"Long before anybody heard the term social enterprise, a few untrained businesspeople started small, unconventional companies to solve problems for their neighbors—and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. This is the story of one such entrepreneurial effort, which demonstrates how a green economy rooted in regenerative organic agriculture and renewable energy can help rebuild struggling communities in rural America."

"Those looking for food systems reading material, whether for an introductory course or general interest, will find that this book’s smooth and effective navigation of ecology, history, sociology, and political economy provides a comprehensive overview of agriculture in America as well as a provocative questioning of conventional farming." 

"Farmer and plant biochemist Bob Quinn's passionate story makes it impossible to go on farming (or eating) as usual. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand why our food system is so unhealthy and how we can fix it."

It is a fun book to read, written at an easy conversational level, and provides a lot of useful information. It should be a good addition to anyone exploring the food movement toward sustainable and organic farming and could be useful reading yoked to critical analysis of this approach as part of a university course focused on food production.”
 

"Grain by Grain is a book for our times, one that demonstrates alternatives to help diversify agriculture, develop more resilient systems, and stimulate rural economies in a future with uncertain economic and climatic conditions. It is a must-read resource for those in agriculture who suffer from the pains of trade wars and tariffs, negative environmental spin-offs from chemical technologies, and narrow focus on a few major commodity crops. The book outlines
a thoughtful entrepreneurial process for designing and implementing a diverse and economically viable future for agriculture and rural areas."

"A compelling personal story that takes the wind out of the war on wheat and charts a course for getting rural America off the agrochemical treadmill."

"In the age of start-ups and tech crazes, it might seem counterintuitive to call something as ancient as grain 'revelatory.' Nevertheless, Bob Quinn's quest to recapture the value of our food system through grain is just that—a revelation. Liz Carlisle and Bob Quinn have unlocked the key to kickstarting change—Grain by Grain is one big kernel of truth."

2018-12-04

An organic farmer and entrepreneur in Montana shares his experiences and ideas for changing the way America produces its food.

The organic spokesman's story is co-authored by Carlisle (Lecturer/School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences/Stanford Univ.), whose previous book, Lentil Underground (2015), also focused on an entrepreneurial Montana-based organic farmer. After her explanatory prologue, Carlisle remains hidden so that the experiences and the opinions represent Quinn's voice. The book is partly memoir: Readers learn about Quinn's upbringing on a Montana farm, his various ventures into organic farming, his work to improve soil quality, and his launching of a wind farm and biofuel project. However, the text serves mainly as an argument about the necessity of valuing quality in food and how it can help heal people instead of making them sick, alleviate poverty by rebuilding rural communities, and reduce damage to the environment. Central to the story is an ancient grain from Mesopotamia that Quinn experimented with and the building of Kamut International, a large wheat corporation operating internationally. The picture that emerges is that of an experienced farmer and a resourceful, community-minded businessman. Quinn's tale is also a diatribe against America's widespread agricultural-industrial complex. He rails against "Americans' fiercely held attachment to cheap consumer goods, particularly cheap food. Transformed from producers into consumers at the same time as their economic status diminished, the American middle class insisted on lower and lower prices, spurred on by corporations like Walmart and McDonald's." That's the bad news. Quinn does provide evidence of progress, as more and more people, especially millennials, are becoming informed consumers, interested in where their food comes from and how it is produced, and an increasing number are becoming farmers, producing organically and selling locally. The few black-and-white photographs scattered throughout add little to the text, which stands alone quite well.

A compelling agricultural story skillfully told; environmentalists will eat it up.