Customer Reviews:
Easily Available Right Now.......2006-02-03
Introduction To Permaculture is currently sold by Seeds Of Change seed company for the publishers' list price[...]. I trial lots of seeds every year (zone 7)and can recommend three varieties they sell as truly remarkable- Zapotec Pleated tomato, Satsuki Madori cucumber, and Red Ruffled pimento pepper.
Read the review below this one.......2001-08-25
A lot of fellow americans it seems are rating other books authored by Americans on this subject higher than the two original books on this concept. If its not written expressly for the american market local consumers seem willing to ignore this and other outstanding titles. While there are books written purely for American and British Permaculturists these books are not necessarily better for people buying for that area. This book and its companion, A Designers Manual are too well written to be applied to just one region. These books are applicable to any climate or geology of any area of the planet, and that includes anywhere in the U.S. including Alaska and Hawaii. Read the reveiw below mine he explains more eloquently why this book and the more in depth version, Peramculture a Designers Manual, are perhaps the most important books you will ever read. The original and best books on Permaculture this book and, Permaculture a Designers Manual... if you are serious about helping the environment and saving money on your food bill at the same time then do yourself a favour and get one or both of these books.
Appeals to surprisingly broad spectrum!.......2000-03-05
A reviewer is well advised to be mindful of the arrogance that is intrinsic to criticizing another's work.
Intro to Permaculture is a book of breath-taking scope. I can only write with authority about those parts that apply to my middle-class, Mid-Western (US) frame-of-reference.
While reading the book, I carried it to work and to my daughter's soccer practice. I have never had so many people ask, "What's that?", pick up the book and start leafing through it. *Every* person who picked it up found some illustration that resonated with them and they started reading. I never had THAT happen before. Observation #1, World-class illustrations that are well linked to the text.
This is a good book to read with a highlighter (pen). These are just a few of the lines I highlighted:
Chapter 1:
"-harmony with nature is possible only if we abandon the idea of superiority over the natural world.
-The core of permaculture is design...To enable a design component we must put it in the right place...Each important function is supported by many elements...The key to using biological resources is management...
-the importance of diversity is not so much the number of elements in a system; rather it is the number of functional connections between these elements. It is not the number of things, but the number of ways things work....
-Edges are places of varied ecology. Productivity increases at the boundary between two ecologies because resources from both systems can be used...There is hardly a sustainable traditional human settlement that is not sited on those critical junctions of two natural economies."
Chapter 2
"All designs that involve life forms undergo a long-term process of change; even the "climax" state of a forest is an imagined concept.
-The site is full of information on every natural subject, and we must learn to read it...By observing the landscape we draw inspiration from the survival strategies followed by natural systems, and imitate them using species of more direct use to us.
-external resources are often critical..in establishing a (biological) system...It is also important to take your own resources into account...skills
-Two properties, located only a few miles apart, can vary in rainfall, wind speed, temperature, and relative humidity...This important basic step can mean the difference between living in pleasant surroundings or in miserable conditions on a property that will probably change hands every few years.
-Vegetation has a profound effect on microclimate. it is the planting and use of vegetation (forest, woodland, windbreak, shrubs, and vines) that most shapes the microclimate of the site.
-The most common errors in house siting are: Building at the top of an exposed ridge or hill...Locating a house in the bush, setting up a conflict..for light, nutrients, and space...Building..anywhere inevitable disaster threatens."
There are a total of eight chapters and five appendices. In the past, I have spent twice as much for books with half as much useful information (although never from Amazon ;-) ). I feel that I got more than my money's worth. I (Joe) take full responsibility for any creative spelling cause by my fat fingers or spurious line "breaks" caused by my word processor.
EXCELLENT INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF PERMACULTURE.......1998-12-29
Takes you from wo to go and is packed full of ideas. Great bedtime reading
Average customer rating:
- great information, weak on analysis
- Informative and compelling
- great book, scared me to death !
- Critically important for environmentalists & students.
