Going Over Home

Starred review from September 1, 2019
From a young age, Thompson felt a deep connection?a call, even?to the land. His grandparents and other forebears had been Virginia farmers, but changing times made it harder and harder to scratch out a living, until his parents were forced to find other means to raise their family. Even so, Thompson tried renovating and living in an old cabin on family land as a teen, studied agriculture in college, worked with agricultural nonprofits, all the while dreaming of owning and tending his own piece of ground. In his late twenties, the dream came true, but something was missing. Farming and communities supported by farming had changed irrevocably, and there were no easy answers or fixes. Thompson traces the changes in tax structures and how USDA policy in the 1970s drove farmers to buy more land and accumulate more debt, giving rise to industrial agriculture and the death of family farms. In addition, Thompson explores how racism deeply affects the process. Ultimately Thompson's search for "democratic values based on equal access to land" leads him from the farm to academia. This book deserves a place next to the writings of Wendell Berry, Henry David Thoreau, and Michael Pollan.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)