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Prize of the week

Nov 24, 2022

Farm: The making of a climate activist by Nicola Harvey

For years we’ve been told that the food system is destroying the planet. That there are too many cows and tractors, too much fertiliser, too much waste, and that farmers and food manufacturers are polluting our atmosphere.

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But we’ve also been told that food can help save us from the worst of global warming. How can it be both destroyer and saviour?

In 2018, Nicola Harvey and her husband, Pat, left their careers and inner-city Sydney life to farm cattle in rural New Zealand.

They thought it would be exciting, even relaxing, but soon found themselves in the middle of heated arguments and deep divisions about food, farming and climate change.

In this profoundly personal story, Nicola takes readers into the heart of the industrialised global food system to share what life on the land is like when you’re a new farmer just trying to survive — and change the status quo.

At odds with her family and struggling to find a place within her new community, Nicola is at first outraged at the lack of action to curb global warming.

When she realises, though, that we're all being sold a false fix, she begins to transform the farm into a site of activism.

In the kitchen and on the land, Nicola finds hope and a path towards a cooler future.

Farm: The making of a climate activist by Nicola Harvey is published by Scribe, RRP $32.99

GIVEAWAY

We have three copies of this book to give away. For a chance to win a copy, send your name, address, daytime phone number and the answer to this question What frog is featured in this week’s paper? to: Country Life ‘Farm’ Competition, PO Box 8000, Shepparton, 3632, by Friday, December 9.