Product Description
Agricultural production environments have been changing constantly as a result of factors such as shifts in government macroeconomic policies and climate change. There is a need to constantly test new possibilities and strategies to match changing environments. It may be difficult for scientists, with a formal approach to technology development, to keep up with constantly changing production environments and to provide agricultural technologies that would sustain farmers income levels. In this context the farmers indigenous knowledge, particularly in developing economies, is critical for tackling issues arising out of changing agricultural production environments. This volume emphasizes that demands for new agricultural sustainable technologies may not be realized merely by the application scientific knowledge, but would require a combination of scientific inputs and the indigenous knowledge of the farming community. ... Read more

Product Description
The technological revolution in farming practices has allowed us to clear and cultivate more land, grow plants and animals faster, and kill a greater variety of pests and diseases than ever before. Unfortunately, these efficiencies are proving to be unsustainable in the long term and have created problems such as soil structural decline, erosion, salinity, soil acidification, loss of fertility, nutrient loading of waterways, dams and a build up of chemical residues.

This book is about foreseeing and understanding such problems and addressing them before it is too late. John Mason examines all these problems and explains the concepts and long-term benefits of sustainable farming systems such as permaculture, biodynamics, organic farming, agroforestry, conservation tillage, and integrated hydroculture.

Sustainable Agriculture 2nd Edition also looks at important issues such as monoculture versus polyculture, the use of hybrids, selection criteria for plants and stock, integrated pest management and preparing a farm for droughts and floods. Other areas examined include diversifying into farm tourism and value adding before selling produce. ... Read more

Product Description
From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, farmers in the Corn Belt transformed their region into a new, industrial powerhouse of large-scale production, mechanization, specialization, and efficiency. Many farm experts and implement manufacturers had urged farmers in this direction for decades, but it was the persistent labor shortage and cost-price squeeze following WWII that prompted farmers to pave the way to industrializing agriculture. Anderson examines the changes in Iowa, a representative state of the Corn Belt, in order to explore why farmers adopted particular technologies and how, over time, they integrated new tools and techniques.



In addition to the impressive field machinery, grain storage facilities, and automated feeding systems were the less visible, but no less potent, chemical technologies antibiotics and growth hormones administered to livestock, as well as insecticide, herbicide, and fertilizer applied to crops. Much of this new technology created unintended consequences: pesticides encouraged the proliferation of resistant strains of plants and insects while also polluting the environment and threatening wildlife, and the use of feed additives triggered concern about the health effects to consumers.



Anderson explains that the cost of equipment and chemicals made unprecedented demands on farm capital, and in order to maximize production, farmers planted more acres with fewer but more profitable crops or specialized in raising large herds of a single livestock species. The industrialization of agriculture gave rural Americans a lifestyle resembling that of their urban and suburban counterparts. Yet the rural population continued to dwindle as farms required less human labor, and many small farmers, unable or unwilling to compete, chose to sell out.



Industrializing the Corn Belt based on farm records, cooperative extension reports, USDA publications, oral interviews, trade literature, and agricultural periodicals offers a fresh look at an important period of revolutionary change in agriculture through the eyes of those who grew the crops, raised the livestock, implemented new technology, and ultimately made the decisions that transformed the nature of the family farm and the Midwestern landscape. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Book
This is a first-class book: closely reasoned, thoroughly researched, and extremely well-written. Anyone interested in rural life, agricultural economics, our food supply, and the environment should owe and study this excellent monograph.

Indepth study of a major change in American life
This well researched and well written book studies the evolution of US agriculture from one era to another--a major shift in farming which impacts food production for all Americans. The author researches and discusses 1945-1972 agriculture extension services publications, individual farm records and personal farmer commentaries, farm magazines, land grant agricultural publications, and agriculture company materials among others.He also conducts first person interviews with farmers and their families who participated in the changes from 1945-1972 to help the reader understand some of the social and financial impacts on farm families and American rural life. Readers who lived these changes will identify with what is written and see themselves on the pages. Those who did not will marvel at what happened and the impact this era had upon all of us and what we eat.I am a biased reviewer because I had the privilege of watching this author grow up with a passion for history and agriculture. ... Read more

