkinson Scott T. & Delica C. & Katja Michael J. Ettema Margaret Jagger Charlotte P. & Robert W. Wolfe Caldwell Beverly B. & Lawrence W. Everett Jan Jantzen Richard H. & Sherrill Worthen California Certified Organic Farmers Eric Farnsworth Charles & Melanie Jenney George & Margaret Yarnevich Bryan Jon Carlson Betsy B. Fehsenfeld Jonathan Jensen Rebecca Young John E. & Diana C. Carroll Douglass T. Fell Robert W. Jensen Catherine Carter Ralf Fellman Bruce L. Johnson Donors $1 to $49 Cascadian Farm Professor Frederick Ferre Duane E. Johnson Suzanne P. & Herbert K. Achleitner William P. & Kristine Casey Augusta N. Field Gregory A. Parsons & Dorothy J. Acme Construction Victor M. Cassidy Lisa A. Fields Johnson Mary Ragan Adams & Franklyn Jeffrey A. Chandler Mary E. & Robert Flickinger Julie A. Johnson Garry Margaret Gay Chanler Dana K. Foster Marlin Johnson Steven A. Aftergood Roland R. & Jacqueline L. Chapman Norman C. & Margaret A. Frank Paul D. Johnson All-Around Garden Service Chisholm Trail Golf Course Mr. & Mrs. Edward C. Frederick Vernon L. & Betty M. Johnson Roy T. & Bly M. Allen Judith F. Christy Jean W. French & Ben Fischler Thomas E. & Mignon R. Johnston Amacord Cloyd Clark C. Dean & Elsie L. Freudenberger Alan R. & Jean L. Jones Ann E. Amyes James Robert Clark Stan & Jane Freyenberger Grace Elizabeth Jones Angela A. Anderson John G. & Lois E. Clark Julia A. Frost Professor W. Paul Jones Eric C. Anderson & Andrea T. Regina Clark Phillip E. Fry & Peggy Miles Mr. Adrian Kaufman Zumwalt Sharon D. & Bruce A. Clawson Stephen Furey Karen A. Keane Frank J. & Jeanette Anderson Donald L. Anne Louise Clinton Polly A. Furr Tim & Sharon Keane Carol Andreas Michael R. Clow Garden Farme Gretchen Kehrberg Robert D. & Anne H. Angus Dr. Jack Cochran Timothy J. & Lynn A. Gerchy Richard W. Keller Robert W. & Jacqueline Ash Suzanne D. & Peter Z. Cohen Mark M. Giese Paula C. Kellogg & Gordon W. Denise Attwood & James R. Conner Christopher Cokinos & Elizabeth John Gilardi Sailors Axland Golf Inc. Dodd Bradley M. & Barbara B. Glass Mark Kepkay Margaret Ayers Lee W. Collinsworth Thomas M. & Gail C. Goletz Lincoln Kern Walter T. & Virginia A. Bagley La Rilla Combs James P. & Rebecca A. Goodman William B. & Betty Kessinger Leanne Baker & Michael J. Hill Paul D. Comstock & Judith A. Oscar A. & Margaret F. Gottscho Stephan M. Kettler William E. & Sue Ellen Ballard Brauer Lewis O. & Patricia J. Grant Forrest & Shelly Kinzli Bangerter Inc. Toots Conley & Eugene Talkington Marion W. Jr. & Esther N. Gray Kirchhoff Farms Edward L. Bannister Jr. Dr. J. Lea Converse & Dr. Paul Wallace & Ina Turner Gray M. B. Kirkham Paul M. Barby Lessard Great Plains Earth Institute James L. Kirkland Jr. Marilyn Barnes Constance P. Conway Emily K. Green & James C. Manolis Gary Klearman Steve Barry Dr. Karen Severud Cook Victor M. Green Lance R. & Melanie Klein Jerry M. & Carol Baskin Doris E. Coppock T. McLean & Hope W. Griffin Rev. John J. Kleinwachter Paul M. Beardsley Carol Ann Cox Marcia A. & Bryan J. Gross Mark C. Klett Anthony P. & Karin E. Begg Charlotte M. Crabaugh Lisa Jo Grossman & Kelly Barth Patricia A. Knapp Della & Aaron Belanksy Marc A. Craddock Doug & Ruth Ann Guess Jeffrey W. Knight Eleanor H. Bell Timothy & Sarah Crews Peter Gustafson & Kelly M. Eddie & Eleanore Koether Laura L. Benson Debra W. Crockett & William K. Champion Jeff Kolnick Dr. Jeri L. Berc Conover Brian P. Haberstroh Walter J. & Barbara J. Koop Roger C. Bergman & Wendy M. Pamela Deanne Cubbage Cristina L. Haladay Seppo A. & Terttu K. Korpela Wright Paul Currier Virginia Hamill Verna & Conrad O. Krahling Nancy Lea Bevin Francesca D’Anneo Kirk V. & Rhonna M. Hargett Greg Kratzner Susan B. Biggar Krista K. Dahlberg Craig K. Harris & Meredith G. Thomas A. Kreissler & Laurie Richard G. Bjorklund Kenneth A. & Barbara Rullan McLellan Matthews Alan Black Dahlberg John Hart & Jane Morell-Hart David E. & Roberta J. Kromm DeVere E. Blomberg Tom Daly & Jude Blitz Dr. Gary S. & Lynne F. Hartshorn Gregg C. & Gretchen P. Kumlien Lee B. Blum Inc. Dale G. Dannels & Betty Lindsey Jean Hassman Adele Kushner Professor Eric Bolen Joan Darrow Delmar & Laverna Hatesohl Larry Lack & Lee Ann Ward

