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Establishes that the current factory farm,petroleum based agricultural system is not sustainable
Ikerd has done an excellent job of demonstrating that the current factory farm approach to farming is simply not economically sustainable or environmentally sound in the long run.It has TWO Achilles heels .The first is that it relies completely on petroleum based chemicals,fertilizers,pesticides,fungicides,and herbicides that, cumulatively, are contributing to significant soil erosion and top soil loss in order to produce and harvest various grain crops throughout the world.Increases in the price of a barrel of oil automatically translates into higher and higher food prices inall countries.Third world countries are especially impacted negatively .The second involves the factory farm extension to meat production.This approach requires the use of massive amounts of antibiotics to deal with/prevent the periodic outbreaks of contagious diseases that can spread through animal populations' crammed together like sardines in a can.These antibiotics also make the animals fatter,thus generating a higher profit per animal sold.Unfortunately,the social costs of such animal factory farms are passed down to the consumer.The consumerdevelops a resistance to the antibiotics contained in the meat products as he consumes more amd more meat over time.More and more germs are developing such resistance to a wide range of antibiotics. The doctors of sick patients discover all too often that the antibiotics do not work . ... Read more

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Immense potential for sustainable development lies in the production of fuels, chemicals, and materials from bioresources. This timely book provides comprehensive coverage of the engineering systems that convert agricultural crops and residues into bioenergy and biobased products.

Leading the way as the first textbook for coursework on biobased products, Biorenewable Resources: Engineering New Products from Agriculture covers not only pertinent technologies but offers a primer on necessary foundation subjects the student or other reader may lack: organic chemistry, thermodynamics, plant science, crop production, environmental science, and process economics. Of special value to those working or planning to work in the field are compilations of bioresource properties, such as

• production yields,
  
• bulk densities and moisture content,
  
• summative analysis of plant materials, and
  
• chemical conversion yields.

By defining this multi-disciplinary field—at the interface between agricultural sciences and process engineering—Robert C. Brown has produced an introductory textbook that also serves as a handbook for agronomists, engineers, chemists, and environmentalists. ... Read more

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Biodynamics is an internationally recognized approach to organic agriculture in which the farmer or gardener respects and works with the spiritual dimension of the earth's environment. In a world where conventional agricultural methods threaten the environment, biodynamic farms and gardens are designed to have a sound ecological balance. This concise and fully illustrated book presents evidence that biodynamic crops put down deeper roots, show strong resistance to disease and have better keeping qualities than conventionally produced crops. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Biodynamic agriculture - a beginners guide
This book provides a very brief introduction to the world of biodynamic agriculture. It is a very brief overview and should be regarded more as a pamphlet rather than a book. For someone who knows nothing about biodynamic agriculture it is a good starting point. Unfortunately it does not go further than mentioning the basic concepts so if you are looking for more detail on where the concepts came from or how to practically apply them then this is not your book. This book is a good starting point as the reference and further reading lists are useful. This book is probably most useful for providing the content for a high school or under graduate lecture module on BD agriculture.

Steiner is a Genius!
This book is a must. Not only for the man on the land but for home gardeners as well. If we take time to observe our surroundings on a seasonal basis and to dispense with the overuse of chemicals which only benefit their manufacturers, the health of our soil as well as our own will blossom. ... Read more

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While the American agricultural and food systems follow a decades-old path of industrialization and globalization, a counter trend has appeared toward localizing some agricultural and food production. Thomas A. Lyson, a scholar-practitioner in the field of community-based food systems, calls this rebirth of locally based agriculture and food production civic agriculture because these activities are tightly linked to a community's social and economic development. Civic agriculture embraces innovative ways to produce, process, and distribute food, and it represents a sustainable alternative to the socially, economically, and environmentally destructive practices associated with conventional large-scale agriculture. Farmers' markets, community gardens, and community-supported agriculture are all forms of civic agriculture.

Lyson describes how, in the course of a hundred years, a small-scale, diversified system of farming became an industrialized system of production and also how this industrialized system has gone global. He argues that farming in the United States was modernized by employing the same techniques and strategies that transformed the manufacturing sector from a system of craft production to one of mass production. Viewing agriculture as just another industrial sector led to transformations in both the production and the processing of food. As small farmers and food processors were forced to expand, merge with larger operations, or go out of business, they became increasingly disconnected from the surrounding communities. Lyson enumerates the shortcomings of the current agriculture and food systems as they relate to social, economic, and environmental sustainability. He then introduces the concept of community problem solving and offers empirical evidence and concrete examples to show that a re-localization of the food production system is underway. ... Read more

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Important and too often ignored
The issues that are addressed by Thomas Lyson in this small volume are important and becoming more so. He describes in adequate detail the progression from subsistance farming of our great grand parents to the industrial farms of today. He goes on to discuss how feeding and clothing the world's growing population in that manner is becoming more and more problematic and shows how the development of community based agriculture provides a path out of that morass.

