Review by Choice Review
Author of Consulting the Genius of the Place (2010) and cofounder of The Land Institute (TLI), plant geneticist and MacArthur fellow Jackson offers readers this personal memoir--whose title makes reference to his mother's habitual exclamation, "Hogs are up!" (recalling a Depression-era radio broadcast announcing that the market for hogs had "gone up"). Through selected anecdotes the author presents a glimpse of his own life experiences, beginning with an account of growing up on his father's hardscrabble farm in the late 1930s, harvesting potatoes by digging them from a field by hand while crawling on his knees. Jackson rejoices in this experience and in overcoming life's hardships, picking up the story line with his education as an adult, completing a PhD and becoming increasingly conscious of methods embraced by agribusiness, e.g., use of chemical fertilizers that leach the land of nutrients and despoil water and other environmental resources. The narrative serves to explain how and why Jackson came to the inspiration for creating TLI as a nonprofit agrarian research facility. The goal that Jackson and TLI colleagues pursue is to develop sustainable agricultural practices that will both restore depleted land and extend crop yields. As a complementary text, readers may consult Wendell Berry's The Gift of Good Land (2nd ed., 2009). Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Paul D. Travis, Texas Woman's University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