The Land Report 29 Wayne E. & Mary Ellen Lander Robert Nelson Scott T. Remington Carol E. & Stephen I. Tatsumi Michael Landers Ellen G. Neufeld John Rezelman Wayne S. Teel & Alta L. Brubaker, Landscapes and Farm Herbert & Pamela Neumann Stanley Rice M.D. Steven R. Larrick & Janine H. Martha C. Newell Paul M. Rich Victoria L. Tenbrink Copple Richard D. & Shirley A. Newsome Mabel C. Richardson Denise S. Tennen Lloyd H. Larsen Dr. Thomas A. & Jane Newton Lenton D. & Norma Jean Roller Tom & Mary Thompson Merlin D. & Bianca G. Larson Amy Sze Ki Ngan Lee A. Romaniszyn Craig D. Thomsen Laura’s Lean Beef Company Dolores E. Nice & David P. Elizabeth J. Root Marcia Thomson Michelle Le Bleu Siegenthaler Michael R. & Marilyn S. Rosmann Daniel Howard Tolson Joan Lederman Gerald A. & La Vonne C. Nielsen Andrew L. & Morissa R. Rubin Douglas Clark Towne Jerrine K. Leichhardt Paul F. & Elaine Nighswonger Patricia J. & Jerry D. Ryan Carol Tunell & Mark Crawford Bernice & Bernard Lemberg Paul Norland Jan Ryan Curtis M. Twedt Lawrence B. & Ruth G. Lewis David A. & Janice L. Norlin Scott R. Sadil Mary M. Ullmer Dale E. Liebrecht Ken Norwood Salina Astronomy Club Karen L. Valderama Donald N. & Nancy Link Mrs. Richard S. O’Neill Wayne E. & Lou Ann Sangster J. Pat Valentik Leslie Phillips Livingston & David David J. & Jeanne K. Ode Michelle Satterlee Flora T. van Wormer Dawes Miller, M.D. Martha Sue Olander Thomas M. & Mary L. Scanlan Valerie M. & Roger R. Vetter Matthew B. Logan & Felice Stadler Joseph Oliva Stanley & Nava Scharf Rina Shoshara Vile & Stewart Jay Gary A. & Judy A. Lohmeyer Jane F. & Charles R. Olsen Richard A. & Dorothy T. Scherer Vile Marilyn D. Loveless Floyd E. Olson Ed Scheurich Construction Keith Vogelsang Betty L. Lovett Martin G. Orlins Dennis & Linda Schlicht Ronald J. & Nancy A. Vos Anne E. Lubbers David Earl Osterberg Andrew M. Schmidt John & Bette Sue Wachholz James D. & Susan B. Lyttle Brad Ostrander Tom Schmiedeler John M. Wade George R. & Marjorie J. Manglitz Steven & Barbara Padget Ben J. & Linda S. Schole Virgil Wagner Philip S. Margolis Donald G. Parker Carol & Jim Fox Schott Alvin Wahl Ryan Marlinghaus Harold D. & Dorothy M. Parman Kash Schriefer Robert K. Waldo Carol A. Marshall Laurence Parnell Jeffrey J. Schruben Patricia J. & Samuel H. Walker Scott B. Martin Joan Bennett & John C. Parsons Jr. Amy D. Schwartz Andrea C. Walter Frank & Martha Mason Lisa Paulson Sasha Schwenk Robert A. Walter Peggy R. Massman Janis S. & Edward L. Peak Jr. Diana M. Scott Deborah R. & David M. Watson William & Robin B. Matthews Rachel M. Pearson & Jose Ruth E. Seiberling David J. Waxse William May Marroquin Raymond F. & Mary C. Sell Alexander S. Webb Emily C. McDonald Caroline H. Pearson-Mims Jean Sellar Rita L. & Martin C. Webb Christopher J. & Lynda A. McElroy