Altars of Unhewn Stone: Science and the Earth by Wes Jackson

by Wes Jackson

SAME COVER AS STOCK PHOTO SHOWN. SCUFFING AND MINOR EDGE WEAR ON COVERS AND SPINE. PAGES CLEAN AND ALL ARE INTACT.

Genres: Agriculture, Environment, Nonfiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

Reviews

[Mila Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wes Jackson is my hero. This book was the first revolutionary text I found before I read Michael Pollan or Bill McKibben. Jackson makes the reader think about the world in a different way, ecologically and in terms of society. A classic, and he's still alive!

[Joe Beeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

awesome, Wes Jackson is "a more scientific wendell berry"

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wes Jackson is one of the wise men of our time, but unfortunately one whose views are not been considered in how we grow our food. There is an active movement afoot however to inform the new administration of the other way of thinking. This book was first published in 1987, it is time.

Here is an excerpt from the chapter, "Farm Debt".
"If the government is interested in continuing to subsidize agriculture, it should concentrate on supporting the farmer as part of a rural community, instead of passing money through the farmer to subsidize agricultural business. Without rural community, the money paid as a direct subsidy to the farmer quickly finds its way into the pockets of agribusiness...........
Farm debt and ecological debt on the farm foreshadow what is to come for our entire culture and the environment as a whole, unless we change, and fast. For the farmer and the farm, problems are still multiplying, problems that had their genesis decades and even centuries ago. Most of the rest of the American culture, though, still living in the white light of affluence, is so dazzled by the brilliance that emanates from a high energy society that it is not yet able to see the full spectrum of environmental and economic problems. Until we begin to acknowledge that giving the green light to capitalism prevents us from really solving the problems, the environment will remain speechless, soil will erode, and farmers will remain broke, dispersed, and relatively quiet."

....."Sometimes to cope is to change, but not often enough. We need to have in mind economic models of sustainability that are based in nature or in primitive cultures, so that proposals to help farmers cope with a bad situation can be evaluated against some standard of permanence."

[Toothy_grin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was humbling to read the thoughts of Wes Jackson: I felt kind of like a kid sitting at his grandfather's knee. This is a wise man who is sharing his insights. Jackson is like Wendell Berry's scientist brother, and, like Berry, has been a much-overlooked voice of social and environmental sanity for a long time. I had to keep reminding myself that this was written in the 1980s. The world would be a much better place if it were guided more by what Jackson has to tell us.

[Reba Richie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't get over the fact that this book was written over 20 years ago! What he is saying regarding sustainability and agribusiness by extension is amazingly still relevant (obviously!) but seriously, where have we all been and why haven't we been paying attention to this issue!