Book Review: One Circle

Having tore through "the basics" like "How to Grow..." "Lessons in Nature, and "Gaia's Garden" I think I have a pretty good handle on the theory at this point. I have been really looking for some texts of the nuts and bolts of subsistence growing. I found it in One Circle: How to Grow a Complete diet in less than 1000 square feet" by Dave Duhon and Cindy Gephard. You can get it here from ecology action.

Make no mistake this is a no holds barred exercise in fine details. If you ever wondered whether someone had taken the time to compile and tabulate the facts and figures to properly calculate the required nutrient intake for a given individual, and then determine how much and of what type of crop to grow to meet those needs, let me end the suspense...Someone did and it is documented down to the finest detail. Which likely explains why this book will never be on a best seller list.

That is not an indictment of the efforts of the authors, just that most people will start looking at this and their eyes will glaze over. Most people will look at the fact that the crops grown to satisfy the nutrient and area efficiency requirements of meeting "on as little land as possible" number as few as 8. Add in the fact that, barring potatoes and wheat, most people do not consider the vegetables grown as anything more than a condiment at best or a punchline of a joke at worst. This is therefore, not a book for most people.

Documented carefully within its pages are a slough of tables (and slide rules) to calculate the nutritional needs for any given person, and planting recommendations accordingly. There are also examples so that people like me who don't plan on doing the calculations can use samples to satisfy their curiosity.

So if its not for most people then what is the upside? There are a couple of fantastic essays from a number of people, some excellent growing guides for the crops that are recommended, and while the content of the main segment of the book is quite heavy, it is an excellent explanation of why some crops are less efficient than others if one is growing for sustenance.

If I could have picked a different title it would be "Forget Tomatoes: using biointensive methods to grow crops which will technically provide you with all of your vegan diet using the absolutely smallest amount of space possible." It answered a question for me, what a diet using only the land I own would look like.

In the end I have give this work a thumbs up with a caveat...If you dig textbooks about nutrition and agriculture, pick it up. If not, ask to borrow it from a friend and just read the essays.