The Accidental Farmers {Book Review}

Once in awhile I’m contacted by publishers to see if I’ll review their books on my blog. Since I LOVE to read, I usually oblige. So when Tim Young contacted me to review his book The Accidental Farmers: An Urban Couple, A Rural Calling, and A Dream of Farming in Harmony with Nature, I didn’t think anything of it. Little did I know how thought-provoking the experience would be.

When I received the book, I noticed a blurb (I should mention, that’s a technical term I learned when I used to work for publishers–I’ve worked for three) from Sally Fallon Morrell. You know, the Nourishing Traditions guru. Huh.

As I was behind on my reviews, it sat in my pile until Tim contacted me again and asked if I’d had a chance to read it. Um no, but I did move it to the top of the pile. I did finally get the chance to crack it open a few weeks ago, and discovered that Tim was a former entrepreneur (hence the slightly pushy vibe I was getting from him, figures! But he’s from the south, so I’ll cut him some slack.)

I’ve been working on the business plan for the brewery that DH and I hope to open, so leisure reading time has been scarce. But occasionally I would sneak an hour here or there and began to read about “the urban couple with a rural calling.”

I should mention that these types of books fascinate me. You see, I grew up in the country. I think I’ve mentioned before that my Dad was a conventional potato & onion farmer before selling the family farm when he and his partner realized they could make more money by selling the land than by farming it. And with my first husband I married into a large dairy family–well, large for our area anyway–they milked around 1000 cows if I remember correctly. I lived across from the milking parlour for a few years, not an experience I’d like to repeat. Come to think of it, I’d rather not repeat that whole first marriage LOL. After the divorce, I moved to the city–far away from the farm–and then the suburbs, and married DH, who is not from the country and looks upon my entire pre-meeting him farm existence as a novelty.

All that to say, I always approach these kinds of city-slicker-turned-farmer books with amusement, since my experience has been the reverse. Instead of moving TO the country, I moved FROM the country, and only in recent years have I begun to get back to my rural roots by supporting local farmers.

You might recall that I reviewed The Blueberry Years and Reflections on the Dirty Life. The Accidental Farmers began much the same. They discovered all the bugs and smells that go along with the country; that conventional farmers aren’t bad people–just trapped on the treadmill that is industrial farming; and that country folk, despite having little by way of formal education, are real handy to have around. Oh, I also noted that just like the others, the city-slickers-turned-farmers do not have children. That’s 3 for 3 of these types of books I’ve read where there are no children in the picture. Interesting.

But then, the carnage began. See, Tim and his wife decided they’d like to farm the “natural” way, with no vet, letting the animals die as nature intended. Page after page of industrial breeds of pigs, cows, and chickens getting sick and dying  because they were not adapted to the environment and because they had had the nurturing bred out of them. Tim made a decent rational argument for why they were doing this, but at a gut level I really resented being subjected to the gory details. It didn’t seem fair to the animals to suddenly had to adapt to a “natural” setting, when they hadn’t been bred for it, suffering and dying painful deaths. When he shot the mink that had been killing his turkeys and described it as “nature in the form of his gun,” I thought dude, what a hypocrite, and shot off an email telling him that I’m sorry, but I cannot finish this book. It felt like I was reading the animal version of the Saw movies.

Tim was quick to point out that it was for my own good that I read the rest, lest I never know where our food comes from. Um, dude, I DO know where our food comes from. I informed him of my farming background and then he told me to at least read the final two chapters. So I did, and they’ve been scaling back, trying to educate the public through farm tours and homesteading workshops and their blog. Their animals have quit dying off and they are big proponents for organic, natural farming.

I’ve been trying to figure out why the book hit me so differently from the others. Maybe it was the style? He does get rather technical in places, and applies business logic to something that most get overly romantic about. Maybe it was that I wanted to think that animal suffering only happened on the conventional farms I was used to? Maybe I was guilty of judging them for letting their animals suffer? (despite my best efforts to put aside my judgy mcjudgerson pants).

In the end, I would recommend this book, if only because it will make you think–hard–about where our food comes from.

Learn more about the book at http://www.naturesharmonyfarm.com/accidental-farmers/, check it out at your library, or