Our classic book Farms of Tomorrow Revisited continues to support the development of healthy farm & food community linkages.
Humane Husbandry: Nebraska Tries to Blaze a Trail
“Nebraska leads the nation in organic livestock numbers and is one of the leading producers of grass-fed beef. In time we will lead the nation in producing and marketing humanely raised livestock.” – Kevin Fulton, rancher
by Steven McFadden – July 24, 2013
Out of the smoldering rhetorical and legislative rubble of recent years, a band of farmers – the Nebraska Farmers Union – has stepped forward in a joint venture with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) in an effort to blaze new, cooperative market trails that lead to increased opportunities for small and mid-size farmers, as well as to more humane livestock care.
Most Americans eat meat of one kind or another (96% of us). Questions about where our meat came from, how the animals were treated when alive, and how they were killed and prepared for our tables, are fundamental. They matter a lot, and in a lot of ways. Thus this joint venture between two groups that might well stand in opposition to each other is a model of national and perhaps international significance.
Nine billion animals are raised for the table each year in the USA. The experience the animals live out on a farm or endure in mass, industrial confinement has economic, environmental, health and moral ramifications…
The rest of the story is posted to my Deep Agroecology blog.
Reviews & Testimonials
Reviews of Deep Agroecology: Farms, Food, and Our Future
“…deep agroecology is more than the promotion of another growing system. It represent a fundamental change in the perceptions of humans about the choices they make in planting, harvesting, and eating food…The result is a hard hitting, powerful survey that takes the food system ideal a step further…” – Diane C. Donovan for Midwest Book Review, Nov. 2019
“…Because deep agroecology draws on a combination of science and ancient wisdom, it also highlights how many indigenous cultures have, for centuries, recognized the importance of strong, healthy communities, and how they’re dependent on the planet on which they live…An enlightening work of ecological thought.” ~ Kirkus Reviews, Nov. 2019
Reviews of Other Works
“Absorbing, engaging, thoughtful, thought-provoking, exceptionally well written, and thoroughly ‘reader friendly’ in organization and presentation, Tales of the Whirling Rainbow: Myths & Mysteries for Our Times is unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as community and academic library collections.” – Editor’s Choice, Midwest Book Review
“This wise and provocative collection is highly recommended.” – Library Journal on Profiles in Wisdom
“Our leaders should sit and listen to the counsel Steven McFadden has gathered…” – The Washington Times
“Profiles in Wisdom does a fine job not only of presenting the dignity, complexity, and wit of important Indian philosophers and religious leaders, but also of issuing cautions against easy uplift and wisdom injections…There are some stirring and unexpected powers unleashed in this book.” – The New York Times Book Review
“An excellent read. Informative without being preachy. Exactly what I have been looking for. Bravo!” – Smashwords Review written by W.E.L. about Native Knowings: Wisdom Keys for One and All
“It’s inspiring to read about all of the wonderful efforts Steven McFadden details…” – Teresa Opheim, Practical Farmers of Iowa, about The Call of the Land.
“The Call of the Land will inspire you with page after page of innovative projects across the country that are having a positive impact on how we eat.” – INGRID KIRST, Community CROPS Executive Director, Lincoln, Nebraska
“McFadden’s call to action is clearly written and well referenced with a robust list of current websites and a bibliography for general reading on positive methods for resolving our food security challenge.” — Charles Francis, Director, Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, reviewing The Call of the Land.
“…Readers new to this movement sometimes struggle to identify a primer that is accessible and grounded in real-world examples. The Call of the Land lends itself as a tool for such readers, as it not only illustrates a foundational agrarian ethos historically argued by Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson, but it also outlines a variety of practical models and approaches to inform the practice of local food system development. — KIM L. NIEWOLNY and NANCY K. FRANZ, Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
“The Call of the Land workshop at Stonewall Farm was a great opportunity to forward our goals of producing a local, sustainable food system in our region.” – Michael Faber, General Manager of Monadnock Food Co-op
“The Call of the Land workshop (presented by Steven McFadden) was a great benefit to helping us achieve our mission at the Conservation District…The event created a forum for us to meet new individuals who want to work on improving the local food system and re-engage with stakeholders who we have worked with in the past. ” – Amanda Costello, Cheshire County Conservation District, Walpole NH
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Critique Magazine: “To the uninitiated, reading Steven McFadden’s Legend of the Rainbow Warriors is a bit like hearing one’s native language spoken with an entirely new accent. The words are familiar, and the ideas and events of which he writes are certainly not news. But the light Mr. McFadden uses to illuminate his subject is alien. Self-sacrifice and stewardship of the land do not mix well with the American traditions of further, faster, and damn the consequences. Indeed, the juxtaposition of American-style progress and Native American sensibilities is one of history’s oddest coincidences…”
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About Steven McFadden & Chiron Communications
Welcome to Chiron Communications, a conceptual umbrella to unify my diverse work as writer, storyteller, and healer. My passion is casting light upon keys that may serve the health of human beings and the earth we share.
As a journalist, I’m the author of a range of non-fiction books. Most of them are on display at the bottom of the page if you wish to learn more.
