Native to Place: Grass, Soil, Hope by Courtney White [review of Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey Through Carbon Country, by Courtney White]

Abstract

First paragraph:

In Grass, Soil, Hope (2014, Chelsea Green), archaeologist-turned-activist-turned-cattle rancher (and now writer) Courtney White recounts a personal journey to discover "on-the-ground-solutions to the rising challenges of the 21st century" (Introduction, p. XX). Throughout the book he circles two common themes — the role of carbon in both creating and solving environmental problems, and paradigm change — and uses these themes to stitch together stories of ranching, organic farming, wetlands restoration, and beaver conservation, among others. Individually the stories are interesting forays into creativity and innovation at the local scale. Taken together, however, they suggest a compelling and hopeful thesis: that sustainability is not merely about learning to minimize human impacts, but about learning to reorganize our actions such that they become important to the rest of the natural community, fostering biodiversity and promoting healthy ecosystem structure and function....