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Books > Professional & Technical > Agriculture & farming > Organic farming
We have lost touch with the planet that feeds us and its
relationship to our health, happiness and climate. Through
thought-provoking conversations with inspiring thinkers and
writers, and seasonal recipes created by leading chefs, Recipes to
Reconnect provides a blueprint for a better way of eating and
living. Organised seasonally, each conversation is paired with a
selection of recipes, carefully created by chefs in response to the
ideas discussed. Themes explored include gut health, rewilding,
mushrooms, farming, microbes, soil, fasting, sleep and mental
health. Among the recipe and conversation pairings, Harry
Boglione's discussion of regenerative farming is followed by Jeremy
Lee's foraged dishes, Isabella Tree and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
are paired on the theme of rewilding, Rachel de Thample's fermented
recipes respond to Dr Alanna Collen's discussion of microbes, Simon
Rogan's mushroom recipes are inspired by Merlin Sheldrake's passion
for fungi and following Charlie Morley's interview on lucid
dreaming are Skye Gyngell's recipes, all designed to enable good
sleep.
Louis Bromfield was a World War I ambulance driver, a Paris expat,
and a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist as famous in the 1920s as
Hemingway or Fitzgerald. But he cashed in his literary success to
finance a wild agrarian dream in his native Ohio. The ideas he
planted at his utopian experimental farm, Malabar, would inspire
America's first generation of organic farmers and popularize the
tenets of environmentalism years before Rachel Carson's Silent
Spring. A lanky Midwestern farm boy dressed up like a Left Bank
bohemian, Bromfield stood out in literary Paris for his lavish
hospitality and his green thumb. He built a magnificent garden
outside the city where he entertained aristocrats, movie stars,
flower breeders, and writers of all stripes. Gertrude Stein enjoyed
his food, Edith Wharton admired his roses, Ernest Hemingway boiled
with jealousy over his critical acclaim. Millions savored his
novels, which were turned into Broadway plays and Hollywood
blockbusters, yet Bromfield's greatest passion was the soil. In
1938, Bromfield returned to Ohio to transform 600 badly eroded
acres into a thriving cooperative farm, which became a mecca for
agricultural pioneers and a country retreat for celebrities like
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (who were married there in 1945).
This sweeping biography unearths a lost icon of American culture, a
fascinating, hilarious and unclassifiable character who-between
writing and plowing-also dabbled in global politics and high
society. Through it all, he fought for an agriculture that would
enrich the soil and protect the planet. While Bromfield's name has
faded into obscurity, his mission seems more critical today than
ever before.
Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at
producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their
children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses
current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel
prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water
pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and
biodiversity depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions
are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sciences as diverse
as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry,
toxicology, ecology, economy, and social sciences. Indeed,
sustainable agriculture decipher mechanisms of processes that occur
from the molecular level to the farming system to the global level
at time scales ranging from seconds to centuries. For that,
scientists use the system approach that involves studying
components and interactions of a whole system to address
scientific, economic and social issues. In that respect,
sustainable agriculture is not a classical, narrow science. Instead
of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that
treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats
problem sources. Because most actual society issues are now
intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable agriculture
will bring solutions to build a safer world. This book series
gathers review articles that analyze current agricultural issues
and knowledge, then propose alternative solutions. It will
therefore help all scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers
and politicians who wish to build a safe agriculture, energy and
food system for future generations.
Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at
producing food and energy in a sustainable way for our children.
This discipline addresses current issues such as climate change,
increasing food and fuel prices, starvation, obesity, water
pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control and
biodiversity depletion. Novel solutions are proposed based on
integrated knowledge from agronomy, soil science, molecular
biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy, philosophy and
social sciences. As actual society issues are now intertwined,
sustainable agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer
world. This book series analyzes current agricultural issues and
proposes alternative solutions, consequently helping all
scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers and politicians
wishing to build safe agriculture, energy and food systems for
future generations.
Finalist for the 2012 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize New
farmers, experienced growers, budding environmentalists, and fans
of natural, organic produce alike are sure to love "All the Dirt."