One need not be an agronomist or agricultural economist to appreciate Professor Lyson's statement of the problem and its possible solution. In fact, the non-technical reader could well perceive this book as a good starting point for participation in this most important discussion. ... Read more

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Roughly a billion people around the world continue to live in state of chronic hunger and food insecurity. Unfortunately, efforts to improve their livelihoods must now unfold in the context of a rapidly changing climate, in which warming temperatures and changing rainfall regimes could threaten the basic productivity of the agricultural systems on which most of the world’s poor directly depend. But whether climate change represents a minor impediment or an existential threat to development is an area of substantial controversy, with different conclusions wrought from different methodologies and based on different data.

This book aims to resolve some of the controversy by exploring and comparing the different methodologies and data that scientists use to understand climate’s effects on food security. In explains the nature of the climate threat, the ways in which crops and farmers might respond, and the potential role for public and private investment to help agriculture adapt to a warmer world. This broader understanding should prove useful to both scientists charged with quantifying climate threats, and policy-makers responsible for crucial decisions about how to respond. The book is especially suitable as a companion to an interdisciplinary undergraduate or graduate level class.

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Essential Part of American History
Best one volume history of American agriculture by dean of American agricultural historians; much superior to Danbom, Born in the County, which attempts a similar brief summary.Good bibliographies of additional readings.Although America was primarily an agricultual county for 250 years, most conventional histories ignore this fact.This book supply an essential missing dimentsion, although the reader still has to do a good deal of work to relate it to political,cultural, and economic history that was going on at the same time. ... Read more

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This is a story of resistance against all odds, of Cuba's remarkable recovery from a food crisis brought on by the collapse of trade relations with the former socialist bloc and the tightening of the U.S. embargo. Unable to import either food or the farm chemicals and machines needed to grow it via conventional agriculture, Cuba turned inward toward self-reliance. Sustainable agriculture, organic farming, urban gardens, smaller farms, animal traction and biological pest control are part of the successful paradigm shift underway in the Cuban countryside. In this book Cuban authors offer details-for the first time in English-of these remarkable achievements, which may serve as guideposts toward healthier, more environmentally friendly and self-reliant farming in countries both North and South. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An amazing story that inpsires hope for the world
As a practitioner of sustainable agriculture and organic farming (I am a farmer, teacher and researcher) I found this story of how Cuba used organic farming to beat all odds and overcome a food crisis to be awe inspiring.Every professor, teacher, researcher, analyst, student, thinking farmer and advocate of sustainable agriculture MUST read this book.It will restore your hope.So should everyone interested in Cuba, Latin America, and Third World development.I loved to read it in the cuban's own, well-translated words.

You can skip this one
Cuba has done an amazing job of switching over to organic, local food production. They did so to survive the assinine embargo of thier island, but in doing so they have shown the way for all of us to move to a sane mode of food production.You would want this book to be a delightful description of that process.You would be wrong.It is a leaden, tedious exercise in socialist writing with all the wit and charm of a phone book.Skip the book and just go to Cuba and see the results for yourself.Then come home and plant a garden. ... Read more

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At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation. Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come. Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.

Customer Reviews (5)

Wonderful
A deep and inviting look into why the American agriculture system looks the way it does. While much more prosaic in approach and not as revolutionary as the writings of Wendell Berry, by looking at the facts Conkin draws the same conclusions, problems, and solutions that we as Americans face in both our Agriculture and Culture.

Well organized and very interesting
I found this book to be a complete view of farming and offered information on the history of farming and the laws which affect it, as well as the current application of federal regulations. Highly recommended for anyone in agriculture or farming.

Critical of American agriculture?This is how we got here. . .
As Americans grow more concerned about where their food comes from, it is important to understand how our current agricultural system developed.Paul Conkin's "A Revolution Down on the Farm," a history of American agriculture since the Great Depression, provides an excellent account.

According to Conkin, new technologies allowed American agriculture to experience tremendous productivity increases after World War II.While population has grown since World War II, agricultural productivity has grown even more.The upshot of this is less hunger in the world; on the other hand, the supply of agricultural products usually far exceeds demand, as farmers (for some reason) are exceedingly bad at responding to price signals.

