Books from Patagonia

Sweet in Tooth and Claw

"What if Nature is more cooperative, and less competitive, than we think?

A follow-up to Kristin Ohlson’s previous book, The Soil Will Save Us (Rodale 2014), Sweet in Tooth and Claw extends the concept of cooperation in nature to the life-affirming connections among microbes, plants, fungi, insects, birds, and animals—including humans—in ecosystems around the globe.

For centuries, people have debated whether nature is mostly competitive—as Darwin theorized and the poet Tennyson described as “red in tooth and claw”—or innately cooperative, as many ancient and Indigenous peoples believed. In the last 100 or so years, a growing group of scientists have studied the mutually beneficial interactions that are believed to benefit every species on earth. This book is full of stories of generosity—not competition—in nature. It is a testament to the importance of a healthy biodiversity, and dispels the widely accepted premise of survival of the fittest.

Ohlson tells stories of trees and mushrooms, beavers and bees. There are chapters on a wide variety of ecosystems and portraits of the people who learn from them: forests (the work of Suzanne Simard); scientists who study the interaction of bees and flowers in the Rocky Mountains; the discovery of bacteria and protozoa in the mid-1600s by Dutch scientist Antoni von Leeuwenhoek; ranchers, government agency personnel, and scientists working together to restore wetlands from deserts in northeastern Nevada; and more. It is a rich and fascinating book full of amazing stories, sure to change your perspective on the natural world."

• About the Author

  Kristin Ohlson is an author and freelance journalist in Portland, Oregon, who has published articles in the New York Times, Orion, Discover, Gourmet, Oprah, and many other print and online publications. Her magazine work has been anthologized in Best American Science Writing and Best American Travel Writing.

The Future of the Responsible Company

Simple but powerful advice on how and why to rethink your business structure in a time when traditional capitalism is no longer working for people or the planet.

Vincent Stanley, Patagonia's director of philosophy, along with Yvon Chouinard, founder and former owner of Patagonia, draw on 50 years of experience at Patagonia to challenge all business owners and leaders to rethink their businesses in a time of cultural and climate chaos.

Patagonia has been recognized as much for its ground-breaking environmental, social practices as for the quality of its clothes. In 2022, the Chouinard family gave their company away, converting ownership to a simple structure of trusts and nonprofits, so that all the profits from the company can be used to protect our home planet and work to reverse climate chaos. Stanley and Chouinard recount how the company and its culture gained confidence, especially through missteps, to make its work progressively more responsible, and to ultimately challenge other companies, as big as Wal-Mart and as small as the corner store, to do the same.

The authors describe the current impact of manufacturing, commerce, and traditional capitalism on the planet’s natural systems and human communities, and how that impact is forcing business to change its ways. The Future of the Responsible Company shows companies how to reduce the harm they cause, improve the quality of their business, and provide the kind of meaningful work everyone seeks. It concludes with specific, practical steps every business can undertake, as well as advice on what to do and in what order.

The book shows companies how to thread their way through economic sea change and slow the drift toward ecological bankruptcy: Reduce your environmental footprint (and its skyrocketing cost), make legitimate products that last, reclaim deep knowledge of your business and its supply chain to make the most of opportunities in the years to come, and earn the trust you’ll need by treating your workers, customers, and communities with respect. It also describes the threats of traditional capitalism and why the owners of Patagonia made the decisions they did to ensure that the company will still exist and have impact in 100 years. An explanation of Patagonia's new business organization, The Patagonia Purpose Trust and The Holdfast Collective, rounds out this business book.

• About the Authors

  Vincent Stanley has been with Patagonia on and off since its beginning in 1973, for many of those years in key roles as head of sales or marketing. More informally, he is Patagonia’s longtime chief storyteller. Vincent helped develop The Footprint Chronicles (now Footprint), the company’s interactive website that outlined the social and environmental impact of its products; Worn Wear; and Patagonia Books. He currently serves as company philosopher and is a resident fellow at the Yale Center for Business and Environment. He is also a poet whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry. He and his wife, the writer Nora Gallagher, live in Santa Barbara, California, and Brooksville, Maine.

• About the Authors

  In 1973, Yvon Chouinard founded Patagonia, a purpose-driven company known for its quality clothing products and commitment to advancing solutions to the environmental crisis. The company was nearly 50 when Chouinard decided it was time for another improvement. In September 2022, Chouinard and his family made a historic announcement: They had adopted a purpose-driven ownership model, locking in the company’s values and dedicating the excess profits to protecting our home planet. Since 1957, Chouinard and his family have lived in California and Wyoming.

Headwaters

Christmas Island. The Russian Arctic. Argentine Patagonia. Japan. Cuba. British Columbia.Christmas Island. The Russian Arctic. Argentine Patagonia. Japan. Cuba. British Columbia.

Dylan Tomine takes us to the far reaches of the planet in search of fish and adventure, with keen insight, a strong stomach and plenty of laughs along the way. Closer to home, he wades deeper into his beloved steelhead rivers of the Pacific Northwest and the politics of saving them. Tomine celebrates the joy—and pain—of exploration, fatherhood and the comforts of home waters from a vantage point well off the beaten path. Headwaters traces the evolution of a lifelong angler’s priorities from fishing to the survival of the fish themselves. It is a book of remarkable obsession, environmental awareness shaped by experience, and hope for the future.

• About the Author

  Dylan Tomine is a Patagonia fly fishing ambassador, writer, father, conservation advocate and recovering sink tip addict. He’s the author of Closer to the Ground: A Family’s Year on the Water, in the Woods and at the Table (Patagonia, 2012), and a producer for the feature-length documentary, Artifishal. Dylan lives with his kids and their faithful, furry sibling, Halo the Wonder Lab, on an island in the Salish Sea.

• About the Illustrator

  Frances Ashforth’s spare paintings, drawings and waterbase monotypes reflect the geography and geology of intersecting habitats that she has visited and studied. Land, water, mountains and deserts are what inspire Frances. Her passion for flyfishing and time spent in remote places has allowed her to experience sparsely populated and wild lands across the United States. Ashforth has exhibited internationally in the UK, Ireland, Denmark & Canada. Ashforth lives in Connecticut. www.francesashforth.com