These books fall in line with my community of people who care for the Earth. They were my beginning influences to doing the work I have done over the past five decades and in the countries I have worked to teach people how to develop good stewardship practices on the land they worked. Community development is at the heart of what I do. Healing land heals us and helps us become more whole.
I wrote
A Radiant Earth: Tools for restoring balanced ecosystems to regenerate and reconnect with the planet.
This is an introduction to natural farming. This Japanese farmer was a spearhead for how to work with natural pathways and create a system that flows with the land. He was an inspiration for the Permaculture design for Bill Mollinson. He adapted a design that worked with animals, insects, native plants, and water to form a biological series of self-reliance.
This book is inspirational and lays the groundwork for growing with nature. This book opened me up to using biomimicry in my design.
Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book,” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture…
This book opened me up to how our food system and modern agribusiness work.
I read this while in between my studies in horticulture and agriculture. I was so taken by the book that I sought him out. I discovered that he was teaching organic horticulture at a small college down the coast near Santa Cruz. I went there and studied horticulture in his class. I gained a great deal of knowledge from him. He was a valuable resource.
This book is a primer on the Biodynamic/French Intensive method of growing. Although it is a bit too scientific for me with lots of data, it was the only thing written on the subject. It walked me through the method and offered easy concepts on how to adapt to this system of growing.
I later was able to visit and work at Alan Chadwick’s Garden at the University of California Santa Cruz, which changed my whole approach to growing. Jeavon’s method is an adulterated version of what he learned from Alan Chadwick, yet remarkably effective.
The world's leading resource on biointensive, sustainable, high-yield organic gardening is thoroughly updated throughout, with new sections on using 12 percent less water and increasing compost power.
Long before it was a trend, How to Grow More Vegetables brought backyard ecosystems to life for the home gardener by demonstrating sustainable growing methods for spectacular organic produce on a small but intensive scale. How to Grow More Vegetables has become the go-to reference for food growers at every level, whether home gardeners dedicated to nurturing backyard edibles with minimal water in maximum harmony with nature's cycles, or a small-scale commercial producer…
This book is a classic book on the food revolution that took place in the 1970s. It examines our approach to food and how we farm.
The way food is produced is the result of supply and demand without consideration of the damage it causes to the environment. In other words, short-term gains for long-term damage to our planet. She is highly revered as a pioneer in the revolutionary food movement.
This was the most popular environmental book of its time. It opened many people up to the assault on nature. This book motivated me to become part of the environmental solution. This book changed the unbridled use of chemicals used on the environment. It helped get rid of DDT in the US. It was an introduction for me to environmental awareness in the 1960s and 1970s.
First published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962, Silent Spring alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of indiscriminate use of pesticides, spurring revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. "Silent Spring became a runaway bestseller, with international reverberations . . . [It is] well crafted, fearless and succinct . . . Even if she had not inspired a generation of activists, Carson would prevail as one of the greatest nature writers in American letters" (Peter Matthiessen, for Time"s 100 Most Influential People of the Century). This fortieth anniversary edition celebrates Rachel Carson"s watershed…
It offers tools for regenerating land by creating balanced ecosystems above and below the ground. It contains chapters on agroecology, reforestation and agroforestry, soil and water remediation, adaptation to nature, mycology, and more. The idea is to develop good stewardship practices for all planetary citizens. It is an insightful, informative, and inspirational read offering ideas on how to heal the planet and become better caretakers of our home.
A Radiant Earth shares my knowledge along with my passion for the work I have done since the 1970s. My first book, Radical Regenerative Gardening and Farming
can be found in both public and academic libraries in various parts of
the world; it is based on many years of research around the world.
After Dr. Shawn Jennings, a busy family physician, suffered a brainstem stroke on May 13, 1999, he woke from a coma locked inside his body, aware and alert but unable to communicate or move. Once he regained limited movement in his left arm, he began typing his story, using one hand and a lot of patience.
With unexpected humour and tender honesty, Shawn shares his experiences in his struggle for recovery and acceptance of his life after the stroke. He affirms that even without achieving a full recovery life is still worth…
Locked In Locked Out: Surviving a Brainstem Stroke
After Dr. Shawn Jennings, a busy family physician, suffered a brainstem stroke on May 13, 1999, he woke from a coma locked inside his body, aware and alert but unable to communicate or move. Once he regained limited movement in his left arm, he began typing his story, using one hand and a lot of patience.
With unexpected humour and tender honesty, Shawn shares his experiences in his struggle for recovery and acceptance of his life after the stroke. He affirms that even without achieving a full recovery life is still worth…
