num_pages: 272
description: Locavore leaders such as Alice Waters Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver all speak of the need for sweeping changes in how we get our food. Also a longtime leader of this movement is Wes Jackson who for decades has taken it upon himself to speak for the grasses and the land of the prairie to speak for the soil itself. Here he offers a manifesto toward a conceptual Jackson asks us to look to natural ecosystems  or if one prefers nature in general  as the measure against which we judge all of our agricultural practices.Wes Jackson believes the time is right to do away with monocultures which are vulnerable to national security threats and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs. Soil erosion overgrazing and the poisons polluting our water and air  all associated with our contemporary form of American agriculture  foretell a population with its physical health and land destroyed.In this eloquent and timely call to arms Jackson asks us to look to nature itself to lead us out of the mess weve made. We do this by consulting with the natural ecosystems that will tell us if we listen what should happen to the future of food.
language: English
title: Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture
publisher: Counterpoint