Liz CarlisleCritiques

I'd hand this book, along with a few Wendell Berry books to all my friends, if they were all within my hands reach! I Love Kamut- I dream of my fields producing it, I dream of giving seeds of it to every person I greet on the street! How wonderful to be handed such a gift- the gift of seed...his stories and growth mindest are inspiring, make my heart sing and give me hope in humanity and the future of land I was born to.

This 2019 book from Island Press is one of the few books on wheat that is based on sound nutrition principles. When author Bob Quinn took over his family's Montana farm, he started off on a long journey to find and manifest agricultural integrity. No-till farming? Check. Organic farming? Check. Farm foods that enhance human nutrition? Check.

The only correction I offer is that teaching in the USA about organic whole grains as a major element in the human diet did not start "in the late 1960s," it started with a network of macrobiotic teachers in the late 1950s, first in New York City, then expanding to Boston and its suburbs. George Ohsawa, plus Michio and Aveline Kushi, with their students and colleagues opened the very first US natural food stores to sell a wide range of whole grains and whole grain products. US writers like William Dufty (Sugar Blues) and actress Gloria Swanson (Swanson on Swanson), along with many other writers popularized macrobiotics; the result nowadays is an Americanization of the natural foods movement, which is as it should be. US stores that popularized nutrition before the late 1950s, like Lindblad Nutrition, only sold supplements, *not* whole foods.

Mr. Quinn is dead right on the mistaken US wheat seed hybridization fad to create an extra-hard bran layer to protect the inner wheat berry ... that "development" did indeed create a US distaste for whole wheat products, since the resulting flour still contained unpleasantly sharp edges of bran. This book is a great read.

Bob Quinn is not your average organic visionary. He is a lifelong conservative Republican and was raised on his father’s traditional farm in Big Sandy, Montana. Bob earned a PhD in plant biochemistry at UC Davis and started a career in his field of study.

But when he returned to his father’s farm, he saw how much of the profit was going to chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. He was also troubled by the lack of quality in traditional food and also by the push to reduce the number of small farms.

He began to experiment with organic farming. He found that like life itself, all things agriculture are related. He began to work for more control of his product – which eventually meant setting up his own mills to grind grain for himself and his neighbors, starting Montana’s first wind farm, and producing high oleic safflower oil. While he first envisioned the oil powering his farm’s diesel engines, he soon realized that it was a better more nutritious type of edible oil, creating contracts to ‘rent’ the oil to food companies such as the University of Montana and then having the used oil return to his farm.

One of his most far-reaching experiments was attempting to grow a sample of ‘King Tut’s Wheat’, a supposedly ancient seed given to him at a county fair in 1964. Over many years, he found it could be grown on his dryland farm (no irrigation), and produced a high protein, high nutrition product that research showed reduced inflammation and was tolerated by many of those suffering from modern day ‘gluten intolerance’. He believes that this intolerance is the product of the unbalanced genetical modifications that make wheat more hearty, greater yield but less nutritious. This wheat is now grown by numerous farms as Kamut wheat. Kamut is a variety of Khorasan wheat, known in some parts of the Middle East as ‘the prophet’s wheat’ – the prophet is not Mohammed but Noah. Kamut is a trademark guaranteeing that the product is organic and not crossed with other varieties.

His guiding principle has become the ‘triple bottom line’: "not just profit but also value to people and planet. This was a revolutionary concept for businesses that had previously externalized costs like environmental damage and health problems for workers exposed to toxins. But even sustainability-oriented businesses still tended to see these three bottom lines as separate goals, and given their overriding obligations to their shareholders, profit frequently trumped people and planet.” P 198

Fascinating book – much ‘food for thought’. In the summary chapters, he gives an easy way to start: on your next trip to the grocery store, add two organic items to your cart and let it grow from there.½

My husband read it, then my daughter read it; now it's my turn. As the daughter and granddaughter of conventional farmers in Iowa, I am finding it fascinating. I would love to know what Dad would think of it. I think it's a great story; very easy to read. I find myself cheering on the lentil farmers.

