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The failures of “free-market” capitalism are perhaps nowhere more evident than in the production and distribution of food. Although modern human societies have attained unprecedented levels of wealth, a significant amount of the world's population continues to suffer from hunger or food insecurity on a daily basis. In Agriculture and Food in Crisis, Fred Magdoff and Brian Tokar have assembled an exceptional collection of scholars from around the world to explore this frightening long-term trend in food production. While approaching the issue from many angles, the contributors to this volume share a focus on investigating how agricultural production is shaped by a system that is oriented around the creation of profit above all else, with food as nothing but an afterthought.

As the authors make clear, it is technically possible to feed to world's people, but it is not possible to do so as long as capitalism exists. Toward that end, they examine what can be, and is being, done to create a human-centered and ecologically sound system of food production, from sustainable agriculture and organic farming on a large scale to movements for radical land reform and national food sovereignty. This book will serve as an indispensible guide to the years ahead, in which world politics will no doubt come to be increasingly understood as food politics.

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Ideas such as "crop and soil weatherproofing," the "row support system," and the "tillage commandments," exemplify the practicality of the soil/root maintenance program that serves as the foundation for Schriefer’s highly-successful "systems approach" farming. Schriefer was a pioneer in developing an awareness of the relation of tillage to soil fertility, focusing on three major soil basics — soil aeration, soil water, and soil decay. This book covers such topics as soil chemistry, plant and soil dynamics, above- and below-ground plant management, row support fertilization, zone-tillage, disc-chiseling, and more. He focuses on reducing "yield-limiting factors" such as seed selection, excessive tillage and a dependence on technology. ... Read more

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Improved adaptation of food production, particularly in areas where climate variability is large, holds the key to improving food security for human populations. Increasing climate knowledge and improved prediction capabilities facilitate the development of relevant climate information and prediction products for applications in agriculture to reduce the negative impacts due to climate variations and to enhance planning activities based on the developing capacity of climate science. This book, based on an International Workshop held in Geneva in 2005, reviews the advances made so far in seasonal climate predictions and their applications for management and decision-making in agriculture and identifies the challenges to be addressed in the next 5 to 10 years to further enhance operational applications of climate predictions in agriculture, especially in the developing countries.

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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

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** Tackles one of the most pressing challenges of our time–how to manage finite water resources to feed two billion extra people, eliminate poverty and reverse ecosystem degradation

** Brings together the work of over 700 researchers into the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of water resources ever written

** Covers all aspects of water management in agriculture, poverty reduction, food security, biodiversity, irrigation, groundwater, river basins, inland fisheries, rice production and much more

** Hundreds of full-color figures, tables, and graphs present key information in easy-to-read format--a must-have reference for all professionals

This comprehensive assessment of the world’s water, written by experts with research from over 700 leading specialists, critically evaluates current thinking on water and its interplay with agriculture, charting the way forward with concrete actions from management to policy level across all countries and territories.

After framing the main issues and providing a comprehensive examination of trends and scenarios in world water management, the book critically examines the cross-cutting issues of reducing poverty, reforming institutions for sustainable water management, avoiding or mitigating ecosystem impacts, and improving water productivity. Thematic chapters follow, covering such key issues in water management as irrigation, groundwater use, inland fisheries, rice cultivation, land conservation, and river basin management and development. ... Read more

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U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs have long supported beginning farmers. USDA generally defines a beginning farmer or rancher as one who has operated a farm or ranch for 10 years or less - without regard for age - and who materially and substantially participates in its operation. USDA's lending and conservation assistance to beginning farmers has been substantial and is growing. USDA supports beginning farmers primarily through its lending assistance. From fiscal years 2000 through 2006, FSA's lending to beginning farmers rose from $716 million to $1.1 billion annually - totalling over $6 billion. However, USDA cannot demonstrate the effectiveness of its support for beginning farmers, because it has not developed a crosscutting, departmental strategic goal for its beginning farmers efforts and has only recently begun to analyse the characteristics of this group. This book explains the relationship and dependency that new farmers have on the USDA and how this relationship affects the amount of food available for the general public.This book also reviews USDA data on funding and scientist-years devoted to classical breeding, genomics and genetic engineering activities for plants and animals, as well as USDA's processes to address fraud, waste and abuse, and the extent to which the program's design makes it vulnerable to abuse. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Etrawberryfields
This book is fantastic! It took me Back to my childhood on the central coast of California. This is a must read... G.L. Detwiler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Masterful Work
To call Berry's critiques of American culture and agriculture "insightful" would be a gross understatement.Over thirty years after they were written, Berry's words still have both currency and immediacy.In the 1970's he both saw to the root of and diagnosed problems that have only become more pressing in the twenty-first century.Berry's words are truly prescient.While Berry is heavily critical of American culture and agriculture, he does not criticize from afar.Berry wishes to call Americans back to the positive heritage of Jeffersonian democracy.Berry offers an alternative way to understand what it means to be an American citizen: a way that involves responsibility and restraint.This book is a must-read.Berry's powerful arguments are couched in his characteristically clear and beautiful prose.I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Classic Critique of Culture/USA
Berry is an incredible author and I am continually impressed with things he has written decades ago. This is a great book with wonderful insightful critique. It is not easy to accept his words, but I think very necessary. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: History / General; Technology ... Read more

