From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World - Softcover

This book is a tribute to agriculture and the great diversity of practices and customs that surround it. Ableman, a California organic farmer, presents a photographic essay with 170 full-color photographs of farming practices in China, Kenya, Burundi, Italy, Peru, the American Southwest, and elsewhere. His photos include fields that rely on many different cropping practices, markets displaying an array of foods for interested buyers, urban plots, and plants grown in backyard gardens and pots. We catch a glimpse of people of all ages and many cultures involved in producing and selling food and their links with community and culture. The accompanying text offers Ableman's perspectives on the contrast between industrial agriculture, which uses heavy machinery and chemicals, and the labor-intensive, nonchemical approaches still used in most of the world. He urges us to understand the interconnections between our food, our health, our communities, and our environment for the sake of the planet's future. Recommended.
- Irwin Weintraub, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Piscataway, N.J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A compelling and very personal photographic essay ... The text, which comes down heavily in favor of environmentally sound farming practices, turns the elegant, romantic photographs into politics. -- New York Times

Hopeful and inspiring ... So many shades of green in these rich color photographs! So many faces from different parts of the world ... growing such a wide variety of good foods. -- Los Angeles Times