All incoming freshmen at the University of Montana (where I work) are assigned a book to read and discuss during their first semester. This year, it's Lentil Underground by native Missoulian Liz Carlisle. Having known nothing about organic farming (or farming in general), I was unsure how I would like this book. However, because of Liz's easy to follow and conversational writing style, I was able to follow along with the story of the farmers who started the organic farming revolution in Montana (and it all started with lentils). I thought the processes she described were fascinating, and I learned so much! I hope that most of the students enjoy the book as well, and gain a new understanding and respect for those who work the Montana land. I'll be keeping an eye out for Timeless Seeds products in the grocery stores around town!

At first Carlisle was just documenting a quirky alternative farm business model in rural Montana. I enjoyed her "Ah-ha!" moment when she drew parallels between the health and vitality of living soil and the health and vitality of human community. This is a very hopeful book and I'm sure glad for those people who are working so hard to re-make our world before it's too late. Discusses many of the larger world issues of food distribution, government programs, community action, agricultural research.

Well done narrative and excellent content.½

The Lentil Underground - Eat well and Prosper

Good books are good books, and a good read is always a rare and enjoyable time....AND every once in a long while a book comes along that is a life changer. The Lentil Underground is one of those rare books that may well change your whole outlook on a vital topic, American agriculture.

My wife and I are foodies and avid vegetable gardeners and we have long known that mainstream agriculture in the United States is just not right. While we are producing a huge amount of food in our country, almost all of it is of a questionable quality. Worse than that is that our methods are generally not sustainable for a growing population in a growing world. Huge applications of soluble fertilizers, much of which run off into local streams, tilling on a grand scale that dehumanizes the farmers who feed us all. Monoculture crops rather than diversity. All of these aspects are totally dependent on fossil fuel at every step of the way. All have the profit margin as the only guiding goal. None of these methods are sustainable. We are told by the big agribusiness industries that small farming methods can never feed the world and theirs is the only way. Liz Carlisle totally explodes that fantasy with her account of the faming group that she calls "the lentil underground'. A small and steadily growing group of real, family farmers who are producing good food at good prices. And, there is no need for concern that when you buy from them you are despoiling the environment. Probably the greatest thing about the book is that it introduces you to a bunch of real people - foodies - who make their living feeding folks while improving the very land they feed us from! Get to know them a little, maybe even talk to them (yes they are reachable) and you'll find very quickly that they are a hard working and friendly bunch who will be happy to connect you with other safe and sustainable sources for the foods they don't grow. Need beans or grains, the very staples of life? Want to know where what you eat comes from and who grows and handles it? Like good tasty foods produced with love and sweat? Read this book! Good things ARE happening in American agriculture and the Lentil Underground is a great, eye opening, fun to read book.

As someone who is interested in sustainable food production. I thought this was an interesting chronicle of a small group of farmers struggles to challenge the generally accepted methods of food production. This is not a practical guide for someone who is looking o transition their farm. I think this book would be Highly readable even by those who are not particularly familiar with the intricacies of farming. Let the Revolution begin!

In the spirit of a modern day Robin Hood, farmer Dave Oien has a dream of taking farms from conventional practices (chemical laden monocultures) that rob the soil to methods that instead feed and enrich it. He does this by sowing plants that provide their own fertilizer (such as lentils) in a crop rotation that feeds people AND the soil. He and his band of merry men form an enterprise known as Timeless Seeds - this is the tale of their trials and tribulations in bringing sustainable farming to Montana.