Product Description
Constrained Coding and Soft Iterative Decoding is thefirst work to combine the issues of constrained coding and softiterative decoding (e.g., turbo and LDPC codes) from a unified pointof view. Since constrained coding is widely used in magnetic andoptical storage, it is necessary to use some special techniques(modified concatenation scheme or bit insertion) in order to applysoft iterative decoding. Recent breakthroughs in the design and decoding of error-control codes(ECCs) show significant potential for improving the performance ofmany communications systems. ECCs such as turbo codes and low-densityparity check (LDPC) codes can be represented by graphs and decoded bypassing probabilistic (a.k.a. `soft') messages along the edges of thegraph. This message-passing algorithm yields powerful decoderswhose performance can approach the theoretical limits on capacity.This exposition uses `normal graphs,' introduced by Forney, whichextend in a natural manner to block diagram representations of thesystem and provide a simple unified framework for the decoding ofECCs, constrained codes, and channels with memory. Soft iterativedecoding is illustrated by the application of turbo codes and LDPCcodes to magnetic recording channels. For magnetic and optical storage, an issue arises in the use ofconstrained coding, which places restrictions on the sequences thatcan be transmitted through the channel; the use of constrained codingin combination with soft ECC decoders is addressed by themodified concatenation scheme also known as `reverseconcatenation.' Moreover, a soft constraint decoder yields additionalcoding gain from the redundancy in the constraint, which may be ofpractical interest in the case of optical storage. In addition, thismonograph presents several other research results (including thedesign of sliding-block lossless compression codes, and the decodingof array codes as LDPC codes). Constrained Coding and Soft Iterative Decoding will prove usefulto students, researchers and professional engineers who are interestedin understanding this new soft iterative decoding paradigm andapplying it in communications and storage systems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A must for development work
This book is full of wisdom learned on the ground from campesinos, the poor who work their land. It shows the wisdom of an approach that recognizes and values and encourages the wisdom and work of the poor. This truly promotes a participatory approach to sustainable agriculture. From my vantage point in western Honduras I hope that more groups will find a way to make the vision of Campesino a Campesino real - not only in its practices and its methodology, but also in supporting policy changes that empower the poor rural farmers and their families.
Thanks to the author and to the campesinos who shared their experiences in this book.
Everyone who into agricutlural development work among the poor should read this book (together with "Tow Ears of Corn" and "The Human Farm")

I'm in LOVE with the authors of this book!
This book took me on a deep journey through the indigenous peasant world of Campesino a Campesino, a fascinating movement working for food sovereignty and environmental sustainability. I had no idea of its existence or of the dramatic struggles of its protagonists. On one hand, it is told through the eyes of the peasants themselves as they brave repressive regimes, war, globalization and poverty. On the other, the author weaves in his own observations and thoughtful analysis of how and why these events occur. It is powerfully and passionately written, without losing any of its sharp analytical edge. I learned a lot from this book, and will use it in my teaching and simply to share in the wisdom of the peasants. ... Read more

Product Description
Degrees of Belief: Subjective Probability and Engineering Judgment artfully weaves together three elements at the very core of engineering: uncertainties in knowledge; inductive reasoning; and individual expertise. Written from a geotechnical and earth sciences perspective, it brings new meaning to these concepts for nearly any field of engineering, science, or technology decision making. It begins by examining the tension between theory and practice, showing how this is manifested in the different meanings of probability used in reliability and risk analysis. This book emphasizes the cognitive processes used in conceptualizing uncertainty, with techniques and tools for subjective probability assessment. Turning to what this requires, it lends substance to professional judgment by examining its diagnostic, inductive, and interpretive elements. It also investigates the nature of expertise by bringing to life such towering figures as Roebling, Stevens, and Terzaghi, and their monumental engineering achievements. Masterfully synthesizing a wide variety of sources in a way directly relevant to engineers, the book draws on the history and philosophy of science through the work of Thomas Kuhn and Henri Poincaré. It provides a window on current behavioral research that applies it to everyday thinking. This is all richly illustrated by examples from practice, including a gripping reassessment of the 1986 Challenger incident as seen through the eyes of the engineers who experienced it. From philosophical foundations to nuts and bolts, this is a groundbreaking book of serious content and sparkling style sure to engage any engineer or scientist who thinks about what they do and how they do it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Refreshingly Candid
An excellent treatment of a number of the schools of thought underlying the study of probability, which, along with decision making, lies at the heart of risk management. As with Koen's "Discussion of the Method", Vick's candid admission that the fundamental assumptions of engineering are built largely on approximations, is downright sobering. Again like Koen, Vick reaches far beyond his own profession of engineering to find answers to the tough questions and similarly, he treats his subject with a healthy dose of humour and human interest.

