The Emergent Agriculture

The Emergent Agriculture
Author: Gary S. Kleppel
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2014-10-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1550925776

Local, diverse and resilient – the new culture of food Long embraced by corporations who are driven only by the desire for profit, industrial agriculture wastes precious resources and spews millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year, exacerbating climate change and threatening the very earth and water on which we depend. However, this dominant system, from which Americans obtain most of their food, is being slowly supplanted by a new paradigm. The Emergent Agriculture is a collection of fourteen thematic essays on sustainability viewed through the lens of farming. Arguing that industrial food production is incompatible with the realities of nature, science, and ethics, this lyrical narrative makes the case for a locally based food system which is: Stable in the face of economic uncertainty Resilient in the face of environmental variability Grounded in stewardship of the land, on attaching value to food and the craft involved in producing it, and on respecting the dignity of farmers, consumer,s and livestock A revolution in food production is underway. Written from the vantage point of an ecologist who is also a farmer, The Emergent Agriculture is essential reading for anyone interested in food security and the potential for growing local economies. Food for thought about the future of food. Gary Kleppel is a professor of biology at the SUNY Albany, where he focuses on sustainable agriculture, conservation-based grazing, and the ecology of human-dominated landscapes. He and his wife Pam are owners of Longfield Farm, where they produce grass-fed lamb, wool, free range chickens and eggs, and artisanal breads

Crisis and Opportunity

Crisis and Opportunity
Author: John E. Ikerd
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2008
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0803217447

With the decline of family farms and rural communities and the rise of corporate farming and the resulting environmental degradation, American agriculture is in crisis. But this crisis offers the opportunity to rethink agriculture in sustainable terms. Here one of the most eloquent and influential proponents of sustainable agriculture explains what this means. These engaging essays describe what sustainable agriculture is, why it began, and how it can succeed. Together they constitute a clear and compelling vision for rebalancing the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of agriculture to meet the needs of the present without compromising the future. In Crisis and Opportunity, John E. Ikerd outlines the consequences of agricultural industrialization, then details the methods that can restore economic viability, ecological soundness, and social responsibility to our agricultural system and thus ensure sustainable agriculture as the foundation of a sustainable food system and a sustainable society.

Small Farms are Real Farms

Small Farms are Real Farms
Author: John Ikerd
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2008
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

"Since the middle of the last century, American farm policy has taken the nation into the dead end of industrial farm production and food distribution. Farming, at its core a biological process, has been transformed into an industrial process, thus demolishing the economic and cultural values upon which the nation was founded. Along the way, small farms have been ridiculed and dismissed as inconsequential -- but now the seeds of a rural renaissance are being planted, not by these industrial behemoths, but by family-scale farms. In this collection of essays by one of America's most eloquent and influential proponents of sustainable agriculture, the multifaceted case for small farms is built using logic and facts."--Publisher's website.

Environmental Impacts of Modern Agriculture

Environmental Impacts of Modern Agriculture
Author: Ronald E. Hester
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2012
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1849733856

This volume examines the factors currently affecting agriculture on a global scale. Land use, soil quality, and the inherent production of greenhouse gasses by agriculture each receive their own chapters.

Systems Research for Agriculture

Systems Research for Agriculture
Author: Laurie E. Drinkwater
Publisher: Department of Agriculture
Total Pages:
Release: 2016-06-01
Genre: Agricultural systems
ISBN: 9781888626162

Call of the Reed Warbler

Call of the Reed Warbler
Author: Charles Massy
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 530
Release: 2018-08-31
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1603588140

“Charles Massy has written a definitive masterpiece that takes its place along with the writings of Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Masanobu Fukuoka, Humberto Maturana, and Michael Pollan. No work has more brilliantly defined regenerative agriculture and the breadth of its restorative impact upon human health, biodiversity, climate, and ecological intelligence." --Paul Hawken In Call of the Reed Warbler, Charles Massy explores regenerative agriculture and the vital connection between our soil and our health. It is the story of how a grassroots revolution—a true underground insurgency—can save the planet, help reduce and reverse climate change, and build healthy people and healthy communities, pivoting significantly on our relationship with growing and consuming food. Using his personal experience as a touchstone—from an unknowing, chemical-using farmer with dead soils to a radical ecologist farmer carefully regenerating a 2000-hectare property to a state of natural health—Massy tells the real story behind industrial agriculture and the global profit-obsessed corporations driving it. With evocative stories, he shows how other innovative and courageous farmers are finding a new way. At stake is not only a revolution in human health and in our communities, but the very survival of the planet. For farmers, backyard gardeners, food buyers, health workers, policy makers, and public leaders alike, Call of the Reed Warbler offers a tangible path forward and a powerful and moving paean of hope. It’s not too late to regenerate the earth. Call of the Reed Warbler shows the way forward for the future of our food supply, our planet, and our health.

Research Anthology on Food Waste Reduction and Alternative Diets for Food and Nutrition Security

Research Anthology on Food Waste Reduction and Alternative Diets for Food and Nutrition Security
Author: Management Association, Information Resources
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 1318
Release: 2020-09-17
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1799853551

The world population is expected to increase exponentially within the next decade, which means that the food demand will increase and so will waste production. The increasing demand for food as well as changes in consumption habits have led to the greater availability and variety of food with a longer shelf life. However, there is a need for effective food waste management and food preservation as wasted food leads to overutilization of water and fossil fuels and increasing greenhouse gas emissions from the degradation of food. The Research Anthology on Food Waste Reduction and Alternative Diets for Food and Nutrition Security explores methods for reducing waste and cutting food loss in order to help the environment and support local communities as well as solve issues including that of land space. It also provides vital research on the development of plant-based foods, meat-alternative diets, and nutritional outcomes. Highlighting a range of topics such as agricultural production, food supply chains, and sustainable diets, this publication is an ideal reference source for policymakers, sustainable developers, politicians, ecologists, environmentalists, corporate executives, farmers, and academicians seeking current research on food and nutrition security.

Fatal Harvest

Fatal Harvest
Author: Andrew Kimbrell
Publisher: Foundation for Deep Ecology
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2002
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

"Designed to be an invaluable aid to the activists, farmers, policy makers and consumers fighting for a more sustainable food system."--Cover.

Against the Grain

Against the Grain
Author: Richard Manning
Publisher: North Point Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2005-02-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1466823429

In this provocative, wide-ranging book, Against the Grain, Richard Manning offers a dramatically revisionist view of recent human evolution, beginning with the vast increase in brain size that set us apart from our primate relatives and brought an accompanying increase in our need for nourishment. For 290,000 years, we managed to meet that need as hunter-gatherers, a state in which Manning believes we were at our most human: at our smartest, strongest, most sensually alive. But our reliance on food made a secure supply deeply attractive, and eventually we embarked upon the agricultural experiment that has been the history of our past 10,000 years. The evolutionary road is littered with failed experiments, however, and Manning suggests that agriculture as we have practiced it runs against both our grain and nature's. Drawing on the work of anthropologists, biologists, archaeologists, and philosophers, along with his own travels, he argues that not only our ecological ills-overpopulation, erosion, pollution-but our social and emotional malaise are rooted in the devil's bargain we made in our not-so-distant past. And he offers personal, achievable ways we might re-contour the path we have taken to resurrect what is most sustainable and sustaining in our own nature and the planet's.