- Brilliance
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Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Vandana Shiva
Manufacturer: South End Press
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ASIN: 0896086070 |
Book Description
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Chapter 2 Soy Imperialism and the Destruction of Local Food Cultures
Chapter 3 The Stolen Harvest Under the Sea
Chapter 4 Mad Cows and Sacred Cows
Chapter 5 The Stolen Harvest of Seed
Chapter 6 Genetic Engineering and Food Security
Chapter 7 Reclaiming Food Democracy
Customer Reviews:
great information, weak on analysis.......2004-10-15
I'm afraid I must dissent from the rave reviews this book has gotten. It's a good book, but it's not wonderful. It's very strong at presenting the ways that the corporatization of food production is destructive of human health, the environment, and the livelihood of poor farmers, fisher folk and the like. There's lots of examples, lots of strong empirical data to back up Shiva's claims. Her analysis about why all this is going on is lacking though. It's not that I disagree with her critique of the WTO, multinational corporations, monoculture and her affirmation of the need for humanity to live in harmony with nature. It's just that she barely does more than sketch these arguments out. I understand that this is not meant to be an academic book, but she could have developed her points in much more depth, while still using accessible language and ideas. This book has potential it didn't achieve.
Informative and compelling.......2002-05-18
In this remarkable book, Vandana Shiva effectively contrasts corporate command-and-control methods of food production with the small farmer economy that predominates in the third world (especially in her native India). In contast to what many here in the U.S. might perceive as the conventional wisdom, Shiva makes a strong argument that local, small scale agriculture is superior to the agribusiness model for a number of reasons.
First, Shiva points out that many of the productivity gains attributable to the Green Revolution were achieved by dramatically increased inputs of fertilizer, seed and water. When one compares units of input with units of output, however, native practices produce higher yields -- especially when one takes into account the multiple uses derived from a single product.
For example, mustard oil is a vital product used by many of India's poor for cooking, seasoning, medicine and other uses. But it has been banned by the Indian government (under highly suspicious circumstances) in order to allow imports of soybean oil products. While giant corporations benefit from expanded sales, native industries have been destroyed, contibuting to poverty and malnourishment.
Shiva discusses the commercial fishing and aquaculture (shrimp farming) practices that inevitably result in environmental destruction and reduced catches. She compares this short-sighted approach with traditional Indian fishing techniques that have successfully sustained themselves for generations while protecting important ecosystems such as mangrove forests.
Shiva discusses corporate patenting of seeds, which insidiously transforms the cooperative ethic of seed sharing into a criminal offense. The author supports a non-cooperation movement in India that is resisting corporate attempts to claim ownership of seeds that have been cultivated by countless generations of farmers.
Shiva's sacred cow / mad cow metaphor effectively and appropriately contrasts agribusiness with small farming. India's sacred cows live in harmony with the environment, performing multiple services and producing multiple products for the community; whereas mad cows are a grotesque manifestation of an industrial system obsessed with uniformity, technology and profit.
Shiva also touches on the topic of genetic engineering (GE) and discusses the threat it poses to biodiversity, food safety and human health.
The Afterword to the book alludes to the WTO protests in Seattle. Shiva believes this watershed event proves that people are becoming more aware of the dangers of unaccountable corporate power, yet she believes that positive change is possible. This opening of consciousness to new possibilities may be attributable to the extraordinary work of people like Vandana Shiva, whose intelligence and compassion is abundantly evident in this book. Highly recommended!
great book, scared me to death !.......2001-09-29
this is a great book, i highly recomend it. i must warn you its not for the weak stomached, this book will CHANGE your view on the food you eat. i didnt eat for a week after reading this.
Critically important for environmentalists & students........2000-05-09
In Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking Of The Global Food Supply, renowned environmental activist Vandana Shiva charts the impacts of globalized, corporate agriculture on small farmers, the environment, and the quality of the food we eat. Shiva writes about genetically engineered seeds, patents on life, mad cows (and sacred cows), shrimp farming, and more. Stolen Harvest is a passionate, articulate, highly recommended "wake up" call to the public regarding the role of genetic engineering in commercial agriculture, the growing domination of agribusiness with respect to world food supplies, and the need for sound environmental thinking with respect to feeding the burgeoning populations of the world.