Comments on Degrees of Belief
The new book,DEGREES OF BELIEF. is much more than the subtitle, Subjective Probability and Engineering Judgment, would imply.The author presents a scholarly, sensible treatise that covers both theory and practice and, most importantly, builds a beautiful bridge between them.

The various quotes from lectures and writings of Karl Terzaghi, Ralph Peck and other giants of the engineering profession add much to the book.Moreover, the author's emphasis on the wholeness of theory and practice and that regardless of the paradigm, judgment is imperative,make this book so outstanding. ... Read more

Product Description

The Art of Agriculture is the first English edition of Obra de Agricultura by Gabriel Alonso de Herrera, an agriculture instruction manual originally written in Granada, Spain, in 1513 and published there in 1539. Herrera, widely considered the Father of Modern Spanish Agriculture, wrote this treatise nearly five centuries ago, thoughtfully recounting traditional farming techniques of the Moors before their expulsion from Spain, the Spanish colonizers in the early 1600s, and the rural Indo-Hispano bioregion spanning northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.

Customer Reviews (1)

Insights into traditional farming techniques of the Moors
It'd be tempting to place this survey under 'Home and Garden' for this review - but really, ANCIENT AGRICULTURE: ROOTS AND APPLICATION OF SUSTAINABLE FARMING deserves so much more. It'll reach an audience of farmers, gardeners, and history buffs with the first English translation of Obra de Agricultura, offering an early agricultural instruction manual originally written in Spain in 1513 - and holding importance for modern times. Here are insights into traditional farming techniques of the Moors before their expulsion from Spain: techniques which hold surprising relevance to modern farmers facing global warming and water shortages.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch ... Read more

Product Description
Sugar beet, alongside sugar cane, is the main source of sugar across the world. Grown widely in Europe, North and South America, Asia and parts of North Africa, the crop is at the core of a multi-billion dollar global industry.

A. Philip Draycott has gathered 32 international experts to create this defining text, providing a comprehensive review of the latest research in a clear and accessible form, providing the reader with:

Definitive account of this major world crop Coverage of all aspects of successful sugar beet growing Over 2,500 references from international literature Colour images to assist in the identification of sugar beet pests, diseases and nutrient deficiencies

All those involved with the crop, including growers and processors, sugar beet and sugar organisations and society members will find this book to be an invaluable resource. Agricultural and plant scientists, food scientists and technologists and all libraries in research institutions where these subjects are studied and taught will find it a valuable addition to their shelves. ... Read more

Product Description
Explores the synthesis of optical and electronic techniques for the generation, measurement, and control of microwave and millimeter-wave signals. DLC: Microwave devices. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is a much-expanded and updated edition of a previous volume, published in 1996 as 'No-tillage Seeding: Science and Practice'. The base objective remains to describe, in lay terms, a range of international experiments designed to examine the causes of successes and failures in no-tillage. The book summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of no tillage.It highlights the pros and cons of a range of features and options, without promoting any particular product.Topics added or covered in more detail in the second edition include:· soil carbon and how its retention or sequestration interacts with tillage and no-tillage· controlled traffic farming as an adjunct to no-tillage· comparison of the performance of generic no-tillage opener designs· the role of banding fertilizer in no-tillage· the economics of no-tillage· small-scale equipment used by poorer farmers· forage cropping by no-tillage· a method for risk assessment of different levels of machine sophistication ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Enlightening the basic dynamics of marine vehicles
I prescribed this book to many beginners those who learn ship dynamics and to many practical ship designers when they get some doubts about the basics. The author had used a very simple language to explain the complexnature of ship behaviors and with very clear practical oriented examplecalculations. Anybody those who doesn't even know the basics of dynamicscan pick ups this book and can become master without the help of anybody.The formulas given for the motion responses of ships under various seaconditions are highly authentic ones and I found it matches very near tothe expensive computer program results. I very much impressed by the waythe author used to explain the irregular seaway and wave loads. Superb ... Read more

