Farm

Is it possible to survive as a new farmer and change the future of farming at the same time?

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. 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, Harvey 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. But when she realises 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.