Conkin then explores policymakers' efforts to address this supply-demand imbalance and assure farmers a decent income.Remarkably, he provides a readily comprehensible account of America's various farm bills and the measures they have employed to reduce crop acreage and keep farm incomes up.Ultimately, however, technological advances outweighed the acreage reductions, pushing profit margins down and requiring many farmers to "get big" to stay in business.

Conkin's clear history is augmented by personal recollections of his childhood on a small farm in eastern Tennessee.He also provides his own assessment of American agriculture at the end of the book.While Conkin clearly admires the productivity of modern agriculture, he also laments its human and environmental effects.

"A Revolution Down on the Farm" is a compelling read; I highly recommend it.

Interesting
Very interesting to read how the farm and rural areas have changed throughout the years.

A comparison with today's financial crisis.
The book is clearly written.Readers should compare the crises in agriculture and the actions of government in the 1930's with today's financial crisis and especially how today's government is trying to deal with the financial crisis. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

a visionary book
This is an amazing book!Published in 1950, it is the second, enlarged edition of a book originally written in, I think, 1939.It reflects a lifetime of research around the world and personal trials on the author's farm in Virginia on the uses of tree crops for animal and human food.It anticipates the permaculture literature in advocating a "two-storey" agriculture, with tree crops (primarily nuts) as the primary source of animal fodder on sloping and hilly land.It documents the incredible productivity of tree crops and their traditional uses as fodder for pigs, goats, cattle, and poultry.I was particularly struck by the evidence from southern Europe, where extensive chestnut forests produce(d) some of the finest pork in the region.But there is evidence from around the globe, attesting to not only the uses of tree crops but their potential for breeding to build on that potential.

Following up on Smith's advice, I went to my local garden shop recently to inquire about honey locusts.Oh yes, I was told, we sold quite a few to the city as shade trees.No, no, I said, I want a messy variety, one that drops bushels of pods.She looked it up.Apparently the breeders have indeed been at work since Smith wrote -- eliminating the seeds from a tree that could provide nutritious feed to replace the corn and soy beans whose production has been ravishing the planet for decades!The book should be in every permaculturalist's library but in every rural public library, as well, and regularly taught in our terrible agricultural colleges.

A solution for the future
A wonderful book. Required reading for those interested in the future of farming and food-systems. A great deal of our food comes from trees, which do not need to be replanted constantly, so soil and ecosystem destruction from plowing is greatly reduced. Very close to the ideas of Bill Mollison's permaculture. You can do this right in our own backyard garden.

Dilligent but Grand
Tree Crops is a real gem of a book for anyone interested in sustainable agriculture.In 1953, J. Russell Smith proposed shifting to an no-till agriculture based on trees as a way to avoid soil erosion, nutrient depletion, and weeds.His proposal is well thought out, researched, and presented.A delightful set of small black and white photographs illustrates applications of his idea.One shows pigs collecting the mulberries from the grassy field of a mulberry grove...other pictures illustrate carob and persimmons cultivation.J. Russell Smith taught economic geography at Columbia University, but he was interested in concrete details. The writing style is calm and diligent, but the proposal is a grand one, is it not?

A Visionary; A Vision and a Timeless Prescription
J. Russel Smith's book changed my life.It set me on a course to become an authority on solving world hunger on a local level and I have traveled to the third world with Smith's advice clearly in mind.This is not an easy read, and the photographs are black and white, not very clear and dated.But.This man writes in the 1950's (this is a reprint) that we need to stop the destruction of the rain forests of the world (! - now THAT was thinking ahead!).Agricultural planners in all countries need to give this book a look:Smith is right on and shows a way in the darkness towards universal food without shortages.This book should be on the shelf of any serious world agriculturalist and anyone who deems that world hunger can be overcome.

Tree crops offer potential solutions for a sustainable ag.
I don't have too much to say about Tree Crops---A Permanent Agriculture wrote by J. Russell Smith and the introduction by Wendell Berry.Its is a summary of tree choices for US lands and there potential roles as a foodsource for humans and livestock.I was most intriuged by the informationon utilizing mulberry trees as an early season feed supply for pigs andchickens.I would recommend the book for any sustainable ag fans who arevery willing to think outside the box. ... Read more

