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.

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.

Restoration Agriculture

Restoration Agriculture
Author: Mark Shepard
Publisher: Acres U.S.A., Incorporated
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Agricultural ecology
ISBN: 9781601730350

Around the globe most people get their calories from "annual" agriculture - plants that grow fast for one season, produce lots of seeds, then die. Every single human society that has relied on annual crops for staple foods has collapsed. Restoration Agriculture explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs - in your own backyard, farm or ranch. This book, based on real-world practices, presents an alternative to the agriculture system of eradication and offers exciting hope for our future.

Fantastic Farm Machines

Fantastic Farm Machines
Author: Cris Peterson
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2006
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781590782712

Introduces readers to twelve types of farm machinery.

Gaining Ground

Gaining Ground
Author: Forrest Pritchard
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2013-05-21
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0762794380

With humor and pathos, Forrest Pritchard recounts his ambitious and often hilarious endeavors to save his family’s seventh-generation farm in the Shenandoah Valley. Through many a trial and error, he not only saves Smith Meadows from insolvency but turns it into a leading light in the sustainable, grass-fed, organic farm-to-market community. There is nothing young Farmer Pritchard won’t try. Whether he’s selling firewood and straw, raising free-range chickens and hogs, or acquiring a flock of Barbados Blackbelly sheep, his learning curve is steep and always entertaining. Pritchard’s world crackles with colorful local characters—farm hands, butchers, market managers, customers, fellow vendors, pet goats, policemen—bringing the story to warm, communal life. His most important ally, however, is his renegade father, who initially questions his son's career choice and eschews organic foods for the generic kinds that wreak havoc on his health. Soon after his father’s death, the farm becomes a recognized success and Pritchard must make a vital decision: to continue serving the local community or answer the exploding demand for his wares with lucrative Internet sales and shipping deals. More than a charming story of honest food cultivation and farmers’ markets, Gaining Ground tugs on the heartstrings, reconnecting us to the land and the many lives that feed us.

Soil Science Simplified

Soil Science Simplified
Author: Donald P. Franzmeier
Publisher: Waveland Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1478633670

Throughout its previous four editions, Soil Science Simplified has helped generations of students understand the basic concepts and scientific principles of soils. The Fifth Edition expands on that foundation, providing a perfect overview for those seeking a concise, practical introduction to the subject. The authors’ combined 100 years of teaching experience result in a handbook that won’t confuse or intimidate students. The Fifth Edition retains the text’s solid grounding in classification, genesis, and morphology of soils. New chapters cover such contemporary topics as soil mineralogy, soil moisture regimes, current soil survey practices, and how soil management practices directly affect the quality of a variety of water resources.

World Agriculture

World Agriculture
Author: Jelle Bruinsma
Publisher: Earthscan
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2003
Genre: Agricultural estimating and reporting
ISBN: 1844070077

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Compact Farms

Compact Farms
Author: Josh Volk
Publisher: Storey Publishing
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2017-02-07
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1612125948

Small is beautiful, and these 15 real farm plans show that small-scale farmers can have big-time success. Compact Farms is an illustrated guide for anyone dreaming of starting, expanding, or perfecting a profitable farming enterprise on five acres or less. The farm plans explain how to harness an area’s water supply, orientation, and geography in order to maximize efficiency and productivity while minimizing effort. Profiles of well-known farmers such as Eliot Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier show that farming on a small scale in any region, in both urban and rural settings, can provide enough income to turn the endeavor from hobby to career. These real-life plans and down-and-dirty advice will equip you with everything you need to actually realize your farm dreams.

Traditional Mexican Agriculture

Traditional Mexican Agriculture
Author: Alba González Jácome
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 520
Release: 2021-06-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9780367462192

This long-needed book highlights how traditional Mexican agriculture has changed according to environmental, climatic, geographical, social and cultural conditions. Grounded in archaeological-historical data from interrelated research of various scientific disciplines, the book also draws on studies made by anthropologists of varied small-scale agricultural groups. Traditional Mexican Agriculture is the result of a holistic study of Mexican agriculture. It offers the reader a perspective of traditional agriculture in Mexico from social, cultural and ecological Anthropology, Ethnology, regional and environmental History, and Agroecology, to help obtain sustainable agroecology where human societies obtain better ways of life and a healthy and nutritious food system. The book further aims to recover ideas, management, and components of local knowledge of small-scale farmers. Pitched at university students and academics, as well as researchers and developers of agricultural matters, this book will be ideal reading at agrarian universities and related institutions. It provides a basis for future studies in sustainable agricultural systems in this region.

Designing Urban Agriculture

Designing Urban Agriculture
Author: April Philips
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2013-05-10
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1118330234

A comprehensive overview of edible landscapes complete with more than 300 full-color photos and illustrations Designing Urban Agriculture is about the intersection of ecology, design, and community. Showcasing projects and designers from around the world who are forging new paths to the sustainable city through urban agriculture landscapes, it creates a dialogue on the ways to invite food back into the city and pave a path to healthier communities and environments. This full-color guide begins with a foundation of ecological principles and the idea that the food shed is part of a city's urban systems network. It outlines a design process based on systems thinking and developed for a lifecycle or regenerative-based approach. It also presents strategies, tools, and guidelines that enable informed decisions on planning, designing, budgeting, constructing, maintaining, marketing, and increasing the sustainability of this re-invented cityscape. Case studies demonstrate the environmental, economic, and social value of these landscapes and reveal paths to a greener and healthier urban environment. This unique and indispensable guide: Details how to plan, design, fund, construct, and leverage the sustainability aspects of the edible landscape typology Covers over a dozen typologies including community gardens, urban farms, edible estates, green roofs and vertical walls, edible school yards, seed to table, food landscapes within parks, plazas, streetscapes and green infrastructure systems and more Explains how to design regenerative edible landscapes that benefit both community and ecology and explores the connections between food, policy, and planning that promote viable food shed systems for more resilient communities Examines the integration of management, maintenance, and operations issues Reveals how to create a business model enterprise that addresses a lifecycle approach