Desire always precedes action; coming to understand “why-to” is more important than knowing how-to. After reading some—or better, all—of the books listed below, you’ll thoroughly appreciate why it makes sense to do whatever it takes to grow nutrient-dense food for your own kitchen. At the date of this book’s publication, every title in this list is available for free download from the Soil and Health Library: www.soilandhealth.org. Steve Solomon created the library in 1997, and it was largely his project until 2014. Now it is owned by a New South Wales registered charitable association; Steve sits on the committee.
Albrecht, William. Soil Fertility & Animal Health. Webster City, IA: Fred Hahne Printing, 1958.
Albrecht published hundreds of scientific papers, journal articles, and even a many-years-long series of monthly health magazine articles. This, his only book, encapsulates his major messages. A reprint of Albrecht’s book is currently sold as The Albrecht Papers, Vol. II by Acres (2005). (There are many Albrecht papers and articles in the Soil and Health Library.)
Dale, Tom, and Vernon Gill Carter. Topsoil and Civilization. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955.
A summary of world history that explains how every previous civilization fell because they degraded their agricultural resource base, and asks—quite pointedly—how long ours is going to endure.
Elliot, Robert H. The Clifton Park System of Farming. London: Faber & Faber, 1943.
Originally published in 1898 as Agricultural Changes. Elliot developed a system of laying down land to grass, dependent on no input except a complex mixture of deep-rooting pasture seeds. The pastures would be plowed under after four to eight years, cash crops would grown until the humus levels declined, and then the field would be restored by again growing grass/clover/herbal mixtures.
Howard, Albert. Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease. London: Faber & Faber, 1945.
Albert Howard founded the organic farming and gardening movement. Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease was republished as The Soil and Health in 1947 by Rodale Press.
Howard, Albert, and Yeshwant D. Wad. The Waste Products of Agriculture: Their Utilization as Humus. London: Oxford University Press, 1931.
This is Howard’s most important scientific publication, detailing the nature, practice, and significance of composting as he learned to do it at Indore research farm.
Jenny, Hans. Factors in Soil Formation: A System of Quantitative Pedology. New York: Dover, 1994.
One of the most important books about soil ever written about soil fertility. This is a scientific text that can be understood without high-level mathematics; however, a well-grasped secondary school chemistry class and a touch of geology will go a long way toward making this book fully comprehensible. Dover publishes a paperback reproduction of the 1941 edition.
King, F. H. Farmers of Forty Centuries, or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan. N.p.: 1911.
King was a masterful observer of farming and keenly aware of the massive ecological destruction happening a century ago. This is, if nothing else, a great travel book.
Krasil’nikov, N. A. Soil Microorganisms and Higher Plants. Moscow: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1958.
Translated in Israel by Dr. Y. Halperin. Published for the National Science Foundation, Washington, DC, and the Department of Agriculture, USA, by the Israel Program for Scientific Translations (1961). This is the ultimate study of the microbial process in soil. It has been little known since its publication. In the Soviet Union of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, industrial production was scanty. So Krasil’nikov focused on the biological and found ways to improve plant growth with special composts and microbial ferments of the sort that could be produced by the farmer in an old barrel. All these “primitive” solutions are based on a very high-level understanding of the microbial process in soil and the interactions between soil microbes with each other, of how crop species interact with each other via long-lasting soil residues (root exudates), and of how plants and microbes interact with each other.
Parnes, Robert. Fertile Soil: A Grower’s Guide to Organic & Inorganic Fertilizers. Davis, CA: Agaccess, 1990.
This extremely useful but scarce paperback book is very expensive if you can find a used copy.
Price, Weston, D.D.S. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. New York: Paul B. Hoeber, 1939.
In the 1930s Dr. Price journeyed to extremely isolated regions, finding people who, because of their remoteness, enjoyed excellent nutrition, and from that, general good health, long life, and virtual immunity to dental disease. Price visited Scotland, Switzerland, Canada, Alaska, Peru, Africa, Down Under, and Melanesia, etc., and in each region found extraordinarily healthy (and extraordinarily isolated) peoples who did not partake of the industrial food system because they could not. Contains remarkable photographs that show the differences between what healthy bodies and physically degenerated bodies look like far better than words ever could. No one who spends time studying these pictures will ever view the health and appearance of their friends, their neighbors, or their own face in the mirror in the same way.
Solomon, Steve, and Erica Reinheimer. The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2013.
Explains how to interpret a soil test and using that information, bring soil into the kind of balance that produces nutrient-dense food. The book can be comprehended by anyone that genuinely learned primary school arithmetic.
Smith, J. Russell. Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture. New York: Harcourt & Brace, 1929.
Any plowed field sloping more than 3 percent cannot be prevented from eroding away over the course of a few centuries (sometimes a lot quicker). Smith’s solution, the one leading to a permanent civilization, is the use of food-producing tree crops on sloping lands. Smith shows us photos of places where people mostly eat food from trees and shows the possibilities for tree cropping in North America.
Tiedjens, Victor A. More Food from Soil Science: The Natural Chemistry of Lime in Agriculture. New York: Exposition Press, 1965.
Tiedjens is right up there with Albrecht on the list of those who most advanced the science of growing nutrient-dense food.
Tiedjens, Victor A. Olena Farm, USA: An Agricultural Success Story. New York: Exposition Press, 1969.
Tiedjens chronicles how he restored an exhausted Ohio farm mainly by the use of agricultural lime.
Weaver, John E. Root Development of Vegetable Crops. New York: McGraw Hill, 1927.
A classic study filled with species-by-species illustrations, each one worth tens of thousands of words. You can’t understand what’s going on above the soil line unless you appreciate what the plant is trying to accomplish belowground.
Widtsoe, John A. Dry-Farming: A System of Agriculture for Countries under a Low Rainfall. New York: MacMillan, 1911.
Hidden between the paragraphs of this book one can see how lack of ethics and greed led farmers to ignore Widtsoe’s warnings, making the Great Plains dust bowl inevitable. This book provided insight that allowed me to develop dry gardening.
Wrench, G. T., The Wheel of Health. London: C. W. Daniel Company, 1938.
In this book Dr. Wrench considers the Hunza, a mountain people renowned for their longevity and vigor. It should rest at the very foundations of one’s personal explorations of health and its roots. In this book you will encounter a summary of the life works of two other renowned health explorers, Sir Robert McCarrison and Sir Albert Howard. Their writings are also available in the Soil and Health Library. You will also have the opportunity to meet Dr. Wrench, an individual possessed of the most admirable intelligence.