All Flesh Is Grass: Pleasures & Promises Of Pasture Farming
*Starred Review* Logsdon, an Ohio farmer who has written more than 20 books, brings his gentle iconoclasm to the case against the grain feeding of livestock in favor of pasture farming. His arguments against grain feeding: the too-heavy investment in machinery for sowing and harvesting of grain, the need for pesticides to protect monocultural grain crops, the environmental costs required to haul grain to livestock farmers, storage costs, the need to dispose of manure from livestock feedlots, and the steep labor costs to manage all of this. His arguments for pasturing: "The animals do the harvesting, apply their manure for fertilizer, and eat most of the weeds." As it has for years, Logsdon's conversational style makes his material immediately appealing, but there is also solid advice on how to pasture various kinds of livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, horses, mules, donkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys), how to rotate grass crops, which grasses work best, how to water livestock, how to incorporatesomegrains into the animals' diets, and which fences make for the best neighbors. A deceptively important book for the working, the would-be, and the armchair farmer alike.Alan MooresCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.