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Title: Highgrove: An Experiment in Organic Gardening and Farming by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Charles Clover, Prince of Wales, H R H Charles the Prince of Wales ISBN: 0-671-79177-X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: November, 1993 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)
Rating: 4
Summary: Behind the pretty pictures, a manifesto
Comment: HRH The Prince of Wales' position in life presents him with opportunities to speak and be listened to. Similarly, his name on the cover of this book, and the beautiful color photos that illustrate it, may get many readers to give it an initial browse. But what they'll find inside is much different than the guided tour of a garden they may be expecting (for that, they should check out HRH's "The Garden at Highgrove," 2000). Instead, it's a manifesto of sorts -- a defiant defense of an organic approach to agriculture that is a polite but unmistakable challenge to agribusiness orthodoxy.
The parts of this book I found most interesting were the first and last chapters, the parts penned by the Prince himself. They give a bit of his personal history with the Highgrove estate, his goals in converting from traditional to organic farming, and some of what he encountered after doing so. The last chapter, particularly, also lays out some of the lessons he's learned so far (circa 1993, of course) and how he believes it applies to the larger questions confronting agriculture in the UK.
The earlier chapters in Mr. Clover's section are also interesting, focusing as they do on The Prince's decision to purchase Highgrove and some of his early steps in "going organic." The latter chapters, unfortunately, become more and more weighted with questions of politics and policy, as he argues the economic and environmental benefits of organic farming. These chapters remind the reader how incredibly interventionist (by US standards) both the British government and the European Union are in matters that, in this country, are regarded as far more private. The restrictions on farmland use, especially, struck me as remarkably onerous. If that's what "Rio" and related international accords (still more Kyoto) bring in their wake, Americans should read and ponder these chapters very carefully before we assent to them ourselves.
The Prince's chapters, especially, reminded me a lot of American agriculture writer Gene Logsdon, author of "Living at Nature's Pace," among many other works. I hope, in fact, that HRH has read some of Mr. Logsdon's titles -- I think he'll find much in there to admire, and much to think about.
On a stylistic level, I enjoy reading The Prince's prose -- I did in "A Vision of Britain," and did so again here. His is an entertaining and very personal pen, articulate, reasonable, self-effacing, and not afraid to take a counter-cultural stand. I was disappointed to see that some of The Prince's recommendations also veered into the government-interventionist, but to that degree at least I suppose he is a product of his society and era.
On the whole, this book may not convince large-scale farmers to abandon traditional agribusiness and convert to organic approaches, but I suspect that was not the authors' intent. If, however, it succeeds (or succeeded) in getting consumers and/or casual gardeners or farmers to think a bit more about where their food comes from and how it was produced, I would imagine the authors consider it a success. All that, and an entertaining, informative read too.
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Title: The Garden at Highgrove by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Candida Lycett Green, Andrew Kawsin, Christopher Simon Sykes ISBN: 031227551X Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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