The War in the Country: How the Fight to Save Rural Life Will Shape Our Future

by Thomas F. Pawlick

Rural life in North America has changed dramatically since the days of the family farm, when people worked the same land for generations, let their cows graze in pastures and their chickens scratch in dirt, and sold their produce locally. The few remaining small farmers now struggle to survive, strangled by debt and a rash of complex regulations designed to drive them out of business. In their place are corporate-backed factory farms with little understanding of, or sympathy for, rural life. But the corporate and political interests determined to make this life extinct are meeting with fierce resistance. In this passionate and persuasive book, writer and farmer Thomas Pawlick uses his own rural community as a microcosm for the battle between industrial agriculture and local farming — a clash whose outcome will determine the future of rural life in North America — and also the quality and sustainability of our food, water, soil, and air.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Thomas F. Pawlick has more than thirty-five years of experience as a journalist and editor, specializing in science, environmental, and agricultural reporting. He is a three-time winner of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association National Journalism Award and has won the National Magazine Award for agricultural reporting. He lives on a 150-acre farm in eastern Ontario.

Reviews

[LibraryCin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this book is looking at life in rural areas with a focus on eastern Ontario. More specifically, he is looking at family farms vs factory farms, as well as mining rights vs indigenous land claims and sub- vs surface rights of landowners.

It seems the government is making things more and more difficult for smaller operations. Large corporations not only get subsidies, but smaller operations are hit with regulations they couldn’t possibly afford to meet, and in a lot of cases, regulations that just make no sense for what they are doing.

Some examples include the vegetarian restaurant told they needed to replace their cedar counter with stainless steel, stainless steel being needed for meat… but they don’t serve meat; but they might one day; well we’ll get stainless steel if that happens; nope, too bad, you need to do it now. Or the small butcher shop that doesn’t serve food to eat inside his shop but is suddenly required to install washrooms. These are just the tip of the iceberg. Both these businesses were asked to do much more than this, as their own expense, of course. Growing organic food is much more difficult than it should be, etc.

The author does end the book with lots of suggestions to fix these issues, but the political will is needed to do it and that’s currently not there, with large corporate lobby groups holding the purse strings of many politicians. Urban folks are asked to become educated to help rural folks stand up for these things.

[Gord · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a kick in the pants this book turned out to be: a war is being waged in the countryside and most of us in the cities not only don't know that it's happening, but we don't understand the stakes.

Pawlick does a great job of using examples from his own part of Ontario to illustrate many of the challenges facing small-scale farmers, but also to show why we need them to win. Put simply, our food supply has been quietly taken over by big agribusiness with no interests in mind but their bottom line. Family farms not only produce better tasting food, but it's healthier as well. We need the small farmers to win, but the entire process is stacked against them: marketing boards are dominated by the big players, government programs are tailored to the interests and government inspectors are openly hostile to them.

He covers a wide variety of topics from marketing boards to government programs to land-use issues (both from the point of view of native Canadians and settlers alike). Thankfully, he includes a good section of resources and groups for interested parties to get involved with or this would have been an incredible depressing volume.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting (and almost wholly Canadian) perspective on factory farming and the influence of Big Government on rural life and livelihoods. Fans of 'Food, Inc' and 'The Omnivore's Dilemma' will enjoy. This reader, however, found the multiple references to the author's earlier works distracting and self-serving, and the presence of both an annotated bibliography and extended citations of Wikipedia to be disconcerting.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really informative and engaging read. I was especially interested to discover that the FDA actually is LESS stringent about food safety than in many countries (I think most Americans think the opposite is true) and to find out what other countries are doing.

After reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" I have tried to keep an eye on my eating, including eating locally as often as possible. This helped me find the next step in making my eating habits more informed and responsible. The information on factory farming was shocking and - I have to say - has resulted in my meat intake being a LOT lower and ALL locally grown and slaughtered. Most of my cheese intake was already local or was home-made and now I need to work on my eggs! It has actually been a great experience, my nutrition is better because I'm paying attention to labels and my food bill has dropped a ton since I'm not eating out as much!

My only complaint isn't REALLY a complaint at all. The author is Canadian and therefore much of the book is about how Canada handles their food-factories. While it did draw comparisons to America, much of it was good only as information, not practical application. I read it in conjunction with "Eating Animals" however, and that made the comparisons even more interesting. While "Eating Animals" was an inferior book to this one, it is great to read them together just for the points of view. I also highly suggest "Food, Inc" (the book, not the movie) as a compare-and-contrast-ing of opinions.