Customer Reviews:
Let the Revolution Begin.......2005-10-31
This book is revolutionary. It really shows us how to get back to the natural way of farming and living. Like Thoreau once said Simplify, simplify, simplify. Fukuoka brings one back to the essence of life. Life was not meant ot be difficult, we must simplify to succeed, the more complex tends to be more difficult. Nature does not need the hand of man to thrive. She only needs to be. In mans pursuit to control and dominate we have succeeded in corrupting. Fukuoka's natural way would help humanity to redeem themselves and reach a state of peace.
Seeing reality as it is.......2004-12-31
There are thousands of Self-realized people , but only a handful of those have experienced that. This Japanese farmer/scientist is one among the rare who understood the truth that unless one put the "Truth" (Self-realization) into practise in daily life, one cannot experience it. He used farming to validate his realization and shares great truth to us through this book. The truth he shares about natrual food is amazing and is in tune with the truth given by other cultures. This book is highly recommended for someone who seeks Truth in every moment of life.
Zen and the Art of Farming?.......2004-06-22
Masanobu Fukoka was a laboratory agricultural scientist who worked on fighting plant diseases. He also had many unanswered questions about the interrelationship between man and nature. After a long sabbatical he resigned his position and took over his father's rice and mandarin orange farm. Fukuoka thought that by putting the subjects of his questions into actual material challenges he might find the answers he sought.
Fukoka was immediately drawn to organic and natural farming methods, and over the years developed a type of natural farming that he refers to as "do-nothing farming". Contrary to what you may imagine, this method does involve work, much of it menial, but at least in Fukoka's experience the benefits outweight the negatives. His method of farming is thus:
After the seasonal heavy rains, the rice is planted by scattering it by hand throughout the farming area. The planting rice is rolled in a type of clay that will help prevent animals from eating it but will not inhibit sprouting. Clover seeds are also sewn at the same time in the same method. The clover acts as a natural barrier to the young rice shoots, and helps the soil from eroding.
The rice will grow naturally over the course of the next few months without constant pools of water as are often seen in traditional(from 1600-1940s) Japanese rice farming, albeit shorter and stockier than the cultivated rice. After the rice harvest, the leftover straw is scattered over the field to decompose, adding nutrients back into the soil. Afterwards, barley is planted as a winter crop and to further enrich the soil for the next rice season.
Fukoka does not use compost on his rice fields or on his citrus orchard as he finds that the byproducts of the plant provides all the soil nutrients needed. He does maintain a small compost pile for his vegetable garden, however. Outside of the rice season, he tends to his mandarin orange orchard, which is also kept on a "do-nothing" method of growth. From using this technique, he has not only kept up with modern(tractor, fertilizer, pesticide) farmers in quantity, but has a much higher quality of rice, barley, and oranges. He spends very little out of pocket and sells his produce for a very fair price.
The great thing about this short book (192pp) is that it is not exclusively about farming. In fact, there are many pages where Fukoka expands on philosophy, history, nutricion, intentional communities, and sustainibility. There is also an excellent forward by Wendell Berry, one of my favorite authors(Jayber Crow is a must read) Highly reccomended although it seems to be out of print. I borrowed mine from a local library.
my little green book.......2004-03-04
A critique of current farming practices as well as consumer values, Masanobu Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming outlines a more simple life that strives to work with the earth rather than against it. Mr. Fukuoka states that natural farming is not just a method of agricultural production but it is a way of life.
In The One Straw Revolution Mr. Fukuoka explains that modern methods of agriculture work to control nature with the assumption that humans can understand nature and there by improve on it, but modern techniques using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are only temporary solutions that humans have discovered in order to correct the imbalance they have caused. "Human Beings with their tampering do something wrong, leave the damage unrepaired (SIC), and when the adverse results accumulate, work with all their might to correct them. When the corrective actions appear to be successful, they come to view these measures as splendid accomplishments."
