This book may be of interest to some here.

“The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution: High Production Methods for Small Scale Farmers” by Andrew Mefford, (New Society Publishers, January 2019).

Without a doubt, having been written by the editor of this publication, Mefferd’s book is tailored to the Growing For Market readership.

The book begins with a general (yet superb, but we’ll get to that) breakdown of the whys and hows of no-till. The bulk of the book is made up of interviews with successful, often highly-profitable, no-till growers from Maine to California (with a refreshing jaunt to Australia), some of whom have contributed to this publication in years past, others of whom are completely off the radar. The 17 grower interviews are compared to the author’s experience working on a no-till research farm 15 years ago.

Mefferd’s overview of no-till is smart and objective for how effectively it does not denigrate those who till, but simply highlights many of tillage’s inefficiencies. These are inefficiencies that most every farmer is already going to be familiar with—how tillage ties up time, requires fuel and equipment, and also depends on soil conditions. Too wet or too dry and tillage can be even more damaging to the soil life, water retention, and so on. These inefficiencies are then paired, or perhaps flipped, by Mefferd to be contrasted with what happens when you avoid tillage—how the weeds go down, the labor goes down, while the water-retention and life return.

Are there downsides to no-till? Sure, there can be and Mefferd objectively goes into those—slugs, for one, or potentially cooler soil in the spring for another—but to hear from these farmers in the interviews makes those negatives seem harmless in contrast to the negatives of tillage. Plus, many of these growers have found work-arounds or solutions because no-till, even when imperfect, has significant potential for profit, reduced labor, better food and better soil. In contrast to tillage, for these growers it was worth figuring it out.

There is something striking in reading through Mefferd’s interviews in that the range of different techniques that have been developed to manage without tillage are so diverse. There are cover-cropping farmers, farmers who mulch with straw or compost, cardboard-mulchers, and everything in-between. These farmers obviously did not get the memo that no-till was impractical or unscalable, and set forth quietly and effectively developing efficient no-till methods for small-scale production.

Fair warning that you will put down Mefferd’s book brimming with a dose of inspiration. However, it probably will not answer every question you have, because no book on no-till can do that. Though true of farming in general, no-till farming is especially void of a single unifying system. Rather it’s about a set of principles: namely, disturbing the soil as little as possible, keeping it planted as much as possible, and keeping it covered as much as possible.

How you interpret that for your own farm—given your scale, access to materials, tools, et cetera—will determine how you go about achieving a no-till system of your own. Vegetables and flowers all still grow the same way, it’s the soil prep where the nuance comes in.

That said, the value of Mefferd’s interviews is that they show you the array of options at your fingertips. If straw is a material you can access affordably, there are models for using that in these interviews. You hear about compost mulches from Paul and Elizabeth Kaiser at Singing Frogs Farm or how Shawn Jardnicek uses leaves in his roller-crimper system. Lots of cardboard at your disposal? Ricky Baruc and Deb Habib will serve as a great resource for how to employ it. An inspired grower can take one of these methods or hybridize a few, but this book will give you the confidence to try something new through the simple strategies of seventeen different successful no-till growers.

We have all heard for many years—sometimes even from our agricultural agencies—how we shouldn’t be tilling, how it disrupts the structure and life of the soil, but we have also been presented with very little in the way of alternatives. Thanks to Gabe Brown and Andrew Mefferd, however, we finally have something to work with—we finally have those alternatives. To be sure, the no-till movement has arrived, and we shouldn’t just make room on our shelves for these two books, but also for the flood of books on no-till farming that Brown and Mefferd will almost undoubtedly inspire.

Jesse Frost is a vegetable grower and freelance journalist in central Kentucky. He has written for The Atlantic, Civil Eats, Modern Farmer, Hobby Farms and others.