Six Steps Back to the Land - by Colin Tudge (Paperback)

About the Book

Drawing on his years of experience working in the farming industry, Colin Tudge shows us why we need a renaissance in our approach to agriculture, and how we can get it started.

Book Synopsis

An exploration into how we can have truly sustainable, resilient and productive farms.

In the 1930s, nutritionists claimed that the increase in population size would soon make it challenging to eat enough protein, which they thought was only obtainable from meat. Mercifully, this is not true. Although meat does offer a nutritional bonus, we do not need vast amounts of it and could get all our protein from plants. The world has lots of food problems still - from issues surrounding fertile soill to agroforestry and livestock - but there are solutions.

Colin Tudge coined the expression 'Enlightened Agriculture' to describe agriculture that is expressly designed to provide everyone, everywhere, with food of the highest standard, nutritionally and gastronomically, without wrecking the rest of the world. In his enlightening book, Six Steps Back to the Land, he explains how we can achieve truly sustainable, resilient and productive farms, looking at why we need to rethink our approach to farming, how we can move to low-input mixed farms, and how tightly-integrated farms employ many skilled people, as well as the practicalities in today's world and how to deal with those.

Informative, uplifting and deeply inspiring, Six Steps Back to the Land is perfect for anyone with an interest in our food chain, and includes lots of ideas on how to get involved and make a difference.

Review Quotes

"This book spells out the steps by which we might be able to get out from under the dominance of the Corporations and the 'big is best' mentality, and restore a farming which will feed 10 billion without poisoning the landscape, killing the bees, or turning farmers into serfs. If we want a peaceful and prosperous future, nothing could be more important. Read it, and then get involved!" --Tim Gorringe, Emeritus Professor of Theology

"In his wonderfully accessible style, Colin Tudge gathers together his increasingly well-honed arguments about society's miss-directed development of agriculture. This provides the background for illuminating six solid, safe steps in a direction that could diminish simultaneously the major problems of the past while sustaining a happier, healthier and more equitable future for agriculture and thus for society as a whole." --Professor Martin Wolfe, Wakelyns Agroforestry

"Colin Tudge is one of those remarkable people who challenges orthodoxies by thinking outside of the box. He's earned his place in the history of the food culture of this country as a real change maker." --Patrick Holden, Sustainble Food Trust

"This book is an eye opener as to the realities lying behind high-level exhortations about 'feeding the world' and reveals how the path we are on is more about the interests of powerful elites, rather than the people eating the food." --Tony Juniper, author of What Has Nature Ever Done for Us?

"Colin Tudge offers a welcome perspective at a time when so much of the dialogue about food and farming is framed against a backdrop of fear... Six Steps Back to the Land sets out a renaissance, a future shaped not by fear but by understanding." --John Turner, farmer and co-founder of the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association

About the Author

Colin Tudge is a biologist, science writer and author, who has a passion for food and agriculture. His previous books include Why Genes Are Not Selfish, The Secret Life of Trees and The Secret Life of Birds. Now a freelance writer, Colin has worked with Farmers' Weekly, New Scientist and BBC Radio 3. He has a passion for food and agriculture, and is closely involved with the Campaign for Real Farming and the Funding Enlightened Agriculture network, which support SMEs in the sustainable food and farming sector.