Crop production in greenhouses is a growing industry, especially in mild climates, and is very important for the population as a source of income and clean, fresh food. Greenhouses create optimal climate conditions for crop growth and protect crops from outside pests. At the same time greenhouse production increases water use efficiency and makes integrated production and protection (IPP) possible. This book provides technical instructions for practice (what to do and what not to do) and gives answers to the question: How to produce more clean crops and better quality with less water, less land and less pesticide. Suitable greenhouse constructions and their design, adapted to local climates in subtropical, tropical and arid regions and infrastructure conditions are presented. The necessary climate control measures - light transmittance, ventilation, cooling, heating, and CO2 enrichment - and physical measures for pest control, as well as methods for using solar energy to desalinate salty water are described. The results of theoretical research are transferred into methods for practical use, so that readers are equipped to solve their problems in practice as well as to get stimulation for further research and development.

For farmers and ranchers, fencing is as much about keeping predators out as it is about keeping livestock in. Significantly less expensive than barbed wire, electric fencing is the preferred way to do both tasks efficiently, but there's never been a book dedicated to the topic. And while it's not difficult to install and maintain the electric fencing, people often get the details wrong and then wonder why the fence isn't doing its job. Ann Larkin Hansen brings decades of experience to the art of using electric fencing. In this Storey Basics guide, she explains in everyday terms how it works, the various systems one can build, how to install and maintain the three kinds of electric fence (permanent, combination permanent non-electric and electric wire offset and temporary or portable electric) and what not to do with electric fencing. For livestock raisers, Hansen also covers the basics of rotational grazing.

The expanding membership of the EU means significant changes for accession countries' international trade relations, affecting imports, exports, tax revenues, government expenditures and domestic regulatory regimes. There are also significant ramifications for the EU budget. This book is a valuable comprehensive tool kit for analysing the economic effect of EU accession, using examples from the most complex sector for both candidate countries and the EU itself - agriculture. The authors provide a complete set of market configurations with which to analyse harmonisation with the Common Agriculture Policy in both the long and short run. It also provides insights into the questions of regulatory harmonisation in areas of food safety, animal and plant health, the environment, animal welfare, technical standards and the protection of intellectual property. Background is provided on the EU and its policies, economic developments in transition economies and the accession process. The book also provides a unique insight into how negotiating positions can be developed. A wide audience will find this book of great value and interest including policymakers and analysts in governments and related think tanks, businesses and consultancy firms trading in the EU. Scholars and researchers of European studies, international trade and agriculture will also find the book invaluable.

Abstract This chapter defines food security as the condition reached when a nation's population has access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet its dietary needs and food preferences. It stresses China's importance to global food security because of its population size. The chapter introduces the contents of the volume and then treats briefly food security in ancient and dynastic (211 bc-1912) China. It examines environmental stressors, such as population growth, natural disasters, and insect pests as well as imperial responses (for example, irrigation, flood control, storage and transportation systems). The chapter also briefly int- duces the Republican era (1912-1949) and compares environmental stressors and government responses then to those of the imperial period. Keywords Food system * Food security * Food production regions * Environmental stressors (Population growth * Natural disasters * Insect pests and Plant diseases * Deforestation * Climate change) * Irrigation systems * Flood control * Grand Canal 1. 1 The Problem of Food Security and Environmental Change Food is the material basis to human survival, and in each nation-state, providing a system for the development, production, and distribution of food and its security is a primary national objective. Many forces have influenced the food security of peoples since ancient times, with particular challenges from natural disasters (floods, famines, drought, and pestilence) and growing populations globally.

Here, for the first time, what is known of the tribe Gossypieae (the cotton tribe) is brought together in a single study that examines, on a global basis, the systematics and evolution of the eight genera (about one hundred species) in the tribe and presents a unified interpretation of these diverse plants, including a consideration of their phytogeography, ecology, karyology, and reproductive biology.
The tribe Gossypieae is an especially valuable subject for such a study because it comprises an entire gamut of plants ranging from those that are exceedingly rare (on the verge of extinction) to those that have been eminently successful in adaptational terms. The tribe includes the cultivated cottons, which have had a long history of domestication and can shed light on patterns of crop evolution and, to some extent, human prehistory. It also includes plants that are less intensively used by man (often for their fibers or as ornamentals) and still others that are not used at all or whose uses have not yet been discovered. Thus we find, in this single group of plants, the complete range of possible interaction of plants with man.
This book examines the place and value of broad natural history studies as a means of gaining a deeper knowledge of the biological world and man's place therein.