Filled with beautiful photographs and covering a wide variety of
topics, from agrofuels and food sovereignty to practical tips about
specific tools, "All the Dirt" is the must-read how-to book about
small-scale organic farming. But beyond the practical applications,
it is also the inspiring story of three friends who followed their
dreams and became successful business partners. Authors Rachel
Fisher, Heather Stretch, and Robin Tunnicliffe, co-owners of
Saanich Organics, a farmer-run local food distributor, share
entertaining stories of three farmers' lives, while also providing
practical information about how to start a farm. They relate their
personal and collective experiences as women, mothers, and farmers
through anecdotes, and discuss the compelling reasons why Canada
needs more organic farmers. "All the Dirt" proves that there is no
one right way to start a farm and no single solution to any
problem. But that by working together, farmers can create a
resilient agriculture that is vibrant and fun, as well as
economically viable. Rachel, Heather, and Robin have co-owned
Saanich Organics since 2002. The business has been featured in
numerous publications, including the "Times Colonist," West Jet's
"Up " magazine, "EAT Magazine," and "The Province." It has also
been featured in "Island on the Edge" (a documentary film), as well
as on CBC radio. By working co-operatively to grow and distribute
top quality produce, the business has earned the respect of the
farming community, the restaurant community, organic consumers, and
activists. Visit Saanich Organics online at
www.saanichorganics.com.
Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at
producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their
children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses
current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel
prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water
pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and
biodiversity depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions
are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sciences as diverse
as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry,
toxicology, ecology, economy, and social sciences. Indeed,
sustainable agriculture decipher mechanisms of processes that occur
from the molecular level to the farming system to the global level
at time scales ranging from seconds to centuries. For that,
scientists use the system approach that involves studying
components and interactions of a whole system to address
scientific, economic and social issues. In that respect,
sustainable agriculture is not a classical, narrow science. Instead
of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that
treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats
problem sources. Because most actual society issues are now
intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable agriculture
will bring solutions to build a safer world. This book series
gathers review articles that analyze current agricultural issues
and knowledge, then propose alternative solutions. It will
therefore help all scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers
and politicians who wish to build a safe agriculture, energy and
food system for future generations.
Many people believe that organic agriculture is a solution for
various problems related to food production. Organic agriculture is
supposed to produce healthier products, does not pollute the
environment, improves the fertility of soils, saves fossil fuels
and enables high biodiversity. This book has been written to
provide scientifically based information on organic agriculture
such as crop yields, food safety, nutrient use efficiency,
leaching, long-term sustainability, greenhouse gas emissions and
energy aspects. A number of scientists working with questions
related to organic agriculture were invited to present the most
recent research and to address critical issues. An unbiased
selection of literature, facts rather than standpoints, and
scientifically-based examinations instead of wishful thinking will
help the reader be aware of difficulties involved with organic
agriculture. Organic agriculture, which originates from
philosophies of nature, has often outlined key goals to reach
long-term sustainability but practical solutions are lacking. The
central tasks of agriculture - to produce sufficient food of high
quality without harmful effects on the environment - seem to be
difficult to achieve through exclusively applying organic
principles ruling out many valuable possibilities and solutions.
The book gives an overview of the organic sector, both in Italy and
in the US, and to show how agricultural economists are performing
analyses dealing with organic produce on different points in the
supply chain. The book covers economic issues raised by organic
farming, taking into account the consumer's needs but also the
managerial and budget constraints experienced by the farmers. Farm
management methodologies, as well as marketing analyses have been
applied to specific research topics involving several industries in
the agri-food sector. The papers strive to answer questions that
have a managerial relevance: e.g. Are the producers ready to adopt
organic farming techniques, and are the consumers willing to pay a
premium price for a certified organic produce? Most of the
contributions were presented during the 8th Padova-Minnesota
Conference on Food, Agriculture, and the Environment, held in
Stout's Lodge, Red Cedar Lake, Wisconsin, on August 26-28, 2002.
The editors have added authors to round out the subject.
Working with Nature - Shifting Paradigms, brings together the
science and research supporting an organic, holistic approach to
horticulture. This book is a journey into the garden and the world
as a whole in ways never likely seen or considered. The author has
layed out many of the connections and processes at work when light,
air, water, soil and life interact and transform the environment.
When working in alignement with nature, many common problems never
occur because one is not trying to go outside the natural laws that
constrain us all. Instead of struggling to build and control a
synthetic environment, one can now identify the existing
environmental envelope and work with the natural forces to create
and realize horticultural objectives. Once these relationships are
seen, so many puzzles will disappear and many mysteries will now
"just make sense."
