Sustainable Agriculture

Most supermarket mushrooms are bland and boring; products of an industrial process which typically relies on expensive equipment and harmful pesticides. Many people would like to add more flavorful and diverse fungi to their diets, but lack the knowledge...

This topic is central to contemporary concerns for more sustainable agricultural development. This is a well-written and clear book, with excellent data, tables and illustrations, addressing issues of water use, climate change, poverty and small farmers...

Choosing appropriate practices and policies for biofuel production requires an understanding of how soils, climate, farm types, infrastructure, markets and social organisation affect the establishment and performance of these crops. The book highlights...

Project work, driven by competent project leaders drives positive outcomes. Unfortunately these optimistic initial results are often short-sighted with few evaluations of their long-term impact. The research contained in Managing Sustainable Development...

As the largest group of natural resource managers on the planet, farmers are at the interface of the changing relationship between humans and the environment. Typically organised around what might be considered the most basic of social units, for...

When Evelyn Waugh wrote The Loved One (1948) as a satire of the elaborate preparations and memorialization of the dead taking place in his time, he had no way of knowing how technical and extraordinarily creative human funerary practices would become in...

Sustainable intensification has recently been developed and adopted as a key concept and driver for research and policy in sustainable agriculture. It includes ecological, economic and social dimensions, where food and nutrition security, gender and...

In a world seeking to tackle global environmental problems such as climate change, the importance of local and national institutional change to deal most effectively with these issues is critical. This book presents an investigation of the institutional...

Food - how it's grown, how it's shared - makes us who we are. This issue traces the connections between farm and food, between humus and human. According to the first book of the Bible, tending the earth was humankind's first task: "The Lord God...

Contemporary agriculture is often criticized for its industrial scale, adverse effects on nutrition, rural employment and the environment, and its disconnectedness from nature and culture. Yet there are many examples of traditional smaller scale systems...

This book reviews the state of agricultural climate change mitigation globally, with a focus on identifying the feasibility, opportunities and challenges for achieving mitigation among smallholder farmers. The purpose is ultimately to accelerate efforts...

Global environmental change (GEC) represents an immediate and unprecedented threat to the food security of hundreds of millions of people, especially those who depend on small-scale agriculture for their livelihoods. As this book shows, at the same time,...

Shifting cultivation supports around 200 million people in the Asia-Pacific region alone. It is often regarded as a primitive and inefficient form of agriculture that destroys forests, causes soil erosion and robs lowland areas of water. These...

The world struggles with increasing threats to global sustainability, caused by population growth, overuse of fresh water resources, depletion of biodiversity, and reliance on non-renewable energy sources. There is an urgent need for an overall plan to...

Contestations over knowledge - and who controls its production - are a key focus of social movements and other actors that promote food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity. This book critically examines the kinds of knowledge and ways of...

Agricultural systems are no longer evaluated solely on the basis of the food they provide, but also on their capacity to limit impacts on the environment, such as soil conservation, water quality and biodiversity conservation, as well as their...

Beginning as a small protest to the industrialization of agriculture in the 1920s, organic farming has become a significant force in agricultural policy, marketing, and research. No longer dismissed as unscientific and counterproductive, organic...

In recent decades agricultural commodity surpluses in the developed world have contributed to a mantra of 'land surplus' in which set-aside, extensification, alternative land uses and 'wilding' have been key terms in debates over land. Quite suddenly all...

The family farm lies at the heart of our national identity, and yet its future is in peril. Rick Hammond grew up on a farm, and for forty years he has raised cattle and crops on his wife's fifth-generation homestead in Nebraska, in hopes of passing it on...

Agriculture plays an essential role in the growth of developing economies as agricultural production is key to food security and is closely intertwined with the livelihoods of many. This book explores the lives of smallholder agricultural farmers in...

Agriculture plays an essential role in the growth of developing economies as agricultural production is key to food security and is closely intertwined with the livelihoods of many. This book explores the lives of smallholder agricultural farmers in...

An exploration into how we can have truly sustainable, resilient and productive farms. In the 1930s, nutritionists claimed that the increase in population size would soon make it challenging to eat enough protein, which they thought was only obtainable...

An invaluable handbook for farmers, growers and gardeners, Silvohorticulture is the first book to offer a detailed, practical guide on how to effectively integrate trees with vegetable growing, offering information previously known only in the foresting...

Beyond the Root Cellar is the inspiring guide that proves that – with a little ingenuity – the savvy grower can successfully select, harvest, store and sell vegetables all year round, providing their family and community the local food they need during...

Project work, driven by competent project leaders drives positive outcomes. Unfortunately these optimistic initial results are often short-sighted with few evaluations of their long-term impact. The research contained in Managing Sustainable Development...

Save seeds, save money, and increase profit from your small-scale farm or market garden The Seed Farmer is required reading for any grower who cares about being part of a truly sustainable local food system. Whether you’re interested in growing your own...

Within a decade, nearly half of all American farmland will change hands as an older generation of farmers steps aside. In their place, a groundswell of new growers will face numerous challenges, including soil degradation, insufficient income, and...

A practical yet pretty small-farm planner that serves as a guidebook, record keeper, and task tracker for small-scale farmers and backyard gardeners everywhere.  From Jill Ragan, author of The Tiny but Mighty Farm, comes the resource backyard farmers,...

When famine, drought, and malnutrition plagued their communities, these farmers tried something revolutionary—and managed to nourish their families and their land in the process.Farmers in some of the world’s oldest agricultural areas—Africa’s Great Rift...

The confusing way in which sustainable agriculture has been defined and measured is clarified in this comprehensive volume, which provides an inventory of the metrics for sustainable agriculture from cradle to the farm gate, organized by media and scale...

A moving exploration of presence and place told through the stories of small-scale farmers who, despite intense adversity, continue caring for their land “An excellent work of environmental writing. . . . I highly recommend this book.”—Barn Raiser, “Our...

The confusing way in which sustainable agriculture has been defined and measured is clarified in this comprehensive volume, which provides an inventory of the metrics for sustainable agriculture from cradle to the farm gate, organized by media and scale...