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How will global warming affect developing countries, which rely heavily on agriculture as a source of economic growth? William Cline asserts that developing countries have more at risk than industrial countries as global warming worsens. Using general circulation and agricultural impact models, Cline boldly examines 2070-99 to forecast the effects of global warming and its economic impact. This detailed study:outlines existing studies on the agricultural impact of climate change; estimates projected changes in temperature, precipitation, and agricultural capacity; and concludes with policy recommendations. Cline finds that agricultural production in developing countries may fall between 10 and 25 percent, and if global warming progresses unabated, India s agricultural capacity could fall as much as 40 percent. Thus, policymakers should address this phenomenon now before the world s developing countries are adversely and irreversibly affected. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The human impact of global warming
Too often global warming is discussed in abstract terms.This book gets down to business.If the crop damage predicted here takes place, we are going to be talking about hundreds of millions of people dead.It's that basic.Be aware that most of the predictions here are on the optimistic side of estimates.Check this book out.You might also want to read Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition which discusses global warming and agriculture.I also have a Listmania list on agriculture.
... Read more

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Before social unrest shook the region in the 1970s, Central America experienced more than a decade of rapid export growth by adding cotton and beef to the traditional coffee and bananas. Williams shows how the rapid growth contributed to the present social and political crisis, examines the causes of the export boom and who benefited from it, and shows the impact of the boom on land use, the ecology, and the conditions of life in the rural areas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

University of California anthropologist, Carol A. Smith, reviews Williams' work
University of California anthropologist, Carol A. Smith, reviews Williams' work in the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, "What took place in Central America calls for comparative research. The most useful and original comparisons have been done by Robert Williams, an economist who uses sociological, historical, and ethnographic methods in his research.Robert Williams's Export Agriculture (1986) observes that cotton and cattle production for export expanded hugely in all five countries and led to significant dispossession of peasants everywhere, including Costa Rica.But the five Central American states handled peasant protest quite differently, with both Costa Rica and Honduras carrying out land reform and expanding services while the three other states responded with repression and militarization-which led to war.In States and Social Evolution (1994), Williams examines the social and economic factors that led to two different kinds of states in Central America-the three revolutionary countries being controlled by rigid oligarchies, the other two being led by more open political groups. (Williams) finds an explanation in the social and political relations created by the coffee export economy, the first major post-colonial export in the region, which played a critical role in state formation."

The environmental repercussions of export agriculture
Williams' book deals with the issue of export agriculture in Central America and its repercussions on the economic, ecological, and social well-being of this troubled region. Williams divides the book into three parts, according to the main exports of Latin America. First, Williams deals with cotton's emergence as a cash crop and its positive and negative aspects. Second, Williams deals with cattle and the effects it has had upon the land and the men who till it. This book is interesting in the way it views the cash crops in an economic light and in the ways they affect farmers, large
farmers, and the working class.

The environment has blessed Central America with some of the best land anywhere on earth. Central America's pacific coastal plain, for example, is ideal for growing cotton. The ecological consequences of growing cotton, however, are quite severe. The stress on the soil is severe, considering this crop is not for subsistence. While the law requires that the land be cleared as to protect the land, it is nearly inevitable to prevent the volcanic soils to be vulnerable from wind and water erosion. In the rainy season, however, thunderstorms take their toll on the soil since they make the land prone to flooding. This damage is in addition to the fact that the best lands are used for the production of cotton, while simultaneously polluting the coastal eco-system. The fertility of the soil was short lived in Central America, since after four or five years of consecutive cultivation the light soils of the coastal plain began to lose their natural fertility. This, in turn, led to the need to use chemicals to yield more crops per acre of land.