John W. Peirce, FAIA Michael Shannon Msgr. John George Weber Jocelyne O. & Casey E. McGreever Mil & Marci Penner Sandra J. Shaw Thomas R. & Deborah Neher Weicht Michael & Laurel McNeil Dr. Gregory K. Penniston Jim & Sara Shelton Stephanie J. Weigel Larry E. McPherson Julien Yannick Perrette Byron C. & Marilyn T. Shutz Joan S. Wells Roger K. Meitl John E. & Merle L. Peterson Bob Siemens Robert Claire Wemer Michael M. Melius Lynate Pettengill Wilson W. & Barbara M. Siemens Howard B. & Dorothy Westley Theodore Menke Ernest W. & E. Ann Philippi Robert Lee Sigmon Dr. & Mrs. H. E. Wheeler Douglas J. & Diane Mesner Michael D. & Eldred Phillips Diane W. Simpson Robert E. & Mary Whelpley Ronald R. Michael Donna Pickel Steven R. Sirois Mary L. Wilber Amy E. Miller Dr. & Mrs. Joe A. Pinkerton Jr. William C. & Vicki L. Skaer David L. Williams Margaret J. & Paul A. Miller Lawrence Robert & Jeanne Marie Jeannie Skalsky Kathleen Williams Richard W. & Bernadette O. Miller Pinneo Jay L. & Shani L. Skiles Marjorie J. Williams David V. & Florence Minar John R. & Tari Ann Piskac Dave Smalley & Sarah L. Johnston Robert D. & Kathryn B. Williams James D. & Sarah D. Minick Dwight & Lavonne Platt Dennis & Peggy Smart Susan Williams Richard W. & Susan H. Mitchell Ben Poage Vada Snider Uzelle Williams Robin E. Mittenthal Nora Pouillon William Furnas Snyder Phillip J. Wilmore Bonny A. Moellenbrock & Michael Ramon & Eva Powers Seymour & Sara H. Sohmer Carolyn J. Wilson I. Lowry Anne W. B. Prichard Soil Technologies Corp. John O. & Anne B. Wilson Robert T. Mohler Drs. James Pritchard & Diane William Bruce Springer & Patricia Keith V. & Kathleen M. Wold Norris R. Moklestad Debinski West Greg W. Wolf Jeffrey L. Moline Thomas & Sandra Pritchard L. Joe Stehlik Dorothy P. Wonder George L. & Lois J. Monto Mary Grant Purdy Richard J. & Peggy Stein Work Family Estate Trust Vonna Jo Moody Quincy University Friary, Franciscan Wendell H. & Elizabeth J. Stickney Howard O. Wright Gregg T. & Emily B. Moore Dan & Sarah Rain Stonewall Farm Professor Valerie F. Wright Quentin Alan & Shari Ann Morford Kathryn L. Hoffman Rankin Reginald & Elrene Stowe Michael J. Yochim David M. & Susan Yarrow Morris Neal S. & Izen I. Ratzlaff John K. Strickler David A. Yudkin & Jeana S. Lynn W. Moser Thomas L. Rauch & Joyce Donald D. Stull Edelman R.T. & Dorothy Mosman Borgerding Brian J. & Jonita L. Suderman Dr. William M. & Dorothy A. Zales Dr. Samuel E. Moyer Robert H.& Agnes V. Raymond Janet L. Suelter Dr. Robert L. Zimdahl Glen A. Murray Donald E. Reck Edward C. & Janice C. Swab John M. & Mary M. Zinkand George Junior & Virginia E. Myers Gerald E. Reckling Jr. Lynda G. Swander Stephan M. & Barbara L. Nagel L. David & Ann Redmon Kris A. Swanson Darrell E. & Luanne Napton Don T. & Barbara Reeves Walter P. & Jeanie M. Sy

