Farming for Our Future

Farming for Our Future
Author: PETER H.. ROSENBERG LEHNER (NATHAN A.)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2021-12-07
Genre:
ISBN: 9781585762378

Farming for Our Future examines the policies and legal reforms necessary to accelerate the adoption of practices that can make agriculture in the United States climate-neutral or better. These proven practices will also make our food system more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Agriculture's contribution to climate change is substantial--much more so than official figures suggest--and we will not be able to achieve our overall mitigation goals unless agricultural emissions sharply decline. Fortunately, farms and ranches can be a major part of the climate solution, while protecting biodiversity, strengthening rural communities, and improving the lives of the workers who cultivate our crops and rear our animals. The importance of agricultural climate solutions can not be underestimated; it is a critical element both in ensuring our food security and limiting climate change. This book provides essential solutions to address the greatest crises of our time.

OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2019-2028

OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2019-2028
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2019-07-08
Genre:
ISBN: 9264312463

The Agricultural Outlook 2019-2028 is a collaborative effort of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It brings together the commodity, policy and country expertise of both organisations as well ...

Advancing Land Change Modeling

Advancing Land Change Modeling
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2014-03-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309288363

People are constantly changing the land surface through construction, agriculture, energy production, and other activities. Changes both in how land is used by people (land use) and in the vegetation, rock, buildings, and other physical material that cover the Earth's surface (land cover) can be described and future land change can be projected using land-change models (LCMs). LCMs are a key means for understanding how humans are reshaping the Earth's surface in the past and present, for forecasting future landscape conditions, and for developing policies to manage our use of resources and the environment at scales ranging from an individual parcel of land in a city to vast expanses of forests around the world. Advancing Land Change Modeling: Opportunities and Research Requirements describes various LCM approaches, suggests guidance for their appropriate application, and makes recommendations to improve the integration of observation strategies into the models. This report provides a summary and evaluation of several modeling approaches, and their theoretical and empirical underpinnings, relative to complex land-change dynamics and processes, and identifies several opportunities for further advancing the science, data, and cyberinfrastructure involved in the LCM enterprise. Because of the numerous models available, the report focuses on describing the categories of approaches used along with selected examples, rather than providing a review of specific models. Additionally, because all modeling approaches have relative strengths and weaknesses, the report compares these relative to different purposes. Advancing Land Change Modeling's recommendations for assessment of future data and research needs will enable model outputs to better assist the science, policy, and decisionsupport communities.

Eating Tomorrow

Eating Tomorrow
Author: Timothy A. Wise
Publisher: The New Press
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2019-02-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1620974231

"A powerful polemic against agricultural technology." —Nature A major new book that shows the world already has the tools to feed itself, without expanding industrial agriculture or adopting genetically modified seeds, from the Small Planet Institute expert Few challenges are more daunting than feeding a global population projected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050—at a time when climate change is making it increasingly difficult to successfully grow crops. In response, corporate and philanthropic leaders have called for major investments in industrial agriculture, including genetically modified seed technologies. Reporting from Africa, Mexico, India, and the United States, Timothy A. Wise's Eating Tomorrow discovers how in country after country agribusiness and its well-heeled philanthropic promoters have hijacked food policies to feed corporate interests. Most of the world, Wise reveals, is fed by hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers, people with few resources and simple tools but a keen understanding of what and how to grow food. These same farmers—who already grow more than 70 percent of the food eaten in developing countries—can show the way forward as the world warms and population increases. Wise takes readers to remote villages to see how farmers are rebuilding soils with ecologically sound practices and nourishing a diversity of native crops without chemicals or imported seeds. They are growing more and healthier food; in the process, they are not just victims in the climate drama but protagonists who have much to teach us all.

Megacities

Megacities
Author: Andre Sorensen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2010-11-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 4431992677

For the first time in human history, more than half the world’s population is urban. A fundamental aspect of this transformation has been the emergence of giant cities, or megacities, that present major new challenges. This book examines how issues of megacity development, urban form, sustainability, and unsustainability are conceived, how governance processes are influenced by these ideas, and how these processes have in turn influenced outcomes on the ground, in some cases in transformative ways. Through 15 in-depth case studies by prominent researchers from around the world, this book examines the major challenges facing megacities today. The studies are organized around a shared set of concerns and questions about issues of sustainability, land development, urban governance, and urban form. Some of the main questions addressed are: What are the most pressing issues of sustainability and urban form in each megacity? How are major issues of sustainability understood and framed by policymakers? Is urban form considered a significant component of sustainability issues in public debates and public policy? Who are the key actors framing urban sustainability challenges and shaping urban change? How is unsustainability, risk, or disaster imagined, and how are those concerns reflected in policy approaches? What has been achieved so far, and what challenges remain? The publication of this book is a step toward answering these and other crucial questions.

