This is a comprehensive review of the status of organic farming in the US, rather than a handbook on how to grow crops organically. The first three chapters of the book concentrate on the economic, geographic, scientific and social aspects of agriculture and is generally well researched and well referenced with a good number of UK texts being cited. Many of the issues raised will strike a cord with the UK readers, despite some obvious differences, about the sustainability of rural economies - "Our taxes support farmers so they can sell their crops cheaply to agribusiness corporations that sell the food back to me and you, reaping huge profits in the process, mostly at the expense of family farms". Leslie Durham points out the dangers of what she calls "Big O Ag" - organic farming that has been pulled into an industrial mode of production - now that the demand for organic produce has been recognised as a marketing opportunity for big business.

The review of the science behind organic production is convincing, although the conventional production with which it was compared was perhaps a little less rigorously researched. One of the conclusions, "Farming with organic methods can now produce yields similar to conventional methods, and if organic farming methods could obtain agronomic research funding, these yields would be even greater in the future", blows away one of the main arguments against the widespread take-up of organic farming.

The second part of the book provides stories from organic farmers, essentially in their own words. This is rather hard to digest for the non-US reader, since the colloquialisms are rather obscure. Their tales are largely about marketing and social aspects and it would have been interesting to learn more about the agronomic problems they faced. The use of five farmers with five different enterprises in five different locations provided a wide range of agriculture to study, but did not give a sense of how typical they were. There was a sense that these might be the most successful ones. However, it was clear that they all shared a passion for what they do, they worked hard, but found the work rewarding, they were self-taught and they believe that organic production is the right way to produce the best quality food.