Audiobook8 hours
This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm
Written by Ted Genoways
Narrated by Christopher Solimene
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
The family farm lies at the heart of our national identity, and yet its future is in peril. Rick Hammond grew up on a farm, and for forty years he has raised cattle and crops on his wife's fifth-generation homestead in Nebraska, in hopes of passing it on to their four children. But as the handoff nears, their small family farm-and their entire way of life-are under siege. Beyond the threat posed by rising corporate ownership of land and livestock, the Hammonds are confronted by encroaching pipelines, groundwater depletion, climate change, the fickle demands of the marketplace, and shifting trade policies.
Following the Hammonds from harvest to harvest, Ted Genoways explores the rapidly changing world of small, traditional farming operations. He creates a vivid and nuanced portrait of a radically new landscape and one family's fight to preserve their legacy and the life they love.
Following the Hammonds from harvest to harvest, Ted Genoways explores the rapidly changing world of small, traditional farming operations. He creates a vivid and nuanced portrait of a radically new landscape and one family's fight to preserve their legacy and the life they love.
Author
Ted Genoways
Ted Genoways served as the editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review from 2003 to 2012, during which time the magazine won six National Magazine Awards. He is a contributing editor at Mother Jones and an editor-at-large at OnEarth, and is a winner of the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. He is a fourth-generation Nebraskan and lives in Lincoln.
Related to This Blessed Earth
Related audiobooks
Good Husbandry: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grassroots Rising: A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and a Green New Deal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grass-Fed Beef for a Post-Pandemic World: How Regenerative Grazing Can Restore Soils and Stabilize the Climate Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Hemp Farmer: Adventures and Misadventures in the Cannabis Trade Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers' Markets, Local Food, and Saving the Family Farm Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Farm: Our Ten Years on the Front Lines of the Good Food Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farming for the Long Haul: Resilience and the Lost Art of Agricultural Inventiveness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Uncultivated: Wild Apples, Real Cider, and the Complicated Art of Making a Living Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Street Farm: Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope on the Urban Frontier Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hit By A Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Carving Out a Living on the Land: Lessons in Resourcefulness and Craft from an Unusual Christmas Tree Farm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Worm Farming: The Practical Guide to This Unique Form of Natural Composting… Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lean Farm: How to Minimize Waste, Increase Efficiency, and Maximize Value and Profits with Less Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Honey Farm Dreaming: A Memoir About Sustainability, Small Farming and the Not-So Simple Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miraculous Abundance: One Quarter Acre, Two French Farmers, and Enough Food to Feed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Compact Farms: 15 Proven Plans for Market Farms on 5 Acres or Less Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Start Your Farm: The Authoritative Guide to Becoming a Sustainable 21st Century Farm Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Technology & Engineering For You
The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Design of Everyday Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Einstein's Fridge: How the Difference Between Hot and Cold Explains the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Smart Phone Dumb Phone: Free Yourself from Digital Addiction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ham Radio: from Beginner to Badass (Ham Radio, ARRL, ARRL exam, Ham Radio Licence) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-made World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Future of Geography: How the Competition in Space Will Change Our World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Path Between the Seas Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for This Blessed Earth
Rating: 4.025 out of 5 stars
4/5
20 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An interesting short history of agriculture in the US and current events. Author's political bias comes through at times.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I was nervous starting this book (for a local book club I recently joined) as my family lost the family farm during the 1980s Farm Crisis and I was afraid of the memories the book would conjure. However, such was not the case. In fact, I enjoyed learning about the intricacies of farming in the 21st century, things that were not part of my life 50-70 years ago, when I was growing up on a farm. My, how it is different and infinitely more scary today! I recommend this book for anyone with an agriculture background.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was great! I live in an very productive corn and soybean county in Illinois, where the ditches are for drainage instead of irrigation, so it was really interesting to read about Nebraska farming.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Some very interesting facts on farming in the United States and the world economy as it relates to crop production. Got a little dry at times
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a fascinating story of a year the author spent with a farm family right in the middle of current headlines. I was educational as well as just plain absorbing---you really get to know this extended family and what they, in turn, mean for all of us as a source of our food.