Natural farming allows for nature's processes to take care of most of the work that farmers find necessary in conventional methods of agriculture. Mr. Fukuoka claims "there is no time in modern agriculture for a farmer to write a poem or compose a song." When he first began, Mr. Fukuoka thought, "How about not doing this? How about not doing that?" By allowing for the natural processes of decomposition and growth to occur there is very little work to be done and the farmers have more time to enjoy life. This line of thought has been central to Mr. Fukuoka's natural farming philosophy. Eventually he came to the realization that "there are few agricultural practices that are really necessary."
Mr. Fukuoka's method of natural farming follows four basic principals; "No Cultivation", "No Chemical Fertilizer Or Prepared Compost", "No Weeding By Tillage Or Herbicides", and "No Dependence On Chemicals". Although many of the practices described in the book relate specifically to farming rice, wheat, roots, and oranges in southern Japan, it is these four principals that can be applied to farming anywhere in the world.
To give a good example of natural farming, Mr. Fukuoka's method of cultivating rice and winter grain is as follows. In the fall Mr. Fukuoka sows the seeds of white clover, rice, and winter grain onto the same fields and covers them with a mulch of rice straw. The grains and the clover sprout up right away but the rice seeds will lie dormant until spring. When spring arrives the grains are harvested and the straw is scattered over the fields as mulch. The fields are flooded for a short period during the monsoon season giving the rice a chance to sprout through the cover. Once the fields are drained the clover recovers and spreads beneath the growing rice plants. As you can see, this is a far cry from the labor-intensive methods of paddy farming that is common throughout Southeast Asia.
The One Straw Revolution is a great book, it is insightful, practical, easy to read, and the chapters are short and give the reader concise, to the point information. Mr. Fukuoka gives readers a viable alternative to the current consumer lifestyle. The strong beliefs and successes of natural farming found in this book make Mr. Fukuoka's arguments extremely convincing. However, I'm sure the sheer simplicity will create doubt among readers, as we are used to the complexities of fertilization and pesticide use. Even organic farmers who swear by compost and manure are doing unnecessary work according to Mr. Fukuoka.
The farming techniques found in this book are extremely important as our use of fertilizers and pesticide use has skyrocketed over the past century creating many environmental problems, and life on earth is facing serious consequences as a result.
Another important point made in the book is "Humanity must stop indulging the desire for material possessions and personal gain and move instead toward spiritual awareness." This sentence outlines what I feel to be the reason for the problems of humanity today. Without a deep respect for nature and our place within her we have no limits on what we expect from her. We have increased our material wealth greatly and yet we have not become more contented, in fact we become more stressed. By creating a simpler life where our days are spent outside tending to the fields under natures guidance. We not only would curb the destruction that is related to consumption but we also are given a chance to breathe and become truly aware of our surroundings and ourselves.
I feel that the words of Masanobu Fukuoka have only increased in importance since the time in which they were written. People's lives have become increasingly urbanized and we now have generations of people who have been cut off from Mother Nature's wisdom. Although Mr. Fukuoka's sentiment that "if 100% of the people were farming it would be ideal." may seem extreme to some, it would be a plausible solution to many of the problems we face today.
The environmental movement was just beginning when The One Straw Revolution was first printed we now have scientific studies reinforcing what people have been noticing for years and the lands and waters that were once healthy are now being poisoned. I would recommend reading The One Straw Revolution to anyone interested in spirituality, globalization, farming or the environment, but I would also recommend it to anyone with an interest in preserving the quality of life on earth.