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Risk Management for Agriculture addresses the issue of price risk as a management function versus a marketing function.Price risks impact not only the marketing of a product but the cash flow and the overall financial health of the business.The use of derivatives such as futures contracts, options contracts, and swaps need to be viewed as tools that can be used solely or in combinations to control price risk. Each of these derivatives and subsequent combinations is examined closely and comprehensively within the text. Price forecasting is addressed as well as fundamentals of futures hedging and options hedging. There is a complete glossary of terms at the end of the text to help reinforce the terms that are used throughout. Although price risk is the focus of the text, there is also a chapter devoted to the management of other agricultural risks. Students and professionals will benefit from this text that takes a comprehensive, management approach to price risk. ... Read more

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Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Starving people in poor nations, obesity in rich nations, increasing food prices, on-going climate changes, increasing fuel and transportation costs, flaws of the global market, worldwide pesticide pollution, pest adaptation and resistance, loss of soil fertility and organic carbon, soil erosion, decreasing biodiversity, desertification, and so on. Despite unprecedented advances in sciences allowing to visit planets and disclose subatomic particles, serious terrestrial issues about food show clearly that conventional agriculture is not suited any longer to feed humans and to preserve ecosystems. Sustainable agriculture is an alternative for solving fundamental and applied issues related to food production in an ecological way. While conventional agriculture is driven almost solely by productivity and profit, sustainable agriculture integrates biological, chemical, physical, ecological, economic and social sciences in a comprehensive way to develop new farming practices that are safe and do not degrade our environment. In that respect, sustainable agriculture is not a classical and narrow science. Instead of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats problem sources. As most actual society issues are now intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world.

This book 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.

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Agricultural ecology, or agroecology, deals in general with the structure and function of agroecosystems at different levels of resolution. In this text/reference, the authors describe in terms of agroecology the tropical environments of sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin and Central America, focusing on production and management systems unique to each region. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best book on the subject
The book by Juo and Franzluebbers is the best book ever written on the subject of tropical soils and their management for sustainable agriculture. Authors discused systematically the properties of the major tropical soils, their linkage with agroecosystems and management options based on current knowledge. The book is very informative, easy to read, well illustrated and contains useful tables. It is highly recommended as introductory textbook for students in tropical soils and also for agricultural and environmental workers interested in natural resource management for agricultural production in the tropics. ... Read more

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Dryland agriculture is of more consequence now than ever because the worlds dependence on food produced in dryland areas is even greater. In recognition of this, and the fact that global food supply is increasingly interconnected, this volume takes a world view of dryland production continent by continent. The initial chapters of the monograph address the principles that underlie all dryland farming, and are the basis for the following chapters that address dryland farming issues around the world.

Also available:

Irrigation of Agricultural Crops, Second Edition - ISBN 0891181628
Phosphorus: Agriculture and the Environment - ISBN 0891181571
Crops and Man, 2nd Edition - ISBN 0891181075

The American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America are prominent international scientific societies headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. The Societies specialize in peer-reviewed, high-quality science titles for a wide variety of audiences.
Some of the many areas we publish in include:

-Soils Methods and Management
-Crop Development and Improvement
-Agrosystem Management and the Global Food Crisis
-Environmental Conservation and Climatology ... Read more

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Originally published in 1916.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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This thoroughly revised and updated second edition introducesreaders to the basic principles involved in agricultural engineeringand thetypical problems inherent in managing the two biggestresources inany agricultural enterprise - land and mechanicaldevices. Airconditioning and refrigeration, materials handling, andwind andwater erosion are some of the new topics that are featured.Emphasisthroughout the book is on problem-solving techniques. Foreach topic,the authors provide basic principles and technicalinformation andthen present readers with a unique problem-solvingapproach. The bookincludes practice problems, along with necessarytables, conversionvalues, and equations, to aid understanding ofcomplex problems. ... Read more

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This text focuses on the scientific principles of the agricultural industry. Designed for use in high school agriscience courses, the aim of the text is to provide students with a basic understanding of the concepts behind the agricultural industry.Traditionally, high school agriculture texts have concentrated on the "how" behind the industry.The Science of Agriculture: A Biological Approach, third Edition concentrates more on the "why" behind the industry.Topics include plant and animal systems, soils, cell functions, genetics, genetic engineering, plant and animal reproduction, entomology, the uses of biotechnology, and careers.The text also includes a thorough examination of the controversy and concerns over the use of genetic engineering, genetically modified organisms, cloning, and their perceived and potential dangers to humans and the environment.Each chapter begins with clearly-stated learning objectives, followed by key terminology.Chapters close with student learning activities intended to extend learning beyond the text material.end-of-Chapter test questions, in True/False; Short Answer/Discussion; and Multiple Choice formats help to evaluate students' understanding of the concepts presented in the text. ... Read more