Product Description
Agriculture in the United States today increasingly operates in two separate spheres: large, corporate-connected commodity production and distribution systems and small-scale farms that market directly to consumers. As a result, midsize family-operated farms find it increasingly difficult to find and reach markets for their products. They are too big to use the direct marketing techniques of small farms but too small to take advantage of corporate marketing and distribution systems. This crisis of the midsize farm results in a rural America with weakened municipal tax bases, job loss, and population flight. Food and the Mid-Level Farm discusses strategies for reviving an "agriculture of the middle" and creating a food system that works for midsize farms and ranches. Activists, practitioners, and scholars from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, political science, and economics, consider ways midsize farms can regain vitality by scaling up aspects of small farms' operations to connect with consumers, organizing together to develop markets for their products, developing food supply chains that preserve farmer identity and are based on fair business agreements, and promoting public policies (at international, federal, state, and community levels) that address agriculture-of-the-middle issues.

Food and the Mid-Level Farm makes it clear that the demise of midsize farms and ranches is not a foregone conclusion and that the renewal of an agriculture of the middle will benefit all participants in the food system—from growers to consumers.

Contributors:
Elizabeth Barham, Sandra S. Batie, Eileen Brady, Fred Buttel, Peter Carstensen, Ken Dahlberg, Mike Duffy, Thomas Gray, Shelly Grow, Amy Guptill, William Heffernan, Mary Hendrickson, Elizabeth Higgins, Fred Kirschenmann, David Lind, Thomas Lyson, Caitlin O’Brady, Rich Pirog, Daryll Ray, Harwood D. Schaffer, G. W. Stevenson, Rick Welsh. ... Read more

Product Description
Depending on who is telling it, the history of Euro-American farmers on the Great Plains has been a story of either agricultural triumph or ecological failure—an optimistic tale of taming nature for human purposes or a dire account of disrupting nature and suffering the environmental consequences.

In On the Great Plains, author Geoff Cunfer poses an alternative scenario: that people were not the masters of nature on the Great Plains. Land use in America's vast interior prairies has stayed remarkably stable throughout the twentieth century, changing little as droughts came and went, as farmers shifted from horses to tractors, and as federal subsidies and fluctuating crop prices transformed the economics of farming. An equilibrium between natural and human forces emerged as farmers plowed and planted the same amount of cropland during most of this period, maintaining two-thirds of the Great Plains in unplowed, native vegetation.

To support his theory, Cunfer looks at the entire Great Plains (450 counties in ten states), tapping historical agricultural census data paired with GIS mapping to illuminate land use on the Great Plains over 130 years. Coupled with several community and family case studies, this database allows Cunfer to reassess the interaction between farmers and nature in the Great Plains agricultural landscape. ... Read more

Product Description
*Exposes the massive hidden health and environmental costs of rampant pesticide use
*Presents an array of cheaper, safer alternatives to pesticides used by millions of farmers around the world
*Written by leading international agricultural and biological scientists supported by The Global Integrated Pest Management Facility of the FAO

Since the 1960s the world’s population has more than doubled and agricultural production per person has increased by a third, largely because of widespread pesticide use. Yet this growth in production has masked enormous hidden costs -- massive ecological damage and high incidences of farmer poisoning and chronic health effects.
Yet in recent years millions of farmers in communities around the world have been identifying harmful pesticides and developing cheaper and safer alternatives. "The Pesticide Detox" explores the potential for the phasing-out of hazardous pesticides and the phasing-in of cost-effective alternatives already available on the market. This book makes clear that it is time to start the pesticide detox and to move towards a more sustainable agriculture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The new pesticide
Over the past 40 years, world population, the use of modernized farming methods, and farming production have gone up. Modernized farming uses hazardous pesticides. But does it have to? Where are pesticides used? Are there alternatives? And what can be done to replace pesticides with alternative controls?

