Hogs Are Up: Stories of the Land, with Digressions

by Wes Jackson, Robert Jensen (Foreword)

Hogs Are Stories of the Land, with Digressions reveals what makes Wes Jackson tick. What kind of lessons does he draw from his unique life experiences, and how do they shape his profoundly revolutionary worldview? Sometimes funny, sometimes wistful, always insightful, this volume demonstrates that when telling a good story, digressions can be the main point. Born during the Great Depression, Jackson tells stories of his youth on a diversified farm in the Kansas River Valley near Topeka, Kansas, culminating in more than forty years of leadership to radically transform agriculture, literally at its very roots. Wes Jackson draws deeply from the lessons learned from his experience dating from World War II to his work at The Land Institute to establish a new Natural Systems Agriculture. But this book is more than that. It includes an eclectic mix of thinkers and doers he’s met along the way.

Wes Jackson is heavily influenced by the cultural legacy of grandparents, all four of whom were born before the Civil War began, and from his parents, who were born before 1900. He was born into a culture of crop diversity where animals and people were out in the fields and around. He saw the tractor arrive and the horses leave. After you read Hogs Are Stories of the Land, with Digressions you may share his misgivings about what conventional thinkers see as “progress.”

Jackson is constantly exploring the world around him and will engage anyone who can help him think about a discovery, an experiment, or recent insight. Jackson believes that our insights must go beyond the latest scholarly study and government report if we are to get the necessary interest for people to change. The stories and digressions he shares in Hogs Are Up are the fruit of a longtime effort to lay the agricultural and cultural foundation for a new worldview grounded in nature’s principles and located in rural communities able to survive through a new relationship of humanity to the ecosphere.

Genres: Memoir

200 pages, Hardcover

Published March 12, 2021

Reviews

[Paul Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wes and I go way back. I have read most of his books and for me, this is the best. Perhaps I like it because it is more personal. It was interesting to read about his life growing up. Wes was my biology teacher and track coach at KWU. Then I followed him to NCSU for graduate school as did Aaron Blair. There were many deep philosophical and scientific discussions at some pub or other. There was also the occasional handball game with Aaron or myself. At KWU, Harry Mason was my major professor and I had Wasserman for Greek Literature or something like that. Normally I would have waited for the paperback but Wes kept asking if I had read it yet. Now I have and I'm glad I did. He is perhaps a genius and known around the world, but no one is more down-home than Wes is. How about this story that didn't make the book. We stopped by The Land early on when our children were young. Wes literally went out and killed the chicken for lunch. A bit later, as our oldest daughter recalls, Wes directed us all in a hymn using a chicken foot for a baton. Then he would pull on a tendon and the chicken foot would wave at the kids. There you go.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I treasure the times we visited The Land Institute during the Prairie Festival several years ago and I have read several of Wes Jackson's books. This one was my favorite. I loved the stories of his ancestors and his time growing up. It was a gift to learn how The Land Institute began, I won't spoil the surprise. I also loved his tale of how David beat Goliath and its implications for all of us. Enjoy!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m very glad I read this book. It is an odd collection of pieces, but very thoughtful and interesting. It had my mind ping-ponging around in my head. Wes Jackson is a character, a farmer, a teacher, a thinker, and (despite his protestations) a Methodist. I liked it a lot.

[Robyn Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just loved this. Fifteen years ago, Wes Jackson agreed to speak at a small honor society initiation I was advising. I knew enough about his work to admire him, but was ignorant of so many additional reasons to admire him.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good final reflection after my internship! Fun to see in writing stories we were told from Wes!

[Russell Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an entertaining collection of stories, strung along autobiographically so as to give a wonder portrait of Wes Jackson, one of the great radical localist and environmentalist voices of our age. These stories helped flesh out my understanding of the man: a jock who loved science, a thoroughly churched young man who simply tuned out God (but holds an affection for religious teachings), a materialist who is convinced humanity is looking at a species-wide ecological catastrophe soon, but who still delights in track stars and good food and sunsets. He's an odd mix, Jackson is, but it is because of his odd mix--elsewhere he called himself a "progressive hick"--that we have The Land Institute, and the quest to develop perennial grains which just might save us all, or at least save some of us. Not a thorough biography or a critical self-examination, but great stories, very well told.

[Scott Buchanan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice guy, bad ideas.
Criticism of US agricultural colleges is misguided. USA has the most advanced agricultural techniques in the world. Agricultural developed from research at agricultural colleges and through farmer and agricultural corporations all working to produce the a reliable food production system which not only feeds the US, but helps feed people all over the world.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of Wes Jackson and The Land Institute will revel in this memoir, which meanders (as promised) with some fascinating digressions.

[Chelsea Pretz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started off engaging and enlightening in the perspective of how life has changed in the late 1800s. The digression in the last ~50 pages were a little less polished but still very thought invoking!