A Bold Return to Giving a Damn

Why did you write the book?

“As I approached 40 years of age my view of how I should treat my land, my herd, and my community radically evolved… in ways that I would never have expected. My perception of what is good land stewardship. and what is good animal welfare, and what is good community service turned upside down. Good land management came to mean giving up utilizing harmful industrial reductionist science tools like pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Good animal welfare came to mean moving from merely not treating animals with cruelty to allowing them to express their instinctive behavior.

Good community development came to mean evolving my hometown [Bluffton, Georgia] from a literal ghost town into a delightful little village. I realized that what I had done was good, and important, and highly replicable. I understood that if I could tell my story to other farmers and ranchers, they too could find the courage to step outside the horribly damaging commodity agricultural production system.I wanted to share my 30-plus-year journey with others who might decide to make the same choice.”