Ebook: Letter to a young farmer: how to live richly without wealth on the new garden farm

No such thing as "The American Farmer" -- Farming is all about the money, even when it isn't -- The economic decentralization of nearly everything -- The ripening of a "Rurban" culture -- The barns at the center of the garden farm universe -- Backyard sheep -- Hauling livestock: the ultimate test of your farming mettle -- The cow stable: health spa of the future -- The rise of the modern plowgirl -- Finding and keeping a new age farm partner -- Big data and robot farming -- The invasion of the paranoids -- One cow's forage is another cow's poison -- Pasture farming is part of garden farming -- The wild-plant explorers -- The most stubborn farmer of us all -- Have we deflowered our virgin soils? -- The resurrection of a really free market -- Artisanal food in the new age of farming -- Why fake steak won't ever rule the meat market -- The homebodies -- If Michelangelo had to drive to work -- A fable about the end of "get big or get out" -- The real background behind the fading of industrial farming -- In praise of rural simplicity (whatever that is).;"For more than four decades, the self-described "contrary farmer" and writer Gene Logsdon has commented on the state of American agriculture. In Letter to a Young Farmer, his final book of essays, Logsdon addresses the next generation--young people who are moving back to the land to enjoy a better way of life as small-scale "garden farmers." It's a lifestyle that isn't defined by accumulating wealth or by the "get big or get out" agribusiness mindset. Instead, it's one that recognizes the beauty of nature, cherishes the land, respects our fellow creatures, and values rural traditions. It's one that also looks forward and embraces "right technologies," including new and innovative ways of working smarter, not harder, and avoiding premature burnout. Completed only a few weeks before the author's death, Letter to a Young Farmer is a remarkable testament to the life and wisdom of one of the greatest rural philosophers and writers of our time. Gene's earthy wit and sometimes irreverent humor combines with his valuable perspectives on many wide-ranging subjects--everything from how to show a ram who's boss to enjoying the almost churchlike calmness of a well-built livestock barn. Reading this book is like sitting down on the porch with a neighbor who has learned the ways of farming through years of long observation and practice. Someone, in short, who has "seen it all" and has much to say, and much to teach us, if we only take the time to listen and learn. And Gene Logsdon was the best kind of teacher: equal parts storyteller, idealist, and rabble-rouser. His vision of a nation filled with garden farmers, based in cities, towns, and countrysides, will resonate with many people, both young and old, who long to create a more sustainable, meaningful life for themselves and a better world for all of us."--Publisher's description.;In his final book of essays--completed just weeks before he died--self-described "contrary farmer" Gene Logsdon addresses the next generation of small-scale "garden farmers" seeking a better way of life.--COVER.