In his second book, West Virginia native Forrest Pritchard traveled the country to find farmers practicing various forms of sustainable agriculture. His new book, "Growing Tomorrow," features a farmer growing organic berries in Mount Vernon, Washington, another growing vegetables in Dixon, New Mexico, a farmer raising acorn-fed hogs in Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia and more.
Pritchard will speak Friday at Taylor Books about "Growing Tomorrow." His talk will begin at 6 p.m. and will incorporate a reading from the chapter on Black Oak Holler Farm located in Fraziers Bottom and owned by Chuck Talbott and Nadine Perry.
As a full-time farmer in the Shenandoah Valley, Pritchard's first book, "Gaining Ground," told how he turned his family's seventh-generation, failing farm back into a successful business. Below are excerpts from a recent interview with Pritchard.
Q: Tell me about how you came to incorporate a farm, [Black Oak Holler Farm], into your book.
A: You may not know, I'm a West Virginia kid through and through. My dad grew up in South Charleston, and I spent all my summers in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. West Virginia is near and dear to my heart. It is my heart. ...
I'm very much attached to West Virginia. I could not write a farming book without including West Virginia in some way.
Q: What made you decide to incorporate Talbott's story in the book?
A: When I heard about Chuck trying to practice restorative agriculture to build soils and to harvest food in the form of acorn-fed hogs and using native tree species to feed his pigs, that was just such an inspiring story. I knew I had to get it in the book.
Q: Can you describe what you saw when you got to Talbott's farm?
A: What I saw was a classic West Virginia holler. You had to cross a low-water bridge. It was just very modest infrastructure. It's a little holler that opens into 230 some acres if I'm not mistaken. It just goes right up the mountain. ...
He was just being very intentional of working with the land, the topography and the animals. ... He puts in barley, millet, pumpkins, all kinds of different things for the hogs to graze.
As it goes up the valley, he's got different stages. He's got his piglets in some places, his sows in other places, his finishing hogs in other places. He's structured his particular valley to suit his agricultural system. These are places that don't stand a chance of growing corn or soy beans. They probably aren't even that great to graze cattle on. ... He's growing a couple hundred hogs or so in a year.
Q: For people who aren't familiar with sustainable agriculture, could you describe what we're talking about?
A: Sustainability. I kind of describe it as threes: [first] it's environment. A lot of times when we think about sustainable agriculture, we think about protecting the environment and enhancing the environment.
The second is economics. So these farms are generating a profit. So they aren't operating on subsidies. Full-time farming, making a profit
The last is human energy. So we are living within ourselves. We aren't trying to do 10 different things. We are trying to do one or two things well.
Q: It seems that so often we are so disconnected from our food, where it comes from and how it's produced. Can you share why it was important to feature in your book unique, sustainable farms producing all over the country?
A: Like you said, we are so disconnected from our food. So how do we reconnect? There's a map in the front and back of the book of all the places I went to. Basically the reader could open it up and look at a map of the United States and be like 'Hey, where's the closest farm to me?'
Wherever the reader is in America, they are going to see a place that is relatively close to them. It isn't all happening in New York or San Francisco. It's happening in St. Louis. It's happening in Des Moines, Iowa. It's happening in Dallas, Texas, and Charleston, West Virginia.
Q: In terms of sustainability we talk about it a lot, but can you share why it's important to you and why it's important to talk about?
A: It's mandatory. So much of the food system that we have available to us, especially in West Virginia where it's a lot of fast food and grocery stores without a huge amount of choice, we have direct health consequences of a lot of this food - between type 2 diabetes, obesity.
I'm not trying to rage against the machine or throw stones. I'm saying that are alternatives. We come from an agriculturally proud state. We come from a state of great cultural independence. Mountaineers are always free. We are participating in a food system that is basically three ingredients: corn, soy and wheat disguised often as cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches and biscuits. ...
It becomes a mission of what do we value? Do we value our health? Do we value local farms? Do we value fresh fruits and vegetables? I'm not expecting to have a farmers market in every little town in West Vigrinia or a Whole Foods. I'm saying grow some of it yourselves. Let's have backyard gardens. Don't complain about it being expensive. Let's grow some it ourselves.
Reach Anna Patrick at anna.patrick@wvgazettemail.com or 304-348-4881.