Shepherd: A Memoir, by Richard Gilbert

Ever since his father lost the family farm when he was a child, Gilbert dreamed of owning his own farm. He got that chance when his wife took a job at Ohio University, and he got a job in marketing for the university press. He got off to a rocky start at farming. The locals looked on him as an outsider, and some tried to take advantage of him. The task of a sheepherder was not as idyllic as he had imagined. But in the process of eking out a small income from his labors, he came to new spiritual awareness. In the course of the memoir Gilbert points out some larger realities, such as that in 2005 the United States became a net food importer for the first time and that there are now more people incarcerated in the United States than work at food production.