Today's international trade regime explicitly rejects cultural perceptions of what is safe to eat, overturning millennia of tradition. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) enshrines "science" as the arbiter in resolving disputes involving this vital human need. This mandate, however, is under attack from many quarters. Critics cite environmental and ethical concerns, unpredictably changing technology, taste, food preferences, local culture, adequacy of governmental implementation of WTO standards, and the reliability of scientific opinion. A basic conflict has crystallized: food as culture versus food as commerce. The WTO/SPS approach is increasingly challenged for its balance in favour of economic considerations, and for its visible undermining of unique cultural identities. This book explores the relationship between the SPS Agreement, food traditions, science, and technology. It deliberately confronts those trade experts who refuse to allow other social sciences to influence their economics-based trade theory. The author investigates the local perception of food and food safety from the anthropological and historical points of view, the evolution of food production technologies, and the medicinal, proscriptive (taboo) and security aspects of food that continue to prevail in nearly all cultures today. She succeeds in demonstrating that, no matter how strong the faith in science and economics, it is unwise to flagrantly dismiss the deeply rooted beliefs of billions of people, a huge majority of the world's population. The beef hormones case; the remaining sovereignty related to food safety measures; the increasing significance of "appropriate levels of protection" and "the precautionary principle"; the redefinition of "food hazard" to include production processes as well as food itself; genetically modified seeds and food products; the concept of "risk" in the science-based context of the Codex Alimentarius - these are among the issues and topics covered in depth. The author concludes that, although quick "legal" resolutions of trade disputes about what people should or should not eat might provide a "win" for open trade, support for the entire structure and rationale of the WTO is undermined unless (at the least) some flexibility of interpretation is introduced into the WTO Dispute Resolution System in order to recognize the weight and validity of public opinion.

Agriculture has experienced a dramatic change during the past decades. The change has been structural and technological. Structural changes can be seen in the size of current farms; not long ago, agricultural production was organized around small farms, whereas nowadays the agricultural landscape is dominated by large farms. Large farms have better means of applying new technologies, and therefore technological advances have been a driving force in changing the farming structure. New technologies continue to emerge, and their mastery and use in requires that farmers gather more information and make more complex technological choices. In particular, the advent of the Internet has opened vast opportunities for communication and business opportunities within the agricultural com- nity. But at the same time, it has created another class of complex issues that need to be addressed sooner rather than later. Farmers and agricultural researchers are faced with an overwhelming amount of information they need to analyze and synthesize to successfully manage all the facets of agricultural production. This daunting challenge requires new and complex approaches to farm management. A new type of agricultural management system requires active cooperation among multidisciplinary and multi-institutional teams and ref- ing of existing and creation of new analytical theories with potential use in agriculture. Therefore, new management agricultural systems must combine the newest achievements in many scientific domains such as agronomy, economics, mathematics, and computer science, to name a few.

Bio-Based Materials and Wastes for Energy Generation and Resource Management is the fifth and final volume in the series, Advanced Zero Waste Tools: Present and Emerging Waste Management Practices. It addresses processes and practices for utilizing bio-based materials and wastes to support efforts to promote a more sustainable society and provide readers with a better understanding of the major mechanisms required to achieve zero waste in different fields. This book covers numerous mechanisms supported by scientific evidence and case studies, as well as in-depth flowcharts and process diagrams to allow for readers to adopt these processes. Summarizing present and emerging zero waste tools on the scale of both experimental and theoretical models, Advanced Zero Waste Tools is the first step toward understanding the state-of-the-art practices in making the zero waste goal a reality. In addition to environmental and engineering principles, it also covers economic, toxicologic, and regulatory issues, making it an important resource for researchers, engineers, and policymakers working toward environmental sustainability.

Livestock's Longer Shadow is one the most important books of its kind since Ruth Harrison's Animal Machines (1964). Most people have little idea how eating animal-based foods harm animals, our health and our planet. We want to believe the animals we eat do not suffer pain, injury, live good lives and eating them is a trade-off for the care we afford them. We accept the illnesses we suffer are simply a consequence of getting old. We want to believe our food choices do not cause rainforest and ocean deforestation. We are told farmers are the guardians of the countryside, yet our landscape is over-cultured and biologically dysfunctional, and our environment polluted by livestock farming. Livestock's Longer Shadow, cuts through the noise for anyone wanting to know how we really treat animals, our health and our planet through the ways we farm and consume animals, through a UK lens. Tim Bailey is an Environmental Scientist and one of the UK's leading and most prominent regulatory farm pollution experts. He brings together all aspects of the UK's animal-based farming and food system, from farm to fork, documents its devastation and provides us with a kinder, more compassionate, sustainable and healthier way forward. In sounding the alarm on the paradigms of animal-based food production, the author uses his own first-hand experience of the impacts of livestock farming from a career regulating the industry spanning over 30-years.