HOOK

HOOK 55 By David Neilsen Book Reviews Cows are a lot of work. That is one thing that Shawn and Beth Dougherty stress early on in their new book, One- Cow Revolu4on. While they go on to enumerate the many benefits of own- ing a grass-fed family cow, they start the book with a very clear idea that this is a serious commitment that can- not be taken lightly. Cows must be milked once a day, 365 days a year. This means no running off on vaca4on and leaving Bessie to wander aimlessly on her own for a week. In fact, to get the best use of your cow, one needs to be constantly moving it from sec4oned-off pasture to sec4oned- off pasture of the two-to-three acres, minimum, that you will need to care for your family cow to avoid overgrazing and to allow your fields to flourish. It is almost as if they want to start their book with a disclaimer. This is seri- ous, and you can't just put in a minimum of effort and hope to reap the rewards. But dive past the first chapter and you uncover the truth: owning a grass- fed cow is so totally worth it. Anyone with the opportunity, ability, and pa4ence to try their hand at own- ing and caring for a cow will never look back. Imagine ge6ng more or less your family's en4re nutri4onal needs from a single animal. An animal that, apart from the need for daily milkings, is remarkably low-maintenance. They feed themselves, ea4ng the wild grass that naturally grows on your land, and The history of hu- manity is o%en re- ferred to in terms of metallic Ages: The Stone Age, The Iron Age, the Bronze Age, etc. With her new book, The Nature of Fashion, Carry Somers makes a strong case that a be5er descrip4on for describing the birth of civiliza4on would be The Fiber Age: the period in history when human beings a5ained the ability to harvest plant material and turn it into fabric. There is evidence that this ability allowed us to survive The Ice Age, and it marks a very important step in the evolu4on of human civiliza4on. At some point, rather than just wear loose-fi6ng animal skins as clothing, we created the most amazing substance: string. Suddenly we wove plant material into nets to catch fish and game, created baskets to gather food and sup- plies, and fastened our clothing close to our bodies to pro- tect them from the elements. Somers' book is a remarkably well-researched tome that stretches back over 40,000 years into our past and tells the tale of how we, as a species, grew and evolved in leaps and bounds as we gained more and more control over the fab- ric of our lives. Beginning with the discovery of string in a Neanderthal encampment in France da4ng to 41,000 B.C.E and stretching to the present day, Somers makes her case step by step using both fact and fic4on. First, she goes over the science and historical fact of the discovery/advance- ment in ques4on. Then she engages in a well-wri5en patch of historical fic4on, taking you into the world of the 4me period in ques4on to give the reader a possible glimpse of how things might have worked and why they may have happened the way they did. Somers does a fantas4c job with both of these tasks, and the combined effect of the book is both entertaining and enlightening. To dive into the book is to dive into history. Somers takes us to such far-flung loca4ons and 4mes as 800 B.C.E. Den- mark to examine a dead ruler's so% funeral cloth made of ne5le, to Paraguay 1500 years later to revel in the true and only color of red imaginable, to the plight of agave farmers in Mexico in 1869. The story of the plants we grow for rea- sons other than food, and what we ul4mately do with the harvests, is woven into our history. It is the story of human- ity in all its raw truth: there is good, there is evil. Success and failure. Subjuga4on and revolu4on. Through it all, Somers takes us by the hand and opens our eyes to a world many of us have never even considered. How o%en have you sat and thought about what you are wearing on your body? Where did the materials come from? Where will they go when you are done wearing them? What will be their impact on the world? The Nature of Fashion is en- tertaining and somber, educa4onal and surprising. It is our story, and Somers has done a wonderful job in bringing it to us in a form we can easily digest and understand. their droppings enrich the very same land they prune while ea4ng, crea4ng an even greater harvest of grass for the future. It's an almost-perfect system, and the Dougher- tys do a great job explaining each and every benefit in full detail. There are chapters in the book covering every aspect of your cow experience. From the process of acquiring a cow, to milking, nutri4on, lacta4on, calving, breeding, and more. There's even a chapter on end-of- (cow's)life decisions. With the way today's food world works, everything you eat has grown somewhere far away, been packaged somewhere else equally far away, and trucked to your loca- 4on over days and days, if not weeks. The benefits of cu6ng through all of that and taking care of yourself at home on your own cannot be understated. Shawn and Beth are 4reless advocates for the lifestyle, and while their "leave the mod- ern world behind" ar- guments won't resonate with every- one, they will most definitely resonate with those ready for a taste of adventure and self-determina4on. As waves of small, fam- ily farms begin to once again dot the land- scape of middle America, the obvious benefits of a grass-fed cow make their resurgence preordained. One-Cow Revolu4on is a call to arms for those who have 4red of city and suburban life and are ready to fundamentally alter their working rela4onship with nature. More than that, it is an invita4on to join the ranks of those who have discovered the true joys of living in harmony with nature. Imagine ge3ng more or less your family's en1re nutri- 1onal needs from a single animal... An invita1on to join the ranks of those who have discov- ered the true joys of living in harmony with nature.

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