More than 800 different pesticides are regularly used throughout the world. They're used to protect crop yields from diseases and pests. Just under 4/5 of all pesticides are used outside the United States. The developing countries are the part of the world where companies plan to hugely increase pesticide sales and use.

But pesticides are damaging to the environment. They're not just hazardous to people who make and use them. Scientists keep on studying the effects of pesticides on animals, birds, bugs, other green things, people, places and water. But the chain of cause and effect isn't always easy to prove, show and tell. That's particularly the case when the audience is people making money from pesticide sales and use!

Editor Jules Pretty says alternatives can replace pesticides. Alternatives can be based on bacteria, certain nematodes, fungi or viruses. They can include parasitoids and predators. When tested with 80 crop combinations, alternatives came up with workable results. Crop yields went up acceptably, with cut-back pesticide use and with alternatives.

Pretty says that what's needed are political will, consumer awareness, and market response. But what can change national policies, international conventions, and programs? Pretty says to start on the level of appropriate taxing, education and environmental action. Specifically, for example, taking away subsidies and putting in effect high taxes would make pesticides less affordable. The list of registered pesticides could be reviewed. The most toxic pesticides could be taken off. Less hazardous alternatives could be added. Also, cooperative extension schools could be set up in the field. Agricultural colleges could have their courseload updated to cover alternatives as well as they're already covering pesticides! All three steps would make alternatives better known. Maximum residue limits could be set, checked and enforced. That would cut down the use of pesticides and increase the use of alternatives.

THE PESTICIDE DETOX is a well-organized and -written book. The editor and the contributing writers include helpful charts, examples, graphs and illustrations. There's a good index and set of references. The subject is now. It's dealt with in such a way that the problems are clear. And there are actually workable solutions! What more could a girl ask? ... Read more

Product Description
This innovative soil mechanics text is intended for junior and senior civil engineering majors and contains unique lab experiments incorporating the most up-to-date material and broad range of testing methods.Features include integration of geotechnical topics with labratory methods, numerous in-text problems and updated laboratory testing methods that meet ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) Standards.Consolidation and triaxial test data and results coverage offers a careful examination not found in other texts and the noteworthy section on the New Unified System offers easy-to-use tables and flow charts. ... Read more

Product Description
* Essential collection of the most important literature covering the full scope and depth of agriculture and food production world-wide
* Edited by Jules Pretty, the world’s leading authority on sustainable food and agriculture
* Substantial set overview and volume introductions by the editor provide comprehensive treatment of the major themes, historical and current trends and schools of thought – ideal for researchers
*World-wide coverage including perspectives and key literature from and on Asia, Europe,the Middle East, Africa and North and South America

This four volume set, edited by the world’s leading expert on agricultural sustainability, brings together and interprets the most influential, important and time-tested international scholarship across the fields of agriculture and food production with a set overview and individual volume introductions that make sense of this diverse and complex field.

Volume I covers the history of agriculture from its ancient origins through successive technological and institutional revolutions to the present. Volume II examines the relationship between agriculture and the environment including agricultural contamination, greenhouse gases and climate change, environmental improvements and sustainability, integrated farming, eco-agriculture and agro-ecology, landscape restoration and environmental goods and services. Volume III provides full coverage of the modern industrialized global food system, corporate control, poverty, hunger and international successes, failures and challenges, diet and health, consumer behavior and local alternatives to industrialization. Volume IV addresses how we think about land and our relationship to it, governance and stewardship of the rural commons, systems thinking, ecological literacy, social connections and a sustainable rural life, supportive and perverse agricultural subsidies and policies that shape food poverty and sustain agriculture into the future. ... Read more