Natural Farming carries a simple but widely overlooked message-
healthy soil makes healthy plants, which in turn make healthy
animals and healthy people. The book explores the consequences in
the soil of applications of superphosphate and other artificial
fertilisers over decades, and explains soil chemistry in terms that
every farmer can understand. It describes the exact role of each
mineral and vitamin, both in the soil and in the body. And it
explains how to prevent expensive disease outbreaks and minimise
the use of costly artificial sprays and fertilisers. The
prescriptions are simple and can be applied to any farming
enterprise market gardens, orchards, broadacre crops and pasture to
restore the natural balance and fertility of the land, improve soil
health, and increase productivity. The book is enlivened with
accounts of spectacular successes in regenerating degraded land and
curing animals that, in many cases, had been given up for dead.
Natural Farming is an essential handbook for any farmer, with
detailed information on- understanding a soil analysis
establishment and management of pasture treatment of compacted soil
and erosion alternatives to artificial fertilisers, herbicides, and
pesticides the significance of weeds strategies for drought
diagnosis of diseases and deficiencies in stock remedies for common
diseases, including Johne's disease and immune-system disorders
rearing orphan animals. Natural Farming equips the farmer to get
the best from the land using environmentally sustainable methods
which save time, expense, and worry and to supply the rising global
demand for pure food.
When Kristin Kimball fell in love with a farmer and left behind her
life in Manhattan to start a new farm with him in the Adirondacks,
she had to learn a lot about farming - and fast. But, it turns out
that starting a farm is not as challenging as sustaining it. Over
the next five years, as two children are born and more land is
acquired, the farm has its ups and downs, but then the downs keep
on coming. Kristin's husband gets injured, the weather turns
against them, the financial pressures mount. Suddenly, Kristin is
facing not only the daily juggle of planting and milking and
putting dinner on the table, but bigger questions about the life
she has chosen. Is she still a farmer or is she now a farmer's
wife? What does the farm need in order to survive? What does a
family need in order to thrive? Beautifully written and
refreshingly honest, Good Husbandry is about farmers and food,
friends and neighbours, love and marriage, birth and death, and
about how to grow and harvest the good things in life.
Should you buy organic food? Is it just a status symbol, or is it
really better for us? Is it really better for the environment? What
about organic produce grown thousands of miles from our kitchens,
or on massive corporately owned farms? Is "local" or "small-scale"
better, even if it's not organic? A lot of consumers who would like
to do the right thing for their health and the environment are
asking such questions.
Sapna Thottathil calls on us to rethink the politics of organic
food by focusing on what it means for the people who grow and sell
it--what it means for their health, the health of their
environment, and also their economic and political well-being.
Taking readers to the state of Kerala in southern India, she shows
us a place where the so-called "Green Revolution" program of hybrid
seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and rising pesticide use had failed
to reduce hunger while it caused a cascade of economic, medical,
and environmental problems. Farmers burdened with huge debts from
buying the new seeds and chemicals were committing suicide in
troubling numbers. Farm laborers suffered from pesticide poisoning
and rising rates of birth defects. A sharp fall in biodiversity
worried environmental activists, and everyone was anxious about
declining yields of key export crops like black pepper and coffee.
In their debates about how to solve these problems, farmers,
environmentalists, and policymakers drew on Kerala's history of and
continuing commitment to grassroots democracy. In 2010, they took
the unprecedented step of enacting a policy that requires all
Kerala growers to farm organically by 2020. How this policy came to
be and its immediate economic, political, and physical effects on
the state's residents offer lessons for everyone interested in
agriculture, the environment, and what to eat for dinner. Kerala's
example shows that when done right, this kind of agriculture can be
good for everyone in our global food system.
Organic farming is the oldest way of farming, i.e., without the use
of chemicals to enhance the production of meat, vegetables, milk
and derivatives, and without the use of antibiotics and pesticides
to decrease economical losses due to animal sickness and plant
disease. Control of plant-parasitic nematodes is difficult,
especially in organic farming systems, because in contrast to
foliar diseases and insect pests, effective control methods and
monitoring systems are not always available. Organic farmers
struggle with nematode problems using cultural, physical and
biological control methods. This book discusses effective
management of plant-parasitic nematodes, which can be achieved by
combining several control methods after identifying the nematodes
in the field and understanding their biology. Moreover, in this
book, the authors illustrate how participatory plant breeding (PPB)
may answer the needs of organic agriculture, and how organic
farmers and their organisations have met with researchers to build
common experiments of plant breeding on farms. In addition, the
early history and significance of the peanut crop is discussed.
