Legacies of the American Farm

Jane Brox has just published her new book, "Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm".  It is, generally, a brief history of American farming, from the origins of colonization to the present eradication of farming as a way of life in New England.  Brox balances this big issue by focusing, autobiographically, on her family´s own farm in the Merrimac Valley, and her experiences in trying to leave the land, and coming back to the land.

The book is also autobiographical in that if follows her travels, including her sojourn on the island of Nantucket, during her escape from New England farming. The book is also a fascinating glimpse of a little-remarked upon element of New England farming - the farming experience of immigrants who brought their cultural fingerprints (including their unique vegetables) to the New England landscape.  The book is, overall, a different telling of American history. We have become accustomed to history that relates the move west as a symbol of manifest destiny. It is somewhat strange to have the story of westward expansion baldly explained as the failure of New England to provide a subsistence existence for its farmers.

While we generally know that the New England mill towns tapped farm girls for their labor, we rarely contemplate the effect of this on the farms they left behind. And today, perhaps we don´t think seriously enough about the security of our food supply, which is now firmly in the hands of agribusiness, trucking companies and distant supermarket chains.

This is a book that will really make you think.