{"id":6878,"date":"2026-07-24T12:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=6878"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:17:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:17:00","slug":"the-farmers-code-by-mike-c-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=6878","title":{"rendered":"The Farmer\u2019s Code by Mike C. Young"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Robbins meets Hesiod in this generous and sincere guide to living the good life.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In Works and Days,<\/em> one of our oldest surviving complete works of literature, Hesiod, the ancient Greek poet to whom the work is commonly attributed, combined agricultural knowledge with general advice on living well. Nearly three millennia on, the confined but strong literary tradition that Works and Days<\/em> spawned continues with Mike C. Young\u2019s The Farmer\u2019s Code.<\/em> In it, autobiography, business advice, life coaching and spirituality are all distilled into one effective package.<\/p>\n

Five generations is how long the author\u2019s agricultural family business has been going strong for, growing from a one-man affair (Young\u2019s great-grandfather) to a multi-million dollar company. The book recounts lessons from the world of agriculture and draws connections to life lessons, obvious as well as not, with the goal being not simply an abstract notion of \u201csuccess,\u201d but the building of a legacy, a concept which is heavily explored.<\/p>\n

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Just like pruning a tree, we sometimes have to make the difficult decision of cutting something or someone out of our life. Just like farmers maintain their machinery, we have to maintain our mind and resources in good order. Similarly, crop monitoring, proper irrigation, replenishment of the soil, and so on, all find their parallel in our normal lives. A variation of the mantra is repeated at the end of every chapter: we are to live the farmer\u2019s code.<\/p>\n

Along the way we are privy to glimpses of the author\u2019s personal journey, particularly toward embracing Christianity, which lends its ideas as well as its language to his message. Quotes from the Bible and references to Jesus and the Holy Ghost are all employed in support of Young\u2019s well-meaning project of helping people build a positive legacy. Love and forgiveness are preached, as well they always should be.<\/p>\n

The most special moments come in the form of Young\u2019s praise for women. In the first instance, it is about his grandmother who never complained about the bad lot she was handed early in life, of which the grandson only got to learn while writing this book. In the second, it is new mothers, the exemplary \u201cservant leaders\u201d who put others\u2019 needs before their own.<\/p>\n

If it wasn\u2019t already made evident by the ease of the writing, Young\u2019s references make it completely clear that he is a student of the category of books this volume broadly belongs to. But where many of those self-help books are cynical and deprived of good intentions, The Farmer\u2019s Code<\/em> is evidently springing from a place of charity.<\/p>\n

Probably Young\u2019s only bit of questionable advice\u2014at least in the way it is expressed\u2014is his urging to cut out critics from one\u2019s life and to keep only supporters. It is a false dichotomy, as criticism is often a manifestation of support, and the most valuable supporters are usually the most honest critics and the ones who challenge us.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Farmer\u2019s Code<\/em> continually challenges its reader to make a better world, which, despite any critics, should grant it more than a few supporters. In the end, this is a caring & thoughtful self-help book with its heart in helping you cultivate life\u2019s crops for years to come.<\/p>\n

The post The Farmer\u2019s Code by Mike C. Young<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Robbins meets Hesiod in this generous and sincere guide to living the good life. In Works and Days, one of our oldest surviving complete works of literature, Hesiod, the ancient Greek poet to whom the work is commonly attributed, combined agricultural knowledge with general advice on living well. Nearly three millennia on, the confined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6878"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}