Restoration Agriculture

This book has a glimpse of a fundamental change in Agriculture that will shift the human species from an overpopulated mess turning all the world into unsustainable deserts--into a richer, healthier species that will increase the quality and quantity of food for ourselves and all other creatures.Currently, we have annual crops that have a lot of calories, but weak in micronutrients, leading to emotionally troubled warmongers, and thus repeated civilization collapse. This food is grown with plows that damage the soil, leading to local temperature extremes, and floods and droughts.The book describes different kinds of biomes, and how we can create healthier ones with many different crops on the same land, for a higher total yield of much more nutritious food. Our cultural memory is of farms like E-I-E-I-O, many species, not a dozen square miles of one poisoned thing. Perennial polyculture is more satisfying and interesting, and with the help of this book, and others about regenerative agriculture, we will create delightful farms better than parks.We are in transition from one age (at least 6000 years old) that is DYING amidst great shrieks and pain and utter insanity, to one that will prove far better. Life can be so much fun. Buy this book and help create the future.

Good book but is basically a rehash of the 1929 classic Tree Crops by J. Russell Smith which is publicly available from a dozen sources. Actually in many ways Smith's book is better because he actually conducted research and correspond widely with others and didn't just showcase his own farm, which is what Shepard basically does. Shepard is also heavy on the personal opinion and light on the practical advice. It is not a bad book, but I would get it from a library if you can, or just read Tree Crops. I sure regret dropping $25 on it! It sure doesn't contain much in the way of instruction. More than a few times he says to go read other peoples books to figure it out. It comes off as lazy to me.After reading this book a second time I will add that I commend some of the ideas in the book, however, I must denounce some flaws. To being with, perennial crops are not more reliable than annual. I have perennial and annual crops. It's almost an every other year that a late frost, for a season, makes either apples, pears, or peaches a TOTAL loss where I live by killing the blossoms. It's rare, where I live, to find a wild nut bearing tree where fewer than half the nuts are wormy or ruined for anything but pig feed. And, as someone who has sat down and shelled a big bowl of hickory nuts, I can tell you it is tedious and you don't end up with a whole lot of food after about 8 hours. In fact, that quantity of nut meat bits (and they will be little bits) can be consumed by some greedy children in mere minutes. A harvester built in 1980 can make ready as many calories in a millisecond. Part of what makes modern agriculture possible are the machines that work very well at harvesting. And there seems to me that there is considerable variability among food bearing trees that will make mechanical harvest inefficient and expensive, even if someone where to feel it economically worthwhile to develop such machines. J. R. Smith understood this. This is why he urged grafting of "genius" scion wood to ordinary trees and attempts at breeding native species into economically efficient crop trees. Shepard seems to advocate the exact opposite...basically he thinks that wild plants are better because they require fewer inputs. This is true no doubt, but it also marks a philosophical return to nomadism and hunting-gathering. It is basically the opposite of agriculture. I have no problem when affluent folks buying worn out farms and turning them into clever tree plantations, but it is a bit of a stretch to call it agriculture, and he admits it will not be profitable.Meanwhile, I have never known (nor do I know anyone) who has known a modern corn crop to fail. Might be a disappointing year (under 180 bu/acre), but corn is tough stuff. I've seen it withstand winds that toppled apple and oak trees, I've seen it weather droughts that toasted perennial pastures, and it isn't planted when floods or winter weather are a worry, while all perennials need to withstand both. I am very glad to see that Shepard mentions alley cropping practices. These are what can allow a transition to perennial agriculture, and for that matter, offers greater diversity on the farm. There is abundant evidence (mostly out of the University of Missouri center for agroforestry) that many ordinary annual farm crops grow well among trees, and it is proven that most cool seasons grasses and legumes (the stuff of animal forage) grow better beneath the shade of moderately shading trees (Hickory-Pecan-Walnut-Butternut tribe, the Locusts). I was disappointed to see that no mention was made of Management Intensive Grazing (or MIG). MIG can work with silvopastural practices even better than it does in just an open pasture (the shade problem is already solved). MIG is the way to maximize the productivity of forage plants and get more calories per acre while relying less on feeding annual plants to animals.Furthermore, I am left wondering how the harvest of the diversity of crops at all different heights and whatnot is supposed to be achieved with a reasonable amount of work. I wonder if it has dawned on the author that the reason why orchardists and farmers that row crop a few species of plants do what they do not because they are stupid, but because they want to get in the harvest in with reasonable time expenditure and effort. I suppose that is what pigs are for he'd probably say. I would follow up with what are the pigs going to eat in the other three seasons? If you have enough pigs to clean up the mast/fruit crop, you will have too many pigs the rest of the time, and no you can just fatten a pig up in a month and then slaughter them. You will need to keep back some brood sows at a minimum.The truth is that almost all omnivore and herbivore animals in savanna biomes traveled around a very large area to meet their nutritional needs. Since the whole world has been fenced in or out, man has to substitute storage of feedstuffs instead..or he can plant annuals in an intelligent way an let the animals harvest it for him out of the field. And this dovetails nicely with alley cropping practice. No-till organic agriculture is a well developed method that the Rodale folks have worked out and it allows ROTATION of crops, which is a key weapon against pests. Ever wonder why orchardists spray so much? It's because, in large part, trees are perennials and the bugs that survive one year don't have to travel very far to re-infect the plants the following year. It isn't simply because any tree that has been bred up to make good fruit is weak or that all non-native trees are weak as Shepard suggests.In short, this book has many good points. It correctly points out the disaster that modern agriculture is heading into. And I immensely respect people who actually go out and do things to correct it. It's just that at times the considerable arrogance of the author comes through on these pages and as it is described it is admittedly not a viable alternative for the non-wealthy at present. I happen to think that tree crops are a viable alternative, and there are many good ways to transition to a more permanent agriculture, and that most of this information is free on the internet. Just search the terms Silvopasture, Agroforestry, Alley cropping, etc...It turns out that University of Wisconsin extension service has a bunch of videos on YouTube where they interview and tour Shepard's farm. Much can be learned from these for free. I am a bit alarmed by the fact that U of W Extension is featuring Shephard's farm like it is an actual economically profitable farm, when Shepard states very clearly in his book that it is not. Though it was worthwhile to learn about his mowing techniques and how he tries to train trees like apples into a shapes that make mowing efficient. This is the kind of practical information that is mostly absent from Restoration Agriculture.

