Download or read book Alternative Agriculture written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1989-02-01 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More and more farmers are adopting a diverse range of alternative practices designed to reduce dependence on synthetic chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and antibiotics; cut costs; increase profits; and reduce the adverse environmental consequences of agricultural production. Alternative Agriculture describes the increased use of these new practices and other changes in agriculture since World War II, and examines the role of federal policy in encouraging this evolution, as well as factors that are causing farmers to look for profitable, environmentally safe alternatives. Eleven case studies explore how alternative farming methods have been adoptedâ€"and with what economic resultsâ€"on farms of various sizes from California to Pennsylvania.
Download or read book Alternative Agriculture in Europe sixteenth Twentieth Centuries written by Gerard Beaur and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-15 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The treatment of long-term agricultural transformation remains a lively topic for historians. Much debate arose when agricultural development patterns were discovered that did without a dominant, production-oriented cereal crop, even when it was accompanied by livestock farming. Joan Thirsk hoped to conclude this debate by putting forward the hypothesis that such "alternative agriculture" was the farmers' way of responding to the difficulties caused by periods of low agricultural prices. This theory stirred up controversy and arguments both for and against.00The contributions to this volume take this hypothesis seriously and attempt to assess its validity. Examining a large number of "alternative agricultures" over the long term, from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, they discuss the issues encountered in tracing the links between the spread of alternative crops, such as fruits and vegetables, flowers, and industrial crops, and the general economic environment, across a vast swathe of territory stretching from Flanders to Spain and from France, through Italy and Switzerland, as far as Russia.
Download or read book Agroecology in Action written by Keith Warner and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Detailed case studies of agrecological initiatives show how growers, scientists, agricultural organizations, and public agencies can form partnerships to develop innovative, ecologically based techniques for reducing reliance on agrochemicals.
Download or read book Alternative Agriculture A History written by Joan Thirsk and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 1997-10-09 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People like to believe in a past golden age of traditional English countryside, before large farms, machinery, and the destruction of hedgerows changed the landscape forever. However, that countryside may have looked both more and less familiar than we imagine. Take todays startling yellow fields of rapeseed, seemingly more suited to the landscape of Van Gogh than Constable. They were, in fact, thoroughly familiar to fieldworkers in seventeenth-century England. At the same time, some features that would have gone unremarked in the past now seem like oddities. In the fifteenth century, rabbit warrens were specially guarded to rear rabbits as a luxury food for rich mens tables; whilst houses had moats not only to defend them but to provide a source of fresh fish. In the 1500s we find Catherine of Aragon introducing the concept of a fresh salad to the court of Henry VIII; and in the 1600s, artichoke gardens became a fashion of the gentry in their hope of producing more male heirs. The common tomato, suspected of being poisonous in 1837, was transformed into a household vegetable by the end of the nineteenth century, thanks to cheaper glass-making methods and the resulting increase in glasshouses. In addition to these images of past lives, Joan Thirsk reveals how the forces which drive our current interest in alternative forms of agriculture a glut of meat and cereal crops, changing dietary habits, the needs of medicine have striking parallels with earlier periods in our history. She warns us that todays decisions should not be made in a historical vacuum: we can find solutions to our current problems in the experience of people in the past.
Download or read book Agroecology written by Miguel A Altieri and published by Westview Press. This book was released on 1987-09-15 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Westview special studies in agriculture science and policy).
