A BOUNTIFUL FEAST for the EYES & HEART! Over 100 Pages of full color illustrations. Originally The Farmer was intended to be a wordless picture book but at the end of the creation process Mark Ludy lovingly added text. It was his first work and launched his career as an Author/Illustrator at the age of 25. The story is about a farmer who lovingly cares for his animals and little plot of earth but disaster after disaster take that which is most precious to the man. Interwoven throughout the story is the relationship between he and his neighbors - neighbors who do him nothing but wrong. But in the end, there is one last disaster, but this time who's in trouble? But the neighbors. And who's there to help them? ...but the farmer. The end is beautiful and rich. For we see a man who lost everything but when bounty returns he holds it out for others who are in need. The lessons of Perseverance, Hope, Forgiveness and Faith are all embodied in the life of the Farmer. The story was inspired by a young 3rd grade boy named Jared, who Mark's sister taught years ago. Every day he'd come to school in his overalls and during reading time would pull out his seed catalog... checking off the plants he wanted for home. He was going to be a Farmer! and that was all there was to it. She recalls him coming to school and during recess transplanting flowers from home there at the school. But it was when she shared about a picture Jared had drawn that the story was revealed to Mark. The picture depicted a fierce storm raging through a little farm. The farmer was there, latched onto a tree with his legs flailing in the air, plants were being uprooted and animals were tumbling on by. Under the picture he had scrawled, "One raindrop turned into a million."

Hold on to your heart as you get to know the farmer. Perseverance, forgiveness, hope and love you will see in a fresh, beautiful way. The Farmer was originally conceptualised as a wordless picture book, but before it went to print the simple but profound text was added. Thus, the whole book and its message can be gleaned from the pictures alone, making it truly unique.

“A sensitive, powerful love story about a man on the cutting edge of life.” —Richard Brautigan In Farmer, Jim Harrison tells the story of Joseph, a forty-three-year-old farmer-schoolteacher who suddenly finds himself at a crossroads. Forced to choose between two lovers one a tantalizing young student, the other his beautiful childhood friend he must also decide whether or not to stay on the farm or finally seek the wider, more worldly horizons he has avoided all his life. Farmer is a wondrous blend of insight, storytelling, and the author’s uncanny ability to evoke the mysteries and beauties of the natural world. “A beautiful novel”, Farmer serves as the perfect introduction to Harrison’s remarkable insight, storytelling, and evocation of the natural world (The Boston Globe). “A quiet triumph . . . Yes, it is the old story again. Taking it and making it new, as Harrison has done, is a miracle on the order of the loaves and fishes. But then so are all good novels.” —The Washington Post

A delightful anthology of classical Greek and Roman writings celebrating country living—ranging from a philosophy of compost to hymns to the gods of agriculture Whether you farm or garden, live in the country or long to move there, or simply enjoy an occasional rural retreat, you will be delighted by this cornucopia of writings about living and working on the land, harvested from the fertile fields of ancient Greek and Roman literature. An inspiring antidote to the digital age, How to Be a Farmer evokes the beauty and bounty of nature with a rich mixture of philosophy, practical advice, history, and humor. Together, these timeless reflections on what the Greeks called boukolika and the Romans res rusticae provide an entertaining and enlightening guide to a more meaningful and sustainable way of life. In fresh translations by classicist and farmer M. D. Usher, with the original texts on facing pages, Hesiod praises the dignity of labor; Plato describes the rustic simplicity of his ideal republic; Varro dedicates a farming manual to his wife, Fundania (“Mrs. Farmer”); and Vergil idealizes farmers as residents of the Golden Age. In other selections, Horace extols the joys of simple living at his cherished country farm; Pliny the Elder explains why all culture stems from agriculture; Columella praises donkeys and tells how to choose a ram or a dog; Musonius Rufus argues that farming is the best livelihood for a philosopher; and there is much more. Proof that farming is ultimately a state of mind we should all cultivate, How to Be a Farmer will charm anyone who loves nature or its fruits.

In May 1967, internationally renowned activist Fannie Lou Hamer purchased forty acres of land in the Mississippi Delta, launching the Freedom Farms Cooperative (FFC). A community-based rural and economic development project, FFC would grow to over 600 acres, offering a means for local sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and domestic workers to pursue community wellness, self-reliance, and political resistance. Life on the cooperative farm presented an alternative to the second wave of northern migration by African Americans--an opportunity to stay in the South, live off the land, and create a healthy community based upon building an alternative food system as a cooperative and collective effort. Freedom Farmers expands the historical narrative of the black freedom struggle to embrace the work, roles, and contributions of southern Black farmers and the organizations they formed. Whereas existing scholarship generally views agriculture as a site of oppression and exploitation of black people, this book reveals agriculture as a site of resistance and provides a historical foundation that adds meaning and context to current conversations around the resurgence of food justice/sovereignty movements in urban spaces like Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York City, and New Orleans.

“Paul Farmer brings his considerable intellect, empathy, and expertise to bear in this powerful and deeply researched account of the Ebola outbreak that struck West Africa in 2014. It is hard to imagine a more timely or important book.” —Bill and Melinda Gates "[The] history is as powerfully conveyed as it is tragic . . . Illuminating . . . Invaluable." —Steven Johnson, The New York Times Book Review In 2014, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea suffered the worst epidemic of Ebola in history. The brutal virus spread rapidly through a clinical desert where basic health-care facilities were few and far between. Causing severe loss of life and economic disruption, the Ebola crisis was a major tragedy of modern medicine. But why did it happen, and what can we learn from it? Paul Farmer, the internationally renowned doctor and anthropologist, experienced the Ebola outbreak firsthand—Partners in Health, the organization he founded, was among the international responders. In Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds, he offers the first substantive account of this frightening, fast-moving episode and its implications. In vibrant prose, Farmer tells the harrowing stories of Ebola victims while showing why the medical response was slow and insufficient. Rebutting misleading claims about the origins of Ebola and why it spread so rapidly, he traces West Africa’s chronic health failures back to centuries of exploitation and injustice. Under formal colonial rule, disease containment was a priority but care was not – and the region’s health care woes worsened, with devastating consequences that Farmer traces up to the present. This thorough and hopeful narrative is a definitive work of reportage, history, and advocacy, and a crucial intervention in public-health discussions around the world.