The Land Report 30 PRAIRIE FESTIVAL 2000 “The Art of Living in Place” May 26-28, 2000 Friday Evening through Sunday Afternoon

On the prairie, we’ll gather Artists, scholars, curators, “Believing as I do that connection to place is Critics, photographers, farmers, a necessary component of feeling close to people and to the earth, I wonder what will Poets, historians, sculptors make it possible for artists to ‘give’ places And you back to people who can no longer see them, …to think about the interrelatedness of and be given places in turn, by those who are aesthetics, beauty, place, sustainability, still looking around.” and the art of living in place. Lucy Lippard, The Lure of the Local “People need many different ways of rein- Friday: Join an evening bonfire. forcing their bonds with the land to guaran- Saturday: Early prairie and bird walks, tee that their souls develop an ample capaci - presentations, food, an evening ty for affection and care. Coming to know and use a place responsibly is connected to slow- barn dance. ly perceiving in an ordinary landscape a Sunday: More thinking, visiting, food, and beauty that is more than scenic.” music until about 4 p.m. Brian Donahue, Reclaiming the Commons

Speakers include: writer/activist Lucy Deep sea sediment organized into this Lippard, noted author of Plainsong Kent patterned glaze Haruf,environmental historian Brian during firing on this ceramic bowl by Donahue, photographer Greg Conniff, poet Joan Lederman, Bill Kloefkorn, ceramist Joan Lederman, Festival Participant photo curator Merry Foresta, logger/artist Jesse Sedler, singer/guitarist John Walker, and many others.

PRAIRIE FESTIVAL 2000 REGISTRATION Pre-register $12/$17; at Festival $15/$20 You are a Friend of the Land if date on reverse is 5/26/99 or later or if you join with this registration. FRIENDS OF THE LAND (FOL)OTHERS Saturday, May 27 _ _ _x $ 1 2 = _ _ _$ _ _ _ _x $17 = $ Sunday, May 28 _ _ _x $ 1 2 = _ _ _$ _ _ _ _x $17 = $ Children under 12 register free _ _ _x $ 0 $ ______x $0 $ _ _ _ Sunday lunch (vegetarian only, payable by May 19) _ _ _x $ 8 =$ _ _ _ _x $8 =$ Enroll as Friend of The Land one year, tax deductible$ 2 5 m i n i m u m _ $ $ 2 5 m i n i m u m _ _$ Additional contribution to The Land Institute, tax deductible ____ $ ____ $ Total Encl: $ _ _ _ $ _ _ _ Charge I Visa I Mastercard Account # ______Expir Date ______Signature ______Names attending:______Street: ______City ______State_____ Zip+4______-____ Phone (home)______Phone (work)______Email_____ • We will not confirm your registration. • Program, prepaid nametags and meal tickets will be available at the Registration Desk. • To register with credit card via phone, call The Land Institute, Monday-Friday, 8-5pm (CST). I Send map to Land Institute. The Land Institute • 2440 E. Water Well Road • Salina, KS 67401

The Land Report 31 PRAIRIE FESTIVAL 2000 “The Art of Living in Place” L May 27-28 | Registration form on page 31!

Non-Profit Organization 2440 E. Water Well Rd. U.S. Postage Paid Permit #81 Salina, KS 67401 Salina, KS 67401

Address Service Requested

If the date on your label is before 7-1-99, this is your last issue. Please renew your support.