Download or read book Sustainable Agriculture written by Mary V. Gold and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sustainable Or Alternative Agriculture written by Jayne T. MacLean and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Campesino a Campesino written by Eric Holt-Giménez and published by Food First Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Campesino a Campesino tells the inspiring story of a true grassroots movement: poor peasant farmers teaching one another how to protect their environment while still earning a living. The first book in English about the farmer-led sustainable agriculture movement in Latin America, Campesino a Campesino includes lots of first-person stories and commentary from the farmer-teachers, mixing personal accounts with detailed analysis of the political, socioeconomic, and ecological factors that galvanized the movement. Campesino farmer leading a farmer to farmer training session in Mexico by Eric Holt-GimenezMany years ago, author Eric Holt-Gim�nez was a volunteer trying to teach sustainable agriculture techniques in the dusty highlands of central Mexico, with little success. Near the end of his tenure, he invited a group of visiting Guatemalan farmers to teach a course in his village. What he saw was like nothing he had known. The Guatemalans used parables, stories, and humor to present agricultural improvement to their Mexican compadres as a logical outcome of clear thinking and compassion; love of farming, of family, of nature, and of community. Rather than try to convince the Mexicans of their innovations, they insisted they experiment new things on a small scale first to see how well they worked. And they saw themselves as students, respecting the Mexicans' deep, lifelong knowledge of their own particular land and climate. All they asked in return was that the Mexicans turn around and share their new knowledge with others--which they did. CAC campo3_photo by Food FirstThis exchange was typical of a grassroots movement called Campesino a Campesino, or Farmer to Farmer, which has grown up in southern Mexico and war-torn Central America over the last three decades. In the book Campesino a Campesino, Holt-Gim�nez writes the first history of the movement, describing the social, political, economic, and environmental circumstances that shape it. The voices and stories of dozens of farmers in the movement are captured, bringing to vivid life this hopeful story of peasant farmers helping one another to farm sustainably, protecting their land, their environment, and their families' future.
Download or read book Alternative Agriculture written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Transition Toward a Sustainable Agriculture written by Jane Potter Gates and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Periodicals Pertaining to Alternative Farming Systems written by Jane Potter Gates and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sustainable Or Alternative Agriculture January 1982 December 1989 written by Jayne T. MacLean and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-07-25 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last 20 years, there has been a remarkable emergence of innovations and technological advances that are generating promising changes and opportunities for sustainable agriculture, yet at the same time the agricultural sector worldwide faces numerous daunting challenges. Not only is the agricultural sector expected to produce adequate food, fiber, and feed, and contribute to biofuels to meet the needs of a rising global population, it is expected to do so under increasingly scarce natural resources and climate change. Growing awareness of the unintended impacts associated with some agricultural production practices has led to heightened societal expectations for improved environmental, community, labor, and animal welfare standards in agriculture. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century assesses the scientific evidence for the strengths and weaknesses of different production, marketing, and policy approaches for improving and reducing the costs and unintended consequences of agricultural production. It discusses the principles underlying farming systems and practices that could improve the sustainability. It also explores how those lessons learned could be applied to agriculture in different regional and international settings, with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. By focusing on a systems approach to improving the sustainability of U.S. agriculture, this book can have a profound impact on the development and implementation of sustainable farming systems. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century serves as a valuable resource for policy makers, farmers, experts in food production and agribusiness, and federal regulatory agencies.
Download or read book The Basic Principles of Sustainable Agriculture written by William J. Hudson and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sustainable Agriculture and Food Supply written by Kimberly Etingoff and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. As we realize the ways in which our food systems contribute and respond to climate change, sustainable agriculture becomes increasingly crucial. It is a complicated, multi-dimensional issue, which should be considered from a variety of angles. This compendium includes the perspectives of science
Download or read book Agricultural Research Alternatives written by William Lockeretz and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Clearly, the debate is no longer over agricultural sustainability as a legitimate goal, but about how to fulfill that goal. Research is a vital factor contributing to the creation of a sustainable agriculture. Entrenched ideas about the way agricultural research is conducted have been challenged by farmers, environmentalists, food-safety advocates, rural activists, and others. ø William Lockeretz and Molly D. Anderson meet these challenges and chart a reasoned course through the fray. They analyze the potential and the limits of various research approaches associated with alternative agriculture: multidisciplinary research, application of ecological principles in understanding agricultural systems, emphasis on the use of agricultural information, use of working farms as research sites, and the involvement of farmers in agricultural research. They also propose reforms in institutional aspects of agricultural research?the organization of academic departments, evaluation of professional achievement, functioning of grant programs, and the education of agricultural researchers.
Download or read book Alternative Agriculture written by United States. Congress. Joint Economic Committee and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