The Future of Philippine Agriculture under a Changing Climate

The Future of Philippine Agriculture under a Changing Climate
Author: Mark W. Rosegrant
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Total Pages: 624
Release: 2018-11-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9814818356

The Philippine economy has grown rapidly since 2010, but despite this growth, poverty and inequality remain high. Two-thirds of the poor live in rural areas, and the weak performance of the agriculture sector has contributed to the slow improvement in livelihoods. The challenge for agriculture will further increase, with climate change posing a growing threat to the sector. But agricultural transformation to spur sustained growth and reduce poverty is still possible under climate change with aggressive institutional reforms and implementation of the right mix of policies and programmes. The identification of the suitable policy and programme combination requires an accurate assessment of the key drivers of agricultural growth and food security; the impacts of climate change on agriculture and the overall economy; and the effectiveness of policies for adaptation and growth. This book addresses these big issues, focusing on enhancing the adaptation capacity of the Philippine agriculture sector. It is designed to provide a much-needed base of knowledge and menu of policy options to support decision- and policymaking on agriculture, climate change, and food security. The volume uses newly generated data, modelling outputs, and innovative analyses to provide a scientific basis for a variety of adaptation measures under different sets of climate change scenarios to guide decision-makers in strategic planning and policy formulation. “As we have actually experienced in Leyte, an island province in the Visayas where Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) struck, disasters caused by natural hazards could completely negate economic gains, devastate families and shatter dreams. Our greatest challenge is to make ourselves better prepared for and be more resilient to such disasters. Natural hazards need not always lead to loss of so many lives and properties. This book shows us ways and provides tools to draw up climate change and socioeconomic scenarios at the regional and provincial levels, allowing us to identify strategies for mitigating climate change risks.” — Ernesto M. Pernia, Secretary of Socioeconomic Planning, National Economic and Development Authority, Philippines “This book by top Philippine researchers combines state-of-the-art biophysical and economic modeling of climate impacts and adaptation policies with in-depth synthesis of agriculture, natural resources, climate trends, and policies. It provides a comprehensive assessment of climate change impacts on agriculture and the broader economy to provide important insights for Philippine policymakers.” — Dr Cynthia Rosenzweig, Head, Climate Impacts Group, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Co-Founder of the Agricultural Model Inter-comparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP)

EU Land Markets and the Common Agricultural Policy

EU Land Markets and the Common Agricultural Policy
Author: Pavel Ciaian
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9789290799634

Since 2005, the European Union has provided farmers with subsidies that are not linked directly to production of specific crops, through the single payment scheme (SPS), as part of reforms to its common agricultural policy. This book investigates to what extent the SPS has led to the capitalization of support into land values in the EU. Economic theory and empirical findings suggest that the way in which agricultural support is provided to farmers has an influence on land markets. Subsidies tend to become capitalized into land values to some degree, affecting both the sales and rental prices of land. These effects in turn have a bearing on the transfer efficiency of the support and structural change in agriculture. Drawing from a combination of data sources, 11 country and 18 regional studies, this extensive empirical analysis offers preliminary findings of the reaction of EU land markets and asset values to the changes in EU policy.

A Small Farm Future

A Small Farm Future
Author: Chris Smaje
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2020-10-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1603589031

A modern classic of the new agrarianism "Chris Smaje...shows that the choice is clear. Either we have a small farm future, or we face collapse and extinction."—Vandana Shiva "Every young person should read this book."—Richard Heinberg In a groundbreaking debut, farmer and social scientist Chris Smaje argues that organizing society around small-scale farming offers the soundest, sanest and most reasonable response to climate change and other crises of civilisation—and will yield humanity’s best chance at survival. Drawing on a vast range of sources from across a multitude of disciplines, A Small Farm Future analyses the complex forces that make societal change inevitable; explains how low-carbon, locally self-reliant agrarian communities can empower us to successfully confront these changes head on; and explores the pathways for delivering this vision politically. Challenging both conventional wisdom and utopian blueprints, A Small Farm Future offers rigorous original analysis of wicked problems and hidden opportunities in a way that illuminates the path toward functional local economies, effective self-provisioning, agricultural diversity and a shared earth. Perfect for readers of both Wendell Berry and Thomas Piketty, A Small Farm Future is a refreshing, new outlook on a way forward for society—and a vital resource for activists, students, policy makers, and anyone looking to enact change.