Why do whole-farming planning? What makes it more effective than other ways of managing farms? The answers to these questions lie in a quiet rediscovery through science that is fundamentally changing the way modern humans see and must manage the world.

The goal of this whole-farm planning manual is to reintroduce a macroscopic method of making and testing decisions on the farm and in larger wholes in which we live. This NOFA guide has information on:
• Lessons from systems science (including tools)
• Assessing the whole farm (what are we managing? the people, physical and mental assets, money)
• Understanding the farm ecosystems (the water and mineral cycles, dynamics of the biological community, the energy flow)
• Choosing appropriate tools
• Making a framework to test decisions

Including examples and statements from practicing farmers, and more holistic resources and alternative business models.

About The Author

Elizabeth Henderson co-authored The Real Dirt and Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen's Guide to Community Supported Agriculture. She farms in Newark, New York, and has been involved in CSA farming for more than 15 years.

Karl North, after his graduate work in social anthropology and ecology, learned and practiced subsistence agriculture in the French Pyrenees. With his wife Jane, he built and has operated Northland Sheep Dairy since 1980. He completed three years of training as an educator in Holistic Management in 2004. His articles on the themes of holism and sustainability in agriculture have appeared in NOFA periodicals.