Annual world production of peanuts at 30 million tons makes this
crop one of the most important agricultural commodities. The
physiological and biochemical response of peanut microsimbionts
under different types of stress are examined as well, and compared
with rhizobia. This book also explores the concept of scientific
paradigms and draws parallels with paradigms in agriculture, and in
particular focuses upon organic farming and genetic engineering.
The organic sector has expanded rapidly over the last decade, as
retail sales of organic food increased to $15.7 billion in 2006. As
sales have grown, so have the number and types of outlets selling
organic products. USDA's Economic Research Service surveyed
certified organic intermediaries in the United States to collect
information on basic characteristics of the sector in 2004, as well
as its marketing and procurement practices. This book uses the
survey findings to present a baseline view of the organic handling
sector. A large share of organic handlers are mixed operations that
handle both organic and conventional products, and most began as
conventional firms that converted to handling organic products.
Most organic products are also sold domestically, with nearly
three-quarters sold nationally or regionally. The National Organic
Program (NOP) was created within the USDA to establish standards
for producers and processors of organic foods, and permit such
operations to label their products with a "USDA Organic" seal after
being officially certified by USDA-accredited agents. The purpose
of the program, as discussed in this book, is to give consumers
confidence in the legitimacy of the products.
Organic farming is a form of agriculture relying on such processes
like crop rotation, green manure and biological pest control.
Organic farming is gaining world-wide acceptance and has been
expanding at an annual rate of 20% in the last decade, accounting
for over 24 million hectares world-wide. This book discusses the
agricultural practices in organic farming which cause changes in
soil organic matter and microbial biomass content. This book also
explains the concept of scientific paradigms and draws parallels
with paradigms in agriculture, and in particular focuses upon
organic farming and genetic engineering. An overview of the
evolution of global market demand for organic meat and factors
affecting it are also described. Future prospects for development
of organic meat consumption and possible problems concerning trade
are analysed as well.
Book & CD. Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies
on ecosystem management and attempts to reduce or eliminate
external agricultural inputs, especially synthetic ones. It is a
holistic production management system that promotes and enhances
agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles,
and soil biological activity. In preference to the use of off-farm
inputs, organic farming emphasises management practices, taking
into account that regional conditions require locally adapted
systems. Utilising both traditional and scientific knowledge,
organic agricultural systems rely on agronomic, biological, and
mechanical methods (these may require external inputs of
non-renewable resources, like tractor fuel), as opposed to using
synthetic materials, to fulfil any specific function within the
system. Organic farming is also associated with support for
principles beyond cultural practices, such as fair trade and
environmental stewardship. This book dives into cutting edge
research within relation to this field. This includes frequently
asked questions, price premiums, economic labelling, market
expansions, Government-facilitated programs, growth patterns and
publications from the United States Department of Agriculture.
The Common Agricultural Policy and Organic Farming covers how
ideational change came about to enhance the understanding of change
within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and to plan and
implement change in European agriculture policy. The contents cover
institutional change within the CAP and focus on the institutional
construction policy concerned with organic farming.
Fatal Harvest takes an unprecedented look at our current
ecologically destructive agricultural system and offers a
compelling vision for an organic and environmentally safer way of
producing the food we eat. It gathers together more than forty
essays by leading ecological thinkers including Wendell Berry, Wes
Jackson, David Ehrenfeld, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Vandana Shiva, and
Gary Nabhan. Providing a unique and invaluable antidote to the
efforts by agribusiness to obscure and disconnect us from the truth
about industrialized foods, it demostrates that industrial food
production is indeed a "fatal harvest"--fatal to consumers, fatal
to our landscapes, fatal to genetic diversity, and fatal to our
farm communities. As it exposes the ecological and social impacts
of industrial agriculture's fatal harvest, Fatal Harvest details a
new ecological and humane vision for agriculture. It shows how
millions of people are engaged in the new politics of food as they
work to develop a better alternative to the current chemically fed
and biotechnology-driven system. Designed to aid the movement to
reform industrial agriculture, Fatal Harvest informs and influences
the activists, farmers, policymakers, and consumers who are seeking
a safer and more sustainable food future.
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