Farmer Able: A fable about servant leadership transforming organizations and people from the inside out
Farmer Able: A fable about servant leadership transforming organizations and people from the inside out

Author: Art Barter

Publisher: Wheatmark, Inc.

Published: 2015-02-20

Total Pages: 126

ISBN-13: 162787237X

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The pigs are running the farm. So begins the story of Farmer Able. Everyone on his farm -- people and animals alike – are downright downtrodden by him. He's overbearing and compulsively obsessed with profits and productivity. He's a typical top-down, power-based manager, forever tallying production numbers in his well-worn ledgers. But the more he pushes the hoofs and horns and humans, the more they dig in their heels. That is until one day when he hears a mysterious wind that whispers: "It's not all about me." Can he turn things around and begin attending to the needs of those on his farm, thus improving their attitudes and productivity? Farmer Able is an engaging parable that entertains as it enlightens. It reveals a profound truth about the dysfunction in organizations and how dramatic improvements can be made when leaders liberate employees to operate at their fullest potential and discover the significance in their work. If you're looking to develop a new and profoundly satisfying leadership style, one that advocates serving others and creating ethical, engaging workplaces and innovative environments, this book will set you on your way. If you are tired of "business as usual," this lively story will get you thinking about how to inspire your employees and produce better results.

Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table
Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table

Author: Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 1430130016

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A former basketball star, Farmer Will Allen is an innovator, educator, and community builder. When he looked at an abandoned city lot he saw a huge table, big enough to feed the whole world. This is the inspiring story of his determination to bring good food to every table.

The Farmer and the Clown
The Farmer and the Clown

Author: Marla Frazee

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-09-23

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 1442497459

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Whimsical and touching images tell the story of an unexpected friendship and the revelations it inspires in this moving, wordless picture book from two-time Caldecott Honor medalist Marla Frazee. A baby clown is separated from his family when he accidentally bounces off their circus train and lands in a lonely farmer’s vast, empty field. The farmer reluctantly rescues the little clown, and over the course of one day together, the two of them make some surprising discoveries about themselves—and about life! Sweet, funny, and moving, this wordless picture book from a master of the form and the creator of The Boss Baby speaks volumes and will delight story lovers of all ages.

Farmer Boy Days
Farmer Boy Days

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Publisher: Harpercollins

Published: 1998-01

Total Pages: 71

ISBN-13: 9780060274979

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As he grows up on his family's farm in New York, Almanzo Wilder dreams of having a colt of his own.

Bet the Farm
Bet the Farm

Author: Beth Hoffman

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 164283159X

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"Eloquent and detailed...It's hard to have hope, but the organized observations and plans of Hoffman and people like her give me some. Read her book -- and listen." -- Jane Smiley, The Washington Post In her late 40s, Beth Hoffman decided to upend her comfortable life as a professor and journalist to move to her husband's family ranch in Iowa--all for the dream of becoming a farmer. There was just one problem: money. Half of America's two million farms made less than $300 in 2019, and many struggle just to stay afloat. Bet the Farm chronicles this struggle through Beth's eyes. She must contend with her father-in-law, who is reluctant to hand over control of the land. Growing oats is good for the environment but ends up being very bad for the wallet. And finding somewhere, in the midst of COVID-19, to slaughter grass finished beef is a nightmare. If Beth can't make it, how can farmers who confront racism, lack access to land, or don't have other jobs to fall back on hack it? Bet the Farm is a first-hand account of the perils of farming today and a personal exploration of more just and sustainable ways of producing food.