Phenomenology or Farming?.......2003-04-07
Some have said that the Fukuokan philosophy is the tap root of what is now more broadly called Permaculture, only Masanobu Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer, working with rice and winter grain in a southern Japanese climate. Both are no-till methods that shun the use of chemicals. However, Fukuoka should be set apart from farming in general and Permaculture in particular, in that The One-Straw Revolution is essentially a profound work of literary philosophy. Indeed, in many cases it reads like a naturalist's bible. Although the book is dressed in the language and anecdotes of a farmer, the message looms much larger. We read of a man who came to terms with the problem of death, and then decided to form a profoundly new (or is it old?) relationship with nature. In essence, the nugget of his wisdom is that, instead of struggling to control and command nature, we must learn to work with and learn from nature. Allow me to share one quote:"To build a fortress is wrong from the start. Even though he gives the excuse that it is for the city's defense, the castle is the outcome of the ruling lord's personality, and exerts a coercive force on the surrounding area. Saying he is afraid of attack and that fortification is for the town's protection, the bully stocks up weapons and puts the key in the door." Now I ask you, does the following paragraph sound like the words of a farmer or a philosopher? From the face of it, one might think Fukuoka is here criticizing the nuclear arms race, but he is actually talking about the warlike mindset of farmers who see leaf-munching pests as evil enemies that must be fortified against, sought out and destroyed. Whether we are talking about bull weevils or communities, though, his advice is sound. We must change our frame of reference and establish a different relationship with the world. Concise and yet elegant, Fukuoka's prose is pregnant with meaning. Altogether, this work provides poetic an intelligent critique of industrial agricultural practices and the linear notions of nature and progress that underlay those practices. In fact, Fukuoka goes as far as to declare that the scientific method itself limits our experience and knowledge of nature. An invaluable, timeless work that will move you, even if you have never picked up a hoe.
j.w.k.
Book Description
Long regarded as the leading book in the field, this volume provides a basic introduction to the biological, chemical, and physical properties affecting soil fertility and plant nutrition. It covers all aspects of nutrient management for profitable crop production, with particular attention to minimizing the environmental impact of soil and fertilizer management. The Sixth Edition has been substantially revised to reflect rapidly advancing knowledge and technologies in both plant nutrition and nutrient management.
Customer Reviews:
This edition has been dumbed down........2007-04-27
This edition is not as advanced or complete as earlier versions. If you did want to explore a the subject more completely you are at a disadvantage with this version, the references to the original work that were at the end of each chapter in previous versions have been removed.
screening of salt tolerant and drought resistant plants.......2000-04-23
This research aimed to screening of salt and drought resistant plant in saudi arabia to evaluate the effect of water of differant salinities and drought (irrigation intervals)on plant growth and performance in a sandy soil
Book Description
The sixth edition of Forages, Volume I, highlights plant adaptation and the complexity of forage management by integrating soil, climate, and herbivory factors with production goals. This exceptional sourcebook has been extensively reconfigured to address the needs of today's undergraduate student and provide a foundation for problem solving and decision making in forage management. Sidebars and study questions will aid student review and comprehension. Forages teachers themselves, authors from across the continental United States provide broad, national coverage of key species and management practices in a framework of comparative analysis.
Customer Reviews:
An exhaustive educational resource.......2003-03-10
Now in an updated sixth edition, Forages: An Introduction To Grassland Agriculture is an exhaustive educational resource concerning the science of forages and grasslands, and using them in agriculture without destroying them. Collaboratively compiled and edited by Robert F. Barnes, C. Jerry Nelson, Michael Collins, and Kenneth J. Moore, Forages benefits from twenty-four contributors who combine their scientific perspectives in this informed and informative resource concerning nutrient management, grassland ecosystems, seed production, grazing management and much more. Forages is a welcome and highly recommended contribution to Agricultural Science reference collections and curriculum texts.
Average customer rating:
- The textbook or instructors manual?
- great reference as well as easy to read
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Introduction to Fruit Crops (Crop Science)
Mark, Ph.D. Rieger
Manufacturer: Food Products Press
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Plant Pathology, Fifth Edition
ASIN: 156022259X |
Book Description
Learn vital facts and information on a wide range of fruit crops, all in an easy-to-use format—IN ONE TEXT!