Mark Shepard bares all! What an incredible contribution to the world. I would recommend this book to any farmer or rancher who is transitioning toward Regenerative Ranching or Agriculture … both useful tools in the journey toward this Restoration Agriculture paradigm.

From my recent blog post:This book outlines Mark Shepard’s journey from his childhood in New England to life at his farm at his home in Wisconsin. As a child, Mark’s family relied heavily on their annual garden and fruit trees to provide food for the family. He remembers garden work to be hot, laborious and never ending. The annual garden was a constant fight against nature. Weeding, watering, planting, a never ending cycle.He then recounts the food they foraged. It was cool and peaceful. They mostly harvested. They didn’t have to worry about weeds, as every part of the natural system worked together. These childhood experiences, along with a few books, led him to the restorative agriculture system he uses today.Mark’s farm in Wisconsin copies natural systems which are conducive to the area which he lives. Within a small area, he will plant chestnuts, apples, grapes, and blackberries. Each plant either complimenting each other, or utilizing different substrates of the area. An area filled with this diverse plant system will produce more food overall. However, if that same area were planted with all apples, you would harvest more apples, but the diversity equals safety. If there is a bad year for apples, the apple producer is completely out of luck. You can even use this system to harvest wood for fuel and building.He also expand this system to include animals. You an have pigs foraging in between the alleys of perennial woody crops, in a paddock shift system. This means that the pigs move from area to area with just enough disturbance to to enhance the area. If there are too many pigs in too little an area for too long ( or one of any of those three “too’s”), you will end up degrading your land instead of enhancing it.This book also commented on how these methods can actually nourish the world instead of “feeding” it. He discussed the nutrition lacking in corn and our other mono-crops. This is evident when we see 500 pound adults with Rickets, a disease partially caused by a deficiency in necessary nutrients such as calcium. They are clearly getting enough calories, but not any nutrition. It is possible to be fat and malnourished.At his farm, New Forest Farm, Mark is also trying to restore the American Chestnut. The American Chestnut was hit with a blight originating from the Chinese Chestnut. The American Chestnut was the East Coast’s version of the Red Wood. When the blight first started to spread, we stupidly decided to cut down all the American Chestnuts to stop the spread. This removed any trees that may have had a natural genetic resistance to the blight.Mark is planting thousands of trees in hopes of finding one genetic variety that has resistance. He does this over planting them from seeds and then using his STUN technique. STUN stands for Sheer Total Utter Neglect. This allows for the strongest of plants to survive. If any tree wants to die, he lets it. The weeds out the weak genetics and brings the strong genetics to the foreground.This book is an enlightening read. It gives hope, and also gives a reason to become active in your food choices. It offers a new prospective on farming and restoration to the land. This book is an entertaining and quick read, but beyond informative.My take aways:Plant more treesPlant things you can eat (they still look pretty!)Plant treesEat from a perennial systems. (nuts, fruits, pastured meats)There is hope.Plant trees that will thrive in your area.I do recommend this book. It has opened my eyes and added to my arsenal of information so that I can make educated decisions. As I start to design my property and plant with a plan, I will be keeping Mark’s systems and philosophies in mind.

Very good book, makes the case very well and his passion shines through. I found it easy to read but with sufficient depth that it gave a good view of permaculture and how he applies it in practice.

The book is obviously americentric, but it has a wealth of information and is a good read.

Perfect

Brilliant.. a bit preechy, and take some of it with a pinch of salt, but a template for us all

It's OK, but very about US. As for the reader from Europe it was kind of issue.