Enjoyable read by author Liz Carlisle. There was mention that this book was written as she was completing a Phd; I was unclear about whether this book was tied into that project. Regardless, the book did not have the feel of a dissertation that had been "polished up" to appeal to a more general audience (frequently poorly done and a pet peeve of mine). What this book does quite well is be a general manual of what organic/sustainable farming is all about. While this type of farming is much more prevalent than when Oien started out, it still faces headwinds from factory farming and the idea of "go big, or go home". Carlisle paints an honest and realistic picture of what it takes to make a go of it. The only complaint I had with the book is that there were such an abundance of characters (you'll see that I didn't choose that word lightly - it takes all kinds) that it got confusing at times (pictures would have been nice to keep everyone straight). Still, I enjoyed every last one of them and their heroic efforts to buck the system and stay true to their principles. Anyone interested in food and how it is grown will find much to like with this read. Recommended.

A small group of farmers in Montana bucks the system and decides to grow small-scale organic crops that will feed the soil as well as people. Lentil Underground tells the stories of these farmers, their crops, the support systems they developed and their struggles with the agricultural system.

It's an adventure story, a thriller, a nail-biter, a mystery all in one - in ways you won't anticipate. Who would expect all that from a book titled: Lentil Underground?
Well.......
It's the subtitle that gives the biggest clue: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America.
If one has any awareness of the role big corporations have taken over the food industry in this country, you know this book is full of suspense. Here is the ultimate "little guy," who just wants to provide good food, produced in a sustainable way, in opposition to the corporate mass production of food for the longest shelf life for maximum profit to the corporation. This results in food with less nutrition than ever before and is creating ecological havoc in its wake.
Lentil Underground is the story of those first courageous farmers who risked everything they had in their belief that Americans wanted nourishing food and land that will continue to produce that food for generations to come.
If that is your interest too, this book is vital to understanding the struggle that, in many ways, is still going on. Pass it on to anyone who wants to eat!

ISBN: 978-1-592-40920-4

Lentil Underground, Liz Carlisle, Gotham Books, available February 2015

I wasn't sure that I would be able to get into this book and picked it because I figured I should probably get familiar with the food industry issues. What a surprise it was to find a book that grabbed my attention from the beginning. It was very interesting and the human stories really kept me engaged. I will say that as I continued to read it was difficult to keep the story lines straight and the number of "characters" introduced was a bit overwhelming; especially if you have periods where you can't jump right back into the book. However, this didn't keep me from coming back and wanting to read and learn more. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it (and have!).

I'm interested in food and farming and eating but I wasn't sure if I would enjoy an entire book about lentils. I did! Although it isn't just about lentils -- Carlisle writes about a community of organic farmers that came together in Montana. She covers the challenges facing organic farming, political, natural, financial; and the benefits. But really, it is all about the community. That is where change comes from.

Carlisle's voice is great and the book is very readable, but I didn't love the structure. The chapters had titled sections of varying width plus seemingly random vignettes thrown in every once in a while. That felt disorganized to me. The epilogue was great; I liked reading about where everyone was now. Carlisle did her homework -- there are notes and an extensive bibliography. (I wish I'd realized earlier there was a glossary in the back.)

It's nice to know there are farmers out there who care this much about the land. I'll be seeking out Timeless at the store and maybe try my hand at a small plot of nitrogen-fixing lentils?

I have read a lot on why some of these farming practices can improve both community health and sustainability, but until now didn't understand what it can take to start that kind of change, especially in the face of large scale subsidized farming that puts the end product over howit is made. This was an interesting look at what can happen when people are committed to something they believe in.

I received this book from the early reviewer's group.½

When I first encountered the "organic" movement in the mid-1990s my first thought was, "Isn't all food organic?" This reveal my deep ignorance about the effects of the Green Revolution of the 1950s when pesticides and petroleum-based fertilizers swept agriculture like the Dust Bowl did the topsoil the generation before. Most urbanites, and not a few rural-dwellers, grew up envisioning the farm as some healthy, clean, non-toxic eden--that our fruits and vegetables were natural and clean thanks to the progress of modern agricultural science. It wasn't so much the we weren't "told" specifically the sheer tons of inorganic matter sprayed on plants and soaked into the soil; we were encouraged simply not to think about it. Our visual model growing up was Old MacDonald with his one cow, one horse, one sheep, one pig and a pretty patch of corn and beans growing in the background.