Introduction to Fruit Crops is a comprehensive, easy-to-use illustrated reference that provides essential facts on the world's top fruit crops. Each fruit is clearly reviewed through its taxonomy, origin, history of cultivation, production, botanical description, optimum soil and climate, harvesting, and post-harvest handling. This introductory textbook includes detailed references and reading lists, and is perfect for university libraries, plant science teachers and students, and avid gardeners. The presentation of information in this book is uniform from crop to crop, unlike books that have chapters contributed by various authors with various styles.
Introduction to Fruit Crops is formatted for rapid retrieval of essential facts, such as fruit type, scientific name, production data, nutrient content, major diseases, and more, making your search for specific information extremely quick and easy.
Pomology, the branch of botany that studies the cultivation of fruits, has particular features not found in the studies of other cultivated crops. Introduction to Fruit Crops takes these unique pomological concepts and important facts about the most cultivated fruits of the world and presents them in a consistent format that is readily accessible to beginning students and professionals in the plant or agriculture sciences. Preventative measures from pests and diseases and practical cultivation strategies are explored to explain how to best encourage maximum yield for each crop. Tables, graphs, and a multitude of photographs assist readers to completely understand crucial information and the stages of fruit growth for each crop.
Introduction to Fruit Crops includes information on:
scientific names
folklore
medicinal properties
non-food usage
production
botanical description
plant morphology
pollination
soils
climate
propagation
rootstocks
planting design, training, and pruning
pest problems—including weeds, insects, mites, and diseases
harvest and postharvest handling
food uses Introduction to Fruit Crops gives an extensive, easily understandable overview of the processes for growing healthy fruit in today's world. This reference book includes a detailed appendix explaining common names, scientific names, and families of fruit crops, and an appendix presenting conversion factors used in the text. A helpful glossary clearly describes terms used in fruit crop study.
Customer Reviews:
The textbook or instructors manual?.......2007-03-09
I ordered this item believing it was the textbook. However, this item turned out to be the instructors manual. Not clearly marked in the description.
great reference as well as easy to read.......2007-01-13
This book works great for a college-level fruit production course, but is also written in a format any enthusiast of growing fruit crops could understand. In addition to general growing techniques, major crops from around the world are described in further detail with regard to their specific production. Additional information on the history of the crops and other non-food uses adds to the enjoyment of learning about the various fruit crops.
Book Description
Examine important global environmental changes that will affect the future of agriculture!
Here is a complete introduction to the influence of global environmental changes on the structure, function, and harvestable yield of major field crops. It gives you an in-depth look at the effects of climate change, air pollution, and soil salinization. The book provides an introduction to the ramifications, both positive and negative, of these ongoing environmental changes for present and future crop production and food supply.
Crops and Environmental Change: An Introduction to Effects of Global Warming, Increasing Atmospheric CO2 and O3 Concentrations, and Soil Salinization on Crop Physiology and Yield integrates a discussion of the physiological effects of environmental change with background information on basic topics in plant physiology. Numerous charts, tables, and figures are included to assist in understanding the empirical effects of the environment on crops.
Topics addressed in Crops and Environmental Change include:
the effects of increasing global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration
climatic changes associated with increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
the effects of increasing ozone concentrations in the lower atmosphere across large crop-growing regions
soil salinization in areas of irrigated crops
the causes and trajectories of ongoing environmental changes
the implications of environmental changes on the future of crop production
and much more!
The information in this book is appropriate for newcomers to the field as well as for seasoned professionals. It is written in language accessible to those new to the area and serves as a good jumping off point for more in-depth study. And since it is organized like a traditional plant physiology textbook, it is appropriate for students in the field. For experienced professionals, it acts as a handy refresher/reference tool on the basics of plant physiology. Crops and Environmental Change is a valuable resource for anyone concerned with the future of agriculture. Make it part of your professional/teaching collection today!
Customer Reviews:
Ultrastress.......2006-02-25
Scientists have statistics for how much food plants grow in what environment over time. They have experimental results for what and how much plants grow in what environment. So we know it used to be growing population went along with growing more garden and field crops, by clearing more land. Since the mid-20th century it goes along with making each plant grow more. In the 21st century it goes along with making lots of breeding decisions. For plants face warmer, unhealthy environments of too much carbon dioxide and ozone in the air and salt in the soil.
