Download or read book Thinking Outside the Soil written by Sean Short and published by . This book was released on 2022-10-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One hundred years ago, most of us farmed and grew our own food. Today, less than three percent of Americans make the things that grow our great nation. But, thanks to new advances in technology, business, science, and society, we have been able to do much more with much less.There are many problems facing agriculture today, from drought and pollution to climate change and land availability. Farmers struggle to develop sustainable agriculture practices that minimize their negative environmental impact while maximizing their productivity for the market.Hydroponic fodder saves over 90 percent less water and land than soil-based feed production. Research and farmers concur. Not only does hydroponic fodder save water and land, but it is also better for the Earth. Farms that adopt hydroponics can spare land normally used to grow crops for livestock. Land can be used for another purpose, like agricultural land trusts and natural preserves. Farms also use fewer inputs to produce significantly more food.Thinking Outside The Soil provides the needed insights and approaches so that farmers can produce high-quality fodder with less water and space than the same forage crops. From proven hydroponic processes of sprouting, microfodder, and greenwater culture: there's valuable knowledge for every farm to better preserve natural resources and improve its bottom line.
Download or read book Dirt to Soil written by Gabe Brown and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-11 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A regenerative no-till pioneer."—NBC News "We need to reintegrate livestock and crops on our farms and ranches, and Gabe Brown shows us how to do it well."—Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation See Gabe Brown—author and farmer—in the Netflix documentary Kiss the Ground Gabe Brown didn’t set out to change the world when he first started working alongside his father-in-law on the family farm in North Dakota. But as a series of weather-related crop disasters put Brown and his wife, Shelly, in desperate financial straits, they started making bold changes to their farm. Brown—in an effort to simply survive—began experimenting with new practices he’d learned about from reading and talking with innovative researchers and ranchers. As he and his family struggled to keep the farm viable, they found themselves on an amazing journey into a new type of farming: regenerative agriculture. Brown dropped the use of most of the herbicides, insecticides, and synthetic fertilizers that are a standard part of conventional agriculture. He switched to no-till planting, started planting diverse cover crops mixes, and changed his grazing practices. In so doing Brown transformed a degraded farm ecosystem into one full of life—starting with the soil and working his way up, one plant and one animal at a time. In Dirt to Soil Gabe Brown tells the story of that amazing journey and offers a wealth of innovative solutions to restoring the soil by laying out and explaining his "five principles of soil health," which are: Limited Disturbance Armor Diversity Living Roots Integrated Animals The Brown’s Ranch model, developed over twenty years of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil. Using regenerative agricultural principles, Brown’s Ranch has grown several inches of new topsoil in only twenty years! The 5,000-acre ranch profitably produces a wide variety of cash crops and cover crops as well as grass-finished beef and lamb, pastured laying hens, broilers, and pastured pork, all marketed directly to consumers. The key is how we think, Brown says. In the industrial agricultural model, all thoughts are focused on killing things. But that mindset was also killing diversity, soil, and profit, Brown realized. Now he channels his creative thinking toward how he can get more life on the land—more plants, animals, and beneficial insects. “The greatest roadblock to solving a problem,” Brown says, “is the human mind.”
Download or read book Sean Conway s Cultivating Life written by Sean J. Conway and published by Artisan Books. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea book to outdoor living, by the imaginative team behind the popular television series Cultivating Life. The backyard is being transformed from an underused patch of grass into the new great room, an extension of Americans' living space. For many months of the year, it can serve as kitchen, family room, and a place to entertain friends and neighbors. Based on ideas from their television series Cultivating Life, Sean Conway and Lee Buttala show how to make outdoor living easier, with simple crafts such as making sun-print tablecloths, time-honored gardening techniques, and stylish ideas for patios and borders. The versatile projects in this book will enhance any outdoor space. An easy-to-build portable salad table is ideal for growing your favorite greens just outside the back door. A simple and inexpensive water garden adds a touch of elegance to any patio or terrace. And, with clear step-by-step instructions, woodworking projectsÑsuch as a bird feeder, a bamboo trellis, or a porch swingÑcan be tackled in a weekend. Generously illustrated with beautiful photographs, fun sidebars, and expert tips, Sean Conway's Cultivating Life will inspire readers to make their backyards refuges for enjoying life to the fullest and to make reconnecting to the land as easy as stepping out the back door.
