"Society does not generally expect its farmers to be visionaries."
Perhaps not, but longtime Maine farmer and homesteader Will Bonsall
does possess a unique clarity of vision that extends all the way
from the finer points of soil fertility and seed saving to
exploring how we can transform civilization and make our world a
better, more resilient place. In Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to
Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening, Bonsall maintains that to achieve
real wealth we first need to understand the economy of the land, to
realize that things that might make sense economically don't always
make sense ecologically, and vice versa. The marketplace distorts
our values, and our modern dependence on petroleum in particular
presents a serious barrier to creating a truly sustainable
agriculture. For him the solution is, first and foremost, greater
self-reliance, especially in the areas of food and energy. By
avoiding any off-farm inputs (fertilizers, minerals, and animal
manures), Bonsall has learned how to practice a purely veganic, or
plant-based, agriculture-not from a strictly moralistic or
philosophical perspective, but because it makes good business
sense: spend less instead of making more. What this means in
practical terms is that Bonsall draws upon the fertility of on-farm
plant materials: compost, green manures, perennial grasses, and
forest products like leaves and ramial wood chips. And he grows and
harvests a diversity of crops from both cultivated and perennial
plants: vegetables, grains, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and nuts-even
uncommon but useful permaculture plants like groundnut (Apios). In
a friendly, almost conversational way, Bonsall imparts a wealth of
knowledge drawn from his more than forty years of farming
experience. "My goal," he writes, "is not to feed the world, but to
feed myself and let others feed themselves. If we all did that, it
might be a good beginning."
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