I’m honored to have had the opportunity to author an epic, nonfiction saga of North America: Odyssey of the 8th Fire. The 8th Fire tells a true story arising from the deepest roots of our land, but taking place in the present and the future. In it, circles upon circles, elders make a great and generous giveaway of the teachings they carry.
In the early 1980s I initiated Chiron Communications, but then rested the concept in the 1990s. That’s when I took time to serve as National Coordinator for the annual Earth Day USA celebration, in partnership with the Seventh Generation Fund (1993).
Through the 1990s I served as director of The Wisdom Conservancy at Merriam Hill Education Center in Greenville, New Hampshire, as a participant in The Balaton Group, and as one of the pilgrims on a great universal prayer walk from the Eastern Door at the Atlantic Ocean across Turtle Island (North America) toward the Western Gate at the Pacific. I put Chiron Communications back into gear around the turn of the millennium.
For some readers it may look as if Chiron Communications is a sprawling, sporadic, multidimensional, multinational corporation. But no. It’s just me and my laptop, with a little help from my friends.
A Reiki Master of long standing, I’ve had the opportunity to transmit the Reiki healing techniques to hundreds of students across North and Central America. It was my privilege to help John Harvey Gray and Lourdes Gray, Ph.D. write Hand to Hand: The Longest Practicing Reiki Master Tells His Story. I’ve also had the privilege to travel with and to learn from many gifted healers from all over the Americas, as well as healers from Australia, Africa, and Ireland. At the turn of the millennium I was honored to earn certification as a yoga instructor.
As the land calls out ever more powerfully, I maintain an active interest in farming and gardening in general, Food Co-ops and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in particular. I’ve reported on the growth and development of CSA in America since its inception in 1986, striving to articulate The Call of the Land.
My most recent agrarian book, Deep Agroecology: Farms, Food, and Our Future, won the National Indie Excellence Award in the environmental category. I invite you to visit my dedicated blog: DeepAgroecology.net
At home once again in New Mexico, I’m a member of SouthWest Writers, NM Writers, and the New Mexico Book Association,
Thanks for reading. May your steps carry you along the beauty way. Respectfully, Steven McFadden
Thanks to Tim J. Hill of DraftHorse Studio for web design,
to Angela Werneke of River Light Media for the Chiron Communications logo,
and to my darling Elizabeth Wolf for the author photos.
eep agroecology, #deepagroecology
Call of the Land ~ Deep Agroecology
Chiron’s Cave. Listen to the Call of the Land. Learn about deep agroecology.
The unavoidable challenge of the 21st Century is to respond creatively and wholeheartedly to the urgent call of the land. Our survival depends upon our response. With community and creativity we can bring about environmental repair, economic security, and social renewal. This is the call of the land.
The Call of the Land is also the title of one of my books, a response to that call. The book also sets out a forthright description of essential survival-level relationships with the web of life that demand our attention, our intelligence, and our will.
The book describes a wide range of models – creative 21st Century agrarian responses – to the urgent call of our land. The full title of the book tells the story – The Call of the Land: An Agrarian Primer for the 21st Century – 2nd edition.
The book is concise in the realm of theory theory, and long on actual, practical working examples to show a broad range of possible creative, positive responses. The Call of the Land is loaded with model after model of ways for families, neighborhoods, communities, schools, and churches to meet the challenge of caring for the land and providing an ample supply of clean food.
My blog for Deep Agroecology & The Call of the Land expresses the urgent call as I and a host of other listeners hear it. In particular it explores positive creative responses to the call of the land, that we might have an abundance of clean food and heal the profoundly distressed environment in which we and our children dwell.
DEEP AGROECOLOGY
As 2020 unfolds, I’m pleased to steadily announce publication of my new book: Deep Agroecology: Farms, Food, and Our Future. Click on the covers below to learn more, or to purchase a copy.
Agrarian Archive: A Sampling of Articles and Essays
A Basic Call to Consciousness: Still Resounding.
Food Coops 2012: Growing Strong.
Fate of the People is Linked to the Fate of the Land: Wendell Berry.
Humane Husbandry: Nebraska Tries to Blaze a Trail
Latter Day Luther Nails Troubling Thesis to Doors at GMO Farm Citadels
Outside the Box, But Inside the Hoop:
Community Farms (CSA) at the Turn of the Millennium.
Rivulets of Revelation Flow from Two Farm & Food Conferences
Community Farms in the 21st Century
(2-part series on the history & development of CSA in the USA)
Dig Deeper ~ CSA Farms and Aggregators Thresh Things Out
(Rodale’s New Farm Magazine, Summer, 2015)
++ About 200 substantive articles and growing on my blog Deep Agroecology ~ The Call of the Land.
deep agroecology, #deepagroecology
Homepage
Our Collective Odyssey: Song and Story for the Generations ArisingJanuary 29, 2026
Musical Invocation: Odyssey of the 8th FireJanuary 15, 2026
Marvelous Meme Museum Makes MemoriesJanuary 10, 2026
Podcast book review of Deep Agroecology (5 minutes)November 2, 2025
Half a Century Later: My Odyssey in JournalismMay 6, 2025
Key talk about farms and food 2025 – English y EspañolMarch 2, 2025
Chiron’s Museum of Marvelous Memes – Gallery VFebruary 28, 2025
Odyssey of the 8th Fire accelerates in 2025December 31, 2024
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