Download or read book The Soil Will Save Us written by Kristin Ohlson and published by Rodale. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thousands of years of poor farming and ranching practices—and, especially, modern industrial agriculture—have led to the loss of up to 80 percent of carbon from the world’s soils. That carbon is now floating in the atmosphere, and even if we stopped using fossil fuels today, it would continue warming the planet. In The Soil Will Save Us, journalist and bestselling author Kristin Ohlson makes an elegantly argued, passionate case for "our great green hope"—a way in which we can not only heal the land but also turn atmospheric carbon into beneficial soil carbon—and potentially reverse global warming. As the granddaughter of farmers and the daughter of avid gardeners, Ohlson has long had an appreciation for the soil. A chance conversation with a local chef led her to the crossroads of science, farming, food, and environmentalism and the discovery of the only significant way to remove carbon dioxide from the air—an ecological approach that tends not only to plants and animals but also to the vast population of underground microorganisms that fix carbon in the soil. Ohlson introduces the visionaries—scientists, farmers, ranchers, and landscapers—who are figuring out in the lab and on the ground how to build healthy soil, which solves myriad problems: drought, erosion, air and water pollution, and food quality, as well as climate change. Her discoveries and vivid storytelling will revolutionize the way we think about our food, our landscapes, our plants, and our relationship to Earth.
Download or read book Secrets of the Soil written by Peter Tompkins and published by books catalog. This book was released on 1989 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book,a fascinating companion to The Secret Life of Plants by the same authors, tells the story of the innovative, nontraditional, often surprising things that certain scientists, farmers, and mystics are doing to prevent the slow degradation of our planet. For example, using the techniques of Rudolf Steiner s biodynamic agriculture with its reliance on ethereal forces from the planets,Dan Carlson s growth stimulating Sonic Bloom, and rock dust fertilizer to revitalize depleted soils; or gardening with the help of truly amazing new technologies to reverse serious agricultural problems.The authors illustrate,in a truly enlightening and convincing manner, the pivotal role that the natural elements play in ourlives, and the necessity of cultivating and sustaining a relationship with one most basic of them the soil.
Download or read book Soil and Sacrament written by Fred Bahnson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-08-06 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recounts the author's experiences founding a faith-based community garden in rural North Carolina, and emphasizes how growing one's own food can help readers reconnect with the land and divine faith.
Download or read book A Second Wind written by T. D. Jakes and published by . This book was released on 2017-11-09 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While focusing on his core mission to preach the gospel worldwide, T.D. Jakes has seen many good people not spend enough quality time with family, friends, and God. They have gotten so swept up in the daily grind that they have failed to live the rich life that God desires for each of His people. In his new book, Jakes provides readers with strategies that will help them rejuvenate their life and turn their "busyness" into a "business." All readers-not just entrepreneurs-will benefit from Jakes' insightful advice so that they can use the days God has blessed them with wisely and finish each day strong!
Download or read book THINKING Outside the Pill Box written by Ty Vincent, MD and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012-08-17 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mainstream medicine in America focuses on symptoms rather than causes of chronic illness and poor health. Medical education is influenced to a great extent by pharmaceutical companies and focuses our attention dangerously onto drug therapies. Conventional medicine practice has been failing miserably to control or treat the chronic disease entities afflicting our population in the modern era. Integrative medicine concepts and practice offer people much safer and often more effective options for achieving and maintaining health, as well as combating most forms of chronic disease. The keys include understanding what it really takes to promote human health in a broad sense and what the underlying causes of chronic disease truly are. Thinking Outside the Pill Box contains an explanation of how our medical system came to be so defective and ineffectual, a thorough look at the important factors influencing human health, and an in-depth discussion of many common underlying causes of chronic illness in the modern world. It is designed as a self-help book for both the reader and their future generations.