Brilliance.......2000-04-29
If you deplore the WTO and MN corporate control over the world's food supply through intellectual property rights and patents on genetically engineered seed - then reading Stolen Harvest is a must. Vandana Shiva brilliantly reveals the current crisis that Indian farmers are facing as Monsanto and other mega corps are jeopardizing the livelihoods of impoverished persons (worldwide) through seed monopoly and a centralized system of agriculture commerce. Shiva discusses the impact of industrial farming and aquaculture on the environment and how it stresses local populations and threatens the diversity of species. A MUST READ!
Book Description
David Holmgren brings into sharper focus the powerful and still evolving Permaculture concept he pioneered with Bill Mollison in the 1970s. It draws together and integrates 25 years of thinking and teaching to reveal a whole new way of understanding and action behind a simple set of design principles. The 12 design principles are each represented by a positive action statement, an icon and a traditional proverb or two that captures the essence of each principle.
Holmgren draws a correlation between every aspect of how we organize our lives, communities and landscapes and our ability to creatively adapt to the ecological realities that shape human destiny. For students and teachers of Permaculture this book provides something more fundamental and distilled than Mollison's encyclopedic Designers Manual. For the general reader it provides refreshing perspectives on a range of environmental issues and shows how permaculture is much more than just a system of gardening. For anyone seriously interested in understanding the foundations of sustainable design and culture, this book is essential reading. Although a book of ideas, the big picture is repeatedly grounded by reference to Holmgren's own place, Melliodora, and other practical examples.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book on permaculture principles.......2007-09-18
I read this book and could see how this thinking about use and re-use, planning and observing will help not just my garden but my life. Really useful examples of each principle and in depth discussion of what they mean, how they can be applied in lots of cases.
Vital Contribution, see also Priority One, Other Books Below.......2007-08-24
This is for me a very important book, one of a handful that joins the Ecological Economics volumes crafted by Herman Daly and others, and also the Natural Capitalism endeavors of Paul Hawkin, Anthony Lovins. The author excels at rendering logical, sequential, and integrated concepts, all of which lead us to the inevitable conclusion--as the author intends--that human intellect, social networks, an appreciation for diversity as the foundation for cross-fertilization, and the enormous potential of the five billion poor--all suggest that a non-technological renaissance may be upon us, and that the bottom-up action of many minds could yet destroy the still-prevailing industrial, top-down control, centralizing of wealth through violence, and externalization of "true cost" to the unwitting public that no longer understands history or that the prevailing shadowy coalitions of bankers, corporate chieftains, private armies, spies, criminals, and terrorists.
My greatest surprise came at the very end, where the author provides a post-9/11 epilogue, and says: "There is abundant evidence that September 11 was an outcome of these shadowy coalitions, which link global energy corporations, US foreign policy, the global "intelligence community," Islamic fundamentalists, arms dealers, and illegal drug trade. Discussion of this bizarre symbiosis [elsewhere he puns on `Bush Laden'] remains beyond the pale of mainstream media....and is the best example of the paralysis of public discourse due to an absence of language to comprehend top-down thinking and bottom-up action as a new mode of power [sustainable community-oriented end-user driven values and behavior and investments].
Every page of this book offers up useful insights and compelling arguments for stopping the current immolation of the Earth and going back to 1491 and the holistic integration of systems ecology, landscape geography, ethno-biology, and cybernetics, along with the co-integration of ecological, cultural, economic, and political. Later in the book the author mentions the importance of integrating religion and science.
He is quite clear, quoting Stuart Hill, that first values must be defined, and only then can sustainable design begin. I have a note on holistic methods that use culture to integrate and promulgate psycho-social knowledge and wisdom with bio-ecological sustainable design.
The author provides a sharp critique of education today as reductionist, fragmented, rote, and disconnected from experience. In this vein, let me note that a World Bank official told me on the 21st of August that the CIA analysts that come to the World Bank in search of knowledge are "too young, lack knowledge, and