More carbon dioxide and ozone in the air; saltier soil; and warmer temperatures aren't the only stresses making our world unhealthy. These four are well studied. The problem is experiments and research look at stresses one by one. But in the real world stresses work together to strain our world. So we need paper trails on what happens when stresses gang up together.
Plants have ways of dealing with worldwide stresses. Some are choosing to put more growth into some parts over others; letting all parts grow, but in changed ways such as changed numbers of leaves; and using stress-busters such as antioxidants and polyamines against ozone and salt damage, and heat shock proteins and membranes against high temperatures. One problem is they generally handle more carbon dioxide better than they do greater ozone, saltiness and warmth. The other is plants strong on stress-busters tend to be small, slow-growers that put out less and smaller fruits and tubers.
Scientists also have ways of dealing with stressed plant environments. Some are breeding, developing cultivars, and genetic engineering. They're using these ways to get faster, greater harvests from garden and field crops. They're also trying to grow garden vegetables and field crops in more climates and places. The problem is breeders favor fast-growing big harvesters over stress-busters. That might change. For drought, as one of many stresses, is a real concern in the face of worldwide fresh water shortages. Also, growers grow particular garden and field crops, to make money and support families. So there's a place for irrigation, which salts soils, and for chemicals such as fertilizers and herbicides/pesticides. That's what happens when growers don't match soils with crops, when they change soils to fit crops.
The book begins with a helpful preface and set of abbreviations. It ends with an appendix list of plants; an appendix comment on main field and vegetable crops of the United States; a complete, up-to-date set of references; and a good index. In between, Seth G Pritchard and Jeffrey S Amthor organize the ten chapters well, with convincing examples, facts and figures. It's fortunate for readers CROPS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE is so well organized. For the writing is clear, but technical throughout.
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Assessment and Management of Plant Invasions (Springer Series on Environmental Management)
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 0387948090 |
Book Description
Biological invasion of native plant communities is a high-priority problem in the field of environmental management. Resource managers, biologists, and all those involved in plant communities must consider ecological interactions when assessing both the effects of plant invasion and the long-term effects of management. Sections of the book cover human perceptions of invading plants, assessment of ecological interactions, direct management, and regulation and advocacy. It also includes an appendix with descriptive data for many of the worst weeds.
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Bio-Dynamic Agriculture: An Introduction
Herbert H. Koepf ,
Bo D. Pettersson , and
Wolfgang Schaumann
Manufacturer: Rudolph Steiner Pr
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ASIN: 0880101555 |
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Serious, practical and easy to find information.......1999-07-08
This is a very good tool for somebody who wants to know something fast, but at the same time you also have important information if you want to know something more deep
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Introduction to Crop Husbandry
J.A.R. Lockhart , and
A.J.L. Wiseman
Manufacturer: Elsevier
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ASIN: 0080226523 |
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Introduction to Crop Husbandry: Including Grassland
J. A. R. Lockhart , and
A. J. L. Wiseman
Manufacturer: Pergamon
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ASIN: 0080342000 |
Books:
- The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
- The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics
- The Red Tent
- The Reef Aquarium: A Comprehensive Guide to the Identification and Care of Tropical Marine Invertebrates (Volume 1)
- The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It
- The Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics
- The Vanishing Hectare: Property and Value in Postsocialist Transylvania (Culture and Society After Socialism)
- The Waiter & Waitress and Wait Staff Training Handbook: A Complete Guide to the Proper Steps in Service for Food & Beverage Employees
- The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency As a Freelance Writer in Six Months or Less
- Thomson Advantage Books: Sustaining the Earth: An Integrated Approach (with ThomsonNOW, InfoTrac® 1-Semester Printed Access Card) (Advantage Series:)
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