“Call of the Reed Warbler” is the new book by Dr Charles Massy on regenerative agriculture. It is very well written as Charlie weaves his own journey of discovery from the ‘mechanical’ mind of an exploitive sheep farmer to the ‘holistic’ mind of a farmer who is regenerating his landscape, business and life.
“More than fifty millennia apart, two distinctly different human groups settled this continent – but with startlingly differs results. The first group were able to survive and build a sustainable human culture until the arrival of second group. Their examples are largely unheeded to this day, but it has some lessons to teach”.
I hesitated in buying this book…. In my mind I thought I’d read everything out there on the subject and shadowed some of the best in the field over the past 10 year like Peter Andrews, Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton, Darren Doherty, Graeme Hand, Joel Salatin and the list goes on. This is a story about many of the well-known people who have innovated and led the way despite hostile opposition and being ostracised in their local communities for being ‘different’ and daring to break the mould. They range from P.A. Yeomans, Alex Podolinsky, Lady Eve Balfour, Sir Albert Howard, to the contemporary Australians such as Colin Seis, Di and Ian Haggerty, Richard Weatherly, Tim Wright, Christine Jones, Geoff Brown.
In southern Australian wetlands, one of the sounds of summer is the melodious song of the Australian Reed-Warbler. This species is migratory in south-eastern parts of the country, arriving in spring and then moving north and north-west in late summer and early autumn.
The more hard hitting books over the last 12 months that I’ve been reading have been pre 1788 occupation from writers like Bill Gammage, Bruce Pasco and now Call of the Reed Warbler pulls everything together and more. Charlie explores the history of ‘mechanical’ agriculture and the ecological nightmare it has created globally. He methodically works through the fundamental principles underlying regenerative agriculture and uses real stories to demonstrate what is possible. And he’s not one to mince his words.
He concludes that the minds of regenerative agriculturalists are opened by three things – the first is to understand how the ecosystem works and how interconnected it is; the second is to get out of the way and let mother nature do her work; and the third is having the humility to ‘listen to their land’.
I highly recommend this book if you are:
- interested to understand regenerative agriculture and the holistic mindset in more depth;
- would like to read the stories of the pioneers and how they managed to survive;
- want to be inspired to continue your own journey into this captivating new world of agriculture.
“Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture – A New Earth” is published by The University of Queensland Press, and can be purchased in selected bookstores and online, in both hardcopy and eBook.