In regards to cattle, Williams argues that the emerging demand for beef in the United States as a result of the fast food business precipitated the need to make subsistence plots in Latin America land for cattle grazing. For institutions like the World Bank, AID and IADB cattle was seen as a pragmatic, quick way to achieve export led growth. By most accounts, this land was carved from Central American forests. Swidden agriculture (slash and burn) practiced by indigenous allowed for the land to be regenerated after the patch had been abandoned. Under modern methods of forest clearing, the land is almost always relegated to remaining fallow. Modern methods of clearing have allowed for flatlands below the grazing grounds to become subject to flooding. Williams concludes that for those privileged enough to gain access to bank credit, the beef export boom meant a quick way to expand their fortunes, while for those who planted for survival it spelled impending doom. ... Read more

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Debate about how best to ensure the preservation of agricultural biodiversity is caught in a counter-productive polemic between proponents and critics of market-based instruments and agricultural modernization. However, it is argued in this book that neither position does justice to the range of strategies that farmers use to manage agrobiodiversity and other livelihood assets as they adapt to changing social, economic, and environmental circumstances.
Chapters explore relationships between the exploitation and conservation of agricultural biodiversity and the livelihoods of agricultural communities, and evaluate the capacity of national and multilateral institutions and policy settings to support the protection and capture by communities of agrobiodiversity values. The place of ecosystem services in valuing biodiversity in the marketplace is emphasized. A number of authors assess the potential for market-based instruments and initiatives to encourage the protection of biodiversity, while others compare agro-biodiversity/community relationships, and the effectiveness of instruments designed to enhance these, across international boundaries.
The book takes a comparative approach, drawing on empirical case studies from across the developed and developing worlds. In doing so, it shows how global trade and multilateral institutions bring otherwise disparate communities together in networks that exploit and/or preserve agrobiodiversity and other resources. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... 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

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Hemp Hurds as Paper-Making Material - United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 404 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Lyster H. (Lyster Hoxie) Dewey is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Lyster H. (Lyster Hoxie) Dewey then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Review of Changing Works
I found "Changing Works" to be a very informative text in the area of technological advances in the dairy industry.Harper uses SONJ pictures to highlight wonderful interviews with various dairy farmers that farmed in the generations before World War II.These interviews bring the past back to life as the reader goes through the mechanization introductions such as replacement of horses and the reconstruction of the milking process.I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the dairy industry and to future dairymen.As an agricultural student, I was enthralled throughout the entire book.Harper tends to be less descriptive when it comes to the actual workings of the machinery, but it does not take much away from the rich narrative he weaves with the farmers' interviews.The reader gets a feeling of loss for the traditional ways that Harper projects throughout the book and it only enhances the content. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

China countryside, 1911
I first read this in the Small Farm Journal. It recounts the ingenuity and hard work that Chinese employ to make the most of resources. Some of the grainy photographs were included there, but this republication does not include the photographs which I think are important.

really good book
This was a well written book that provided a lot of knowledge not just about ancient farming knowledge but even ancient conservation techniques.If you like organic or natural farming then you will find this book a good read. ... Read more

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The World Trade Organization's Doha Round of trade talks has been plagued by a lack of concrete progress toward establishing a fair and harmonious agricultural trading system. Because the results of the Doha Round could have far-reaching implications for the trade and economic prospects of developing countries in the twenty-first century, it is critical for these countries to fully understand the issues involved in the negotiations on agriculture. However, there has been no authoritative analysis of the rules and modalities on which governments of developing countries can rely. This book, coauthored by an insider to the trade talks that led to the establishment of the WTO, fills this gap.

The volume begins with a detailed analysis of the provisions of the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture and the modalities of the negotiations. It examines the implementation experience of key members of the WTO, then traces the developments in the negotiations up to the recent impasse. In light of these considerations, and on the basis of a case study of India, the authors propose various elements of a negotiating position and strategy for developing countries.

The authors offer tough but realistic recommendations regarding tariffs, market access, treatment of sensitive or special products, and other aspects of international trade. This book will be of particular interest to researchers and practitioners as well as students seeking in-depth knowledge of the recent history of agricultural trade talks.

Customer Reviews (2)

Outstanding Historical Review of Tractors
For anyone who is interested in Tractor History this book will be an outstanding source of information. There are also additional books for other time periods written by the same award winning arthor.

Very informative
This book has an excellent sampling of tractors in this era.Plenty ofpictures and illustrations of the inner and outer workings of thesemachines.Not an encyclopedia or a how to manual but one can get a goodgeneral overview of the history of the tractor. ... Read more

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3000 new references added since the first editionGives information necessary to produce embryos totally through in vitro techniques ... Read more