NONFICTION - April 7, 1991

FARMING ON THE EDGE by John Hart (University of California Press: $29.95; 180 pp.) . Farmers have, of late, had to fight off people who wanted to make more money off their land than farming could. This slim, elegant volume chronicles one attempt to stave off the intrusion. Marin County dairy farmers, faced with sprawling suburbs that threaten to encroach on their way of life, formed an uneasy alliance with politicians and citizen activists. West Marin has managed to save much of its land, though the battle clearly has not ended. This is a thoughtful book, an advocate’s urgent call to action, before another piece of American life falls to the developer’s master plan.