Book Review – Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America by Author Liz Carlisle

“What is a lentil, and why should I care about it?” you may well ask. I did---but after reading this book, I know, and so should you. Liz Carlisle didn’t know a lentil from a dental procedure when she was a successful country singer, but touring through the agricultural heart of the country brought the realization that “most American farmers weren’t actually growing food but rather raw ingredients for big food processors”. She decided she needed to know more, and maybe even a career change, one that might help change the world, or at least a small part of it. One of Carlisle’s home state senators, John Tester, just happened to be an organic farmer, and she snagged a job as his legislative correspondent for agriculture and natural resources. This brought her into contact with other (antiestablishment) farmers, dismissed as “weed farmers” by more conventional growers. While it is true that their fields were messy, and the crops looked weird, the interviews with David Oien, Jim Barngrover, Bud Barta, Jim Sims, Russell Salisbury, Elsie Tuss, the Crabtrees, and others lacked the usual complaints about drought, low yields, and the expense of chemical fertilizers. In fact, the “weird” crops were doing just fine with less moisture and needed no chemical fertilizers to thrive. What brought these people together, with each other and the seeds of lentils, black medic, flax, and emmer (among others)? What convinced them to take the terrifying leap away from conventional farming into what must have seemed like a fantasy realm, where crops provided their own “green manure”, held the water in the soil during dry seasons, and actually improved the soil rather than depleting it? More than a “what”, it was a “who”--- Dave Oien, Returning to the family farm near Conrad, Montana in 1976, armed with a vision and carpentry skills, and spurred on by fears that pesticides might be turning his home into another version of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, Dave planned to transform his world, starting with a solar collector. The next step would be to transform the “fossil fuel-based grain monoculture into a self-supporting diversified farm that ran on manure”. A non-profit group called the Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO) became the common ground for Montana’s infant organic farming movement and brought together the individualists who were going against the grain (literally) in a quest to become self-sufficient. Oien realized that providing the right seeds, both for crops and to plow under for soil enrichment, would also “grow farmers”. Timeless Seeds was born. With hard work from AERO and the Timeless farmers, legislation was passed to form a state-wide certifying organization, and the future of organic farming in Montana became much brighter. So—“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” And look for products from Timeless Seeds and your local organic farmers in your favorite grocery store! Your Mother (Earth) will thank you. By Carole Ann Clark: December 18, 2025 - Great Falls, Mt