Download or read book A Revolution Down on the Farm written by Paul K. Conkin and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Principles and Practices of Rice Production written by Surajit K. De Datta and published by Int. Rice Res. Inst.. This book was released on 1981 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Varieties of Alfalfa written by United States. Agricultural Research Service. Crops Research Division and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Irish and Scottish Linen and Jute Trades Journal written by and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Raspberry and Blackberry Production Guide for the Northeast Midwest and Eastern Canada written by Lori J. Bushway and published by Natural Resource Agriculture and Engineering Service (Nraes). This book was released on 2008 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Manual on MUTATION BREEDING THIRD EDITION written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper provides guidelines for new high-throughput screening methods – both phenotypic and genotypic – to enable the detection of rare mutant traits, and reviews techniques for increasing the efficiency of crop mutation breeding.

Download or read book Wallace s Farm and Dairy written by and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 994 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Method of Determining Courses of Study in Vocational Agriculture Based on an Analysis of the Business of Selected Farmes in Kentucky June 1929 written by Forest G. Burd and published by . This book was released on 1929 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Sumerians written by Samuel Noah Kramer and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-09-17 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A readable and up-to-date introduction to a most fascinating culture” from a world-renowned Sumerian scholar (American Journal of Archaeology). The Sumerians, the pragmatic and gifted people who preceded the Semites in the land first known as Sumer and later as Babylonia, created what was probably the first high civilization in the history of man, spanning the fifth to the second millenniums B.C. This book is an unparalleled compendium of what is known about them. Professor Kramer communicates his enthusiasm for his subject as he outlines the history of the Sumerian civilization and describes their cities, religion, literature, education, scientific achievements, social structure, and psychology. Finally, he considers the legacy of Sumer to the ancient and modern world. “An uncontested authority on the civilization of Sumer, Professor Kramer writes with grace and urbanity.” —Library Journal

Download or read book From the Farm to the Table written by Gary Holthaus and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-04-23 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As with other areas of human industry, it has been assumed that technological progress would improve all aspects of agriculture. Technology would increase both efficiency and yield, or so we thought. The directions taken by technology may have worked for a while, but the same technologies that give us an advantage also create disadvantages. It's now a common story in rural America: pesticides, fertilizers, "big iron" combines, and other costly advancements may increase speed but also reduce efficiency, while farmers endure debt, dangerous working conditions, and long hours to pay for the technology. Land, livelihood, and lives are lost in an effort to keep up and break even. There is more to this story that affects both the food we eat and our provisions for the future. Too many Americans eat the food on their plates with little thought to its origin and in blind faith that government regulations will protect them from danger. While many Americans might have grown up in farming families, there are fewer family-owned farms with each passing generation. Americans are becoming disconnected from understanding the sources and content of their food. The farmers interviewed in From the Farm to the Table can help reestablish that connection. Gary Holthaus illuminates the state of American agriculture today, particularly the impact of globalization, through the stories of farmers who balance traditional practices with innovative methods to meet market demands. Holthaus demonstrates how the vitality of America's communities is bound to the successes and failures of its farmers. In From the Farm to the Table, farmers explain how their lives and communities have changed as they work to create healthy soil, healthy animals, and healthy food in a context of often inappropriate federal policy, growing competition from abroad, public misconceptions regarding government subsidies, the dangers of environmental damage and genetically modified crops, and the myths of modern economics. Rather than predicting doom and despair for small American growers, Holthaus shows their hope and the practical solutions they utilize. As these farmers tell their stories, "organic" and "sustainable" farming become real and meaningful. As they share their work and their lives, they reveal how those concepts affect the food we eat and the land on which it's grown, and how vital farming is to the American economy.

Download or read book Progressive Farmer written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 1092 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Holstein Breeder and Dairyman written by and published by . This book was released on 1930 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Wallaces Farmer and Dairyman written by and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 1726 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Onions and Other Vegetable Alliums written by James L. Brewster and published by CABI. This book was released on 2008 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fully revised, expanded and updated edition of the successful text, Onions and Other Vegetable Alliums, relates the production and utilization of these familiar and important vegetable crops to the many aspects of plant science underpinning their production and storage technologies. Chapters cover species and crop types, plant structure, genetics and breeding, physiology of growth and development as well as pests and diseases, production agronomy, storage after harvest and the biochemistry of flavour, storage carbohydrates and colour and how this relates to nutritional and health benefits. From this wide perspective it is possible to see many examples where underlying scientific knowledge illuminates, explains and can improve agronomic practice. The reader will get an insight into how molecular methods are revolutionizing the study of taxonomy, genetics, pathology and physiology and how these methods are being applied in the breeding of improved crops.

Download or read book South Carolina Historical Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book American Agriculturist written by and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Drought Resistance in Crops with Emphasis on Rice written by International Rice Research Institute and published by Int. Rice Res. Inst.. This book was released on 1982 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: