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Full Description
Part historical memoir and part "blueprint" for sustainable farming and the future of agricultural communities, this works follows the life of a born and raised farmer, and the changes to his trade witnessed over a lifetime.
A Practical Farmer's Journey revolves around three promises. The first was fulfilled for many immigrants who came and settled in western Iowa, allowing them to purchase land, start farms, and build new lives and communities. The second promise, however, was broken during Ron L. Rosmann's fifty-year farming career, when the corporatization and industrialization of agriculture led to farm consolidation, monocropping and vertical integration, ecological destruction, and the steady decline of rural communities. The third promise focuses on restoring what was broken, detailing how agricultural communities can adopt thoughtful and sustainable farming practices. Through the narrative of the farmer and author, using these promises as its framework, this book explores how to combat climate change in agriculture and create healthier farms and food systems, aiming to restore the unfulfilled potential of rural America.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Beginning of the Promise
1. Before Iowa Became Iowa
2. Embarking upon a Promise: Rosmann's and Westphalia Begin
3. Mom and Dad, the Great Depression, and Father Duren
4. Grade School at Saint Boniface
5. A Working Laboratory
6. A Love of Nature, Wildlife, and the Seasons
7. The Decade That Defined Who We Would Become
Part II: Breaking the Promise
8. Starting to Farm in the 1970s Boom
9. Good Times, Hard Times, Getting Married and Beginning a Family
Part III: Restoring the Promise
10. The Real Journey Begins
11. Growing People, Not Just Crops
12. Matters of Church, Religion, Science, and Technology: A Layperson's Perspective
13. Agriculture and a More Livable Climate
14. What Can and Will We Do?
Bibliography
Index
About the Author