Of course, the less than 40 years of this farming as industry that superimposed itself on tens of thousands of years of farming somehow became "the norm" and attempts to return to a more symbiotic relationship with the land and environment, suddenly became "radical" during the 1980s and 1990s. I can only shake my head in wonder how quickly we forgot our actual heritage a cultivators of not only wheat, but of communities and civilizations. Those determined to return to a more nurturing way of farming were forced "underground" until a time when people began to realize the harm they were doing to their bodies, minds and communities by remaining ignorant and apathetic about what they put into their bodies as food.

The Lentil Underground documents the very hard, grueling work--physical, mental, and spiritual--a handful of determined "free-thinking" farmers have put into creating a cooperative infrastructure that promotes soil health as well as human health. Focused in Montana, the author's home state, Liz Carlisle, interviewed the founders, movers and shakers of the Montanan "organic" movement and the development of Timeless Seeds, a small cooperative supporting and sustaining farmers who grow lentils and other nitrogen-fixing crops, using a variety of methods.

It would be easy to assume this book would be boring--I mean, seriously? A book about FARMING!? But, I found it riveting. The history, the various philosophies, practices, obstacles, successes of each person involved in the Lentil Underground was a chapter in a book much greater than Carlisle's--it's about re-writing agriculture and rural environments not to benefit the corporate, mega-agribusinesses, but benefit PEOPLE and communities. Having been raised in a rural agricultural town in the 1970s and 80s, I had plenty of my own biases about and sometimes against the farming community. As we all know, farmers are backward, ignorant, conservative, sons of the soil who wouldn't be able to grow a carrot without a Ford F-150 and a twelve-pack of Coors. Perhaps these stereotypes are promoted because when the slick, university-educated agronomist scoots in with his ADM or Monsanto boys behind him, people don't put up a fuss: "Trust us, we're educated!" And then proceed to dump petroleum by the tanker-ful onto the soil--not to mention GMOs and a host of other altered and questionable farming practices.

This book made me realize that there are good people out there who are crazy enough to care about farming for it's own sake, to care about health soil and the food it produces, to care about changing the world for the better not just for some corporation's bottom line. I foresee that in order to "weather" the on-coming shit-storm caused by climate change and too much petroleum saturation, we will need the diversity and practices offered by groups like the Lentil Underground in order to produce the sustenance we will need to live and survive. For this alone, this book is a must-read.

And to put faces to names from the book go to Timeless's website: http://www.timelessfood.com/

Notable quotes:

"There are more organisms living beneath the soil than above it." (301)

"Change and continuity find themselves intertwined into a way of life more cyclical than linear." (307)

"[T]he most insidious thing about monoculture is that getting out of the habit of working with other species has also gotten us out of the habit of working with each other." (310)

Liz Carlisle put together a well written book about an aspect of our farming system that needs to be changed not by shaming the people who currently participate but by telling a story about a group of farmers who went against the grain and through hard work and with lots patience are slowly but steadfastly changing our current system one field at a time. I enjoyed the tone of the book, Ms. Carlisle managed to find a perfect balance that was educational but not too academic and casually conversational but not careless. I liked that as her investigation unfolded and new characters were added she fleshed out their distinct personalities so when those characters were again referenced anytime later in the book it was easy to discern the web of personal connections without having to flip back through previous pages to remember who was who again.
* This review is based on receipt of an Advance Uncorrected Proof from the publisher via LibraryThing.com *

Full-time farmers currently comprise less than 2 percent of the current US population, but they directly and indirectly have the largest cumulative impact on the health of our population and environment. Lentil Underground does an admirable job of explaining the challenges and triumphs of rural Montana food growers who are caught between the financial realities of saving their family farm and saving the planet for future generations.