Download or read book Soils written by Randall J. Schaetzl and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 801 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This expanded, fully updated second edition of the leading textbook in pedology and soil geomorphology is invaluable for anyone studying soils, landforms and landscape change.
Download or read book Call of the Reed Warbler written by Charles Massy and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Charles Massy has written a definitive masterpiece that takes its place along with the writings of Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Masanobu Fukuoka, Humberto Maturana, and Michael Pollan. No work has more brilliantly defined regenerative agriculture and the breadth of its restorative impact upon human health, biodiversity, climate, and ecological intelligence." --Paul Hawken In Call of the Reed Warbler, Charles Massy explores regenerative agriculture and the vital connection between our soil and our health. It is the story of how a grassroots revolution—a true underground insurgency—can save the planet, help reduce and reverse climate change, and build healthy people and healthy communities, pivoting significantly on our relationship with growing and consuming food. Using his personal experience as a touchstone—from an unknowing, chemical-using farmer with dead soils to a radical ecologist farmer carefully regenerating a 2000-hectare property to a state of natural health—Massy tells the real story behind industrial agriculture and the global profit-obsessed corporations driving it. With evocative stories, he shows how other innovative and courageous farmers are finding a new way. At stake is not only a revolution in human health and in our communities, but the very survival of the planet. For farmers, backyard gardeners, food buyers, health workers, policy makers, and public leaders alike, Call of the Reed Warbler offers a tangible path forward and a powerful and moving paean of hope. It’s not too late to regenerate the earth. Call of the Reed Warbler shows the way forward for the future of our food supply, our planet, and our health.
Download or read book The Ecological Gardener written by Matt Rees-Warren and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-29 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Design a garden for the future—because what we grow matters. "Matt Rees-Warren explains why every square inch of Earth, including our gardens, has ecological significance... Excellent, timely, essential!" —Douglas W. Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope Transform your garden into a self-sustaining haven for nature and wildlife. Ecological garden designer Matt Rees-Warren shares inspirational design ideas and practical projects to help you create a garden that is both beautiful today and sustainable tomorrow. The Ecological Gardener will give you the tools to create an abundant, healthy garden from the soil up—a garden that welcomes birds and bees and allows native planting and wild flowers to flourish, with minimal carbon impact or need for fresh water. This book can guide both novice and experienced gardeners alike in their journey to a more ecological approach, and is full of practical projects and information, including: Finding the right design for your space Creating a wildflower meadow Building rainwater catchments and other tips for water conservation Making compost from kitchen waste, leaf mold, compost tea and more Creating a space for wildlife such as hedgehogs, bees and other pollinators Finding beauty in your garden during the winter Matt will show you how to re-imagine how you garden, working with nature instead of controlling it, to create a space that promotes both wildlife and beauty.
Download or read book The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil written by Dale Strickler and published by Storey Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 716 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Healthy soil is key to sustaining life on Earth. While more and more people are starting to see the need for soil restoration, there is very little understanding of just how it can be accomplished. There is a rapidly emerging demand for a “how to” manual for soil restoration. Dale Strickler is an expert on building healthy soil and restoring degraded soil, and in The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil, he presents the science of soil, along with proven methods of restoring depleted soil and agricultural practices from around the world that continue to build soil, rather than cause it to deteriorate. Strickler provides a solid foundation in the science of healthy soil, explaining how soil has become so degraded over time and the dire consequences for the human species, not just in terms of food scarcity but also the social, health, and environmental consequences of growing food in poor soil. He addresses the chemical, physical, and biological principles behind soil function, and presents actual farming practices that can be used to regenerate soil, techniques and strategies for remediating contaminated soil, and agriculture systems both past and present that functioned to build soil, such as the ancient chinampas systems of Mexico and the permaculture systems of today. This publication conforms to the EPUB Accessibility specification at WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
Download or read book Cows Save the Planet written by Judith D. Schwartz and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2013-05-20 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Cows Save the Planet, journalist Judith D. Schwartz looks at soil as a crucible for our many overlapping environmental, economic, and social crises. Schwartz reveals that for many of these problems—climate change, desertification, biodiversity loss, droughts, floods, wildfires, rural poverty, malnutrition, and obesity—there are positive, alternative scenarios to the degradation and devastation we face. In each case, our ability to turn these crises into opportunities depends on how we treat the soil. Drawing on the work of thinkers and doers, renegade scientists and institutional whistleblowers from around the world, Schwartz challenges much of the conventional thinking about global warming and other problems. For example, land can suffer from undergrazing as well as overgrazing, since certain landscapes, such as grasslands, require the disturbance from livestock to thrive. Regarding climate, when we focus on carbon dioxide, we neglect the central role of water in soil—"green water"—in temperature regulation. And much of the carbon dioxide that burdens the atmosphere is not the result of fuel emissions, but from agriculture; returning carbon to the soil not only reduces carbon dioxide levels but also enhances soil fertility. Cows Save the Planet is at once a primer on soil's pivotal role in our ecology and economy, a call to action, and an antidote to the despair that environmental news so often leaves us with.
Download or read book Naturalistic Planting Design written by Nigel Dunnett and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an exciting alternative to traditional garden making. Rich in plants, sustainable and good for the environment, naturalistic gardens are also beautiful, upliftning places that resonate with the energy of the natural world - but they can be challenging to get right.
Download or read book The One Straw Revolution written by Masanobu Fukuoka and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2010-09-08 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book,” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.” Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort. Whether you’re a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here—you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.
Download or read book Think Outside the Hutch written by Rebecca Bee and published by Grosvenor House Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-21 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A photo-packed, modern guide to keeping happy, healthy rabbits. Rebecca Bee BSc designed the Rabbit Care and Behaviour Courses for the staff at the Blue Cross animal charity whilst working there as an Animal Behaviourist. As well as a BSc in Animal Care Science and running her own rabbit rescue and behaviour service, the knowledge she imparts in this book offers owners a comprehensive guide to understanding rabbits and their unique needs. Rabbits are one of the most misunderstood companion animals; however, they can be fun and interesting pets when kept appropriately. When you change the way you interact with them and alter some aspects of their lifestyle, they can be transformed into animals who enjoy your company as much as you enjoy theirs. Having rabbits who excitedly run to you, as opposed to away, are a daily joy to greet! Key areas of rabbit care are covered, such as: rabbit behaviour, bonding (including group bonding), suitable housing, litter training, house rabbits, environmental enrichment, taming, nervousness and aggression, grooming, diet, fun training and adopting rescue rabbits. All areas put together result in more rewarding and lower maintenance rabbit care. This book will also help adults guide children in how to interact with their rabbits respectfully and in a way that enhances their relationship. The biggest problems with rabbit care and children are a result of outdated housing and handling information. The photos and easy read style assists owners in creating an environment where their rabbits will be happier, and children and adults can enjoy them without the nervousness and aggression traditional rabbit keeping often causes. Whether you already have rabbits or are preparing to bring them into your life, there is something for everyone in this book. It will help to improve your relationship with these amazing animals and give them the best life possible.
Download or read book Developments in Soil Salinity Assessment and Reclamation written by Shabbir A. Shahid and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 827 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers assembled here cover topics such as technological advances in soil salinity mapping and monitoring, management and reclamation of salt-affected soils, use of marginal quality water for crop production, salt-tolerance mechanisms in plants, biosaline agriculture and agroforestry, microbiological interventions for marginal soils, opportunities and challenges in using marginal waters, and soil and water management in irrigated agriculture.
