About the Book
Part historical memoir and part "blueprint" for sustainable farming and the future of agricultural communities, this works follows the life of a born and raised farmer, and the changes to his trade witnessed over a lifetime.
A Practical Farmer's Journey revolves around three promises. The first was fulfilled for many immigrants who came and settled in western Iowa, allowing them to purchase land, start farms, and build new lives and communities. The second promise, however, was broken during Ron L. Rosmann's fifty-year farming career, when the corporatization and industrialization of agriculture led to farm consolidation, monocropping and vertical integration, ecological destruction, and the steady decline of rural communities. The third promise focuses on restoring what was broken, detailing how agricultural communities can adopt thoughtful and sustainable farming practices. Through the narrative of the farmer and author, using these promises as its framework, this book explores how to combat climate change in agriculture and create healthier farms and food systems, aiming to restore the unfulfilled potential of rural America.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Beginning of the Promise
1. Before Iowa Became Iowa
2. Embarking upon a Promise: Rosmann's and Westphalia Begin
3. Mom and Dad, the Great Depression, and Father Duren
4. Grade School at Saint Boniface
5. A Working Laboratory
6. A Love of Nature, Wildlife, and the Seasons
7. The Decade That Defined Who We Would Become
Part II: Breaking the Promise
8. Starting to Farm in the 1970s Boom
9. Good Times, Hard Times, Getting Married and Beginning a Family
Part III: Restoring the Promise
10. The Real Journey Begins
11. Growing People, Not Just Crops
12. Matters of Church, Religion, Science, and Technology: A Layperson's Perspective
13. Agriculture and a More Livable Climate
14. What Can and Will We Do?
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
About the Author :
Ronald L. Rosmann is owner-operator of Rosmann certified organic family farms.
Review :
Take a fascinating walk with Ron Rosmann on his quest to be a “practical farmer,” driven by a deep understanding and respect for the ecology of the farm he stewards. Learn about the strength and stamina Ron and his family demonstrated in charting a new path, away from government machinations that define agriculture today, to a self-sustaining homestead. The book is part historical treatise on complex farm policies, and part journey into farm life from the 1970s to today. Ron easily weaves the importance of participation in political processes with personal farming anecdotes, which often reveal that inimitable, self-deprecating Rosmann sense of humor, that is emblematic of the thoughtful balance in life that the family achieves together.
I have enjoyed many experiences similar to those of Ron's growing up on an Iowa farm in the decades following the 1950s, and it brings back a host of memories. It is a great history lesson and so much more. It is also quite thought provoking as Ron shares his thoughts, passions, and a bit of his philosophy and values. He has a wealth of experience as a farmer and policy influencer, and has spent his life helping others and trying to improve the lot of all the myriad of stakeholders in American agriculture. He is advocating for social, economic, environmental, and ecological justice for all Americans.
A Practical Farmer's Journey is indispensable reading for anyone seeking to understand U.S. agriculture, its past, and the new directions we should seek. The book combines an insightful family and community farming history with spot-on observations of U.S. agricultural policy and food system inequities. With bravery and humility, Ron draws the reader into his internal dialogue and openly questions dearly-held assumptions about the role of agriculture in U.S. society and farm policy. Standing on a rock-solid analytical foundation and a lived experience as a practical farmer and a prominent sustainable and organic agriculture advocate, he issues a compelling clarion call for integrating social and ecological justice in farm policy, with a key role for mid-scale family farms in that transformation. Ron's concluding analysis of agriculture's role in climate change and his research-based mitigation strategies are invaluable tools for achieving a more sustainable agriculture and planet.
Ron Rosmann has distilled much needed guidance for our era. Although the core of his reflections naturally have to do with his lengthy and successful career as an Iowa farmer, this, to me, boldly addresses the complex technical, socioeconomic, and existential questions of our times with remarkable depth. Rosmann and his wife, Maria, are exactly the type of thoughtful, conscientious, and erudite citizen farmers that Jefferson had in mind when he envisioned an agrarian nation of enlightened agriculturalists. Set aside whether you have an interest in farming or not. If you value sober grappling with the big questions of our time and about humanity's future, read this book to peer into the thinking of a deeply intellectual fellow traveler who describes his understanding of humanity's current condition, his place in it, and most importantly, his assessment of the way forward. Profoundly stimulating and hopeful.
Ron's work is a comprehensive story of his farm family's journey through decades of change in the Iowa landscape. His research begins with an explanation of what happened to the Native Americans and continues through the social and environmental evolution that brings us to our current times. This is a bold and inspiring book from an exceedingly dedicated farmer who spent his life supporting and defending his rural community.
Ron has written a fascinating story about the settling of the Iowa prairie where his family farm is located. It explores in a comprehensive manner the inter-connectedness of the history of Native Americans, the Missouri River, and European immigrants settlement to the region. It is both a personal and communal story. The land and its new communities mixed together to shape and form a new country. Its insights into our historical knowledge of the land and rural community, how they have endured, are critical to understanding what to do about our very uncertain future.