Gaining Ground
Gaining Ground

Author: Forrest Pritchard

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2013-05-21

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0762794380

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With humor and pathos, Forrest Pritchard recounts his ambitious and often hilarious endeavors to save his family’s seventh-generation farm in the Shenandoah Valley. Through many a trial and error, he not only saves Smith Meadows from insolvency but turns it into a leading light in the sustainable, grass-fed, organic farm-to-market community. There is nothing young Farmer Pritchard won’t try. Whether he’s selling firewood and straw, raising free-range chickens and hogs, or acquiring a flock of Barbados Blackbelly sheep, his learning curve is steep and always entertaining. Pritchard’s world crackles with colorful local characters—farm hands, butchers, market managers, customers, fellow vendors, pet goats, policemen—bringing the story to warm, communal life. His most important ally, however, is his renegade father, who initially questions his son's career choice and eschews organic foods for the generic kinds that wreak havoc on his health. Soon after his father’s death, the farm becomes a recognized success and Pritchard must make a vital decision: to continue serving the local community or answer the exploding demand for his wares with lucrative Internet sales and shipping deals. More than a charming story of honest food cultivation and farmers’ markets, Gaining Ground tugs on the heartstrings, reconnecting us to the land and the many lives that feed us.

Farming for Us All
Farming for Us All

Author: Michael Mayerfeld Bell

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2010-11-01

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 9780271046327

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Farming for Us All gives us the opportunity to explore the possibilities for social, environmental, and economic change that practical, dialogic agriculture presents.

Tomorrow's Table
Tomorrow's Table

Author: Pamela C. Ronald

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008-04-18

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 0199756694

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By the year 2050, Earth's population will double. If we continue with current farming practices, vast amounts of wilderness will be lost, millions of birds and billions of insects will die, and the public will lose billions of dollars as a consequence of environmental degradation. Clearly, there must be a better way to meet the need for increased food production. Written as part memoir, part instruction, and part contemplation, Tomorrow's Table argues that a judicious blend of two important strands of agriculture--genetic engineering and organic farming--is key to helping feed the world's growing population in an ecologically balanced manner. Pamela Ronald, a geneticist, and her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer, take the reader inside their lives for roughly a year, allowing us to look over their shoulders so that we can see what geneticists and organic farmers actually do. The reader sees the problems that farmers face, trying to provide larger yields without resorting to expensive or environmentally hazardous chemicals, a problem that will loom larger and larger as the century progresses. They learn how organic farmers and geneticists address these problems. This book is for consumers, farmers, and policy decision makers who want to make food choices and policy that will support ecologically responsible farming practices. It is also for anyone who wants accurate information about organic farming, genetic engineering, and their potential impacts on human health and the environment.

The Farmer's Lawyer
The Farmer's Lawyer

Author: Sarah Vogel

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2021-11-02

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1635575257

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With a new foreword by Willie Nelson "An exquisitely written American saga." --Sarah Smarsh The "remarkably well told and heartfelt" (John Grisham) story of a young lawyer's impossible legal battle to stop the federal government from foreclosing on thousands of family farmers. In the early 1980s, farmers were suffering through the worst economic crisis to hit rural America since the Great Depression. Land prices were down, operating costs and interest rates were up, and severe weather devastated crops. Instead of receiving assistance from the government as they had in the 1930s, these hardworking family farmers were threatened with foreclosure by the very agency that Franklin Delano Roosevelt created to help them. Desperate, they called Sarah Vogel in North Dakota. Sarah, a young lawyer and single mother, listened to farmers who were on the verge of losing everything and, inspired by the politicians who had helped farmers in the '30s, she naively built a solo practice of clients who couldn't afford to pay her. Sarah began drowning in debt and soon her own home was facing foreclosure. In a David and Goliath legal battle reminiscent of A Civil Action or Erin Brockovich, Sarah brought a national class action lawsuit, which pitted her against the Reagan administration's Department of Justice, in her fight for family farmers' Constitutional rights. It was her first case. A courageous American story about justice and holding the powerful to account, The Farmer's Lawyer shows how the farm economy we all depend on for our daily bread almost fell apart due to the willful neglect of those charged to protect it, and what we can learn from Sarah's battle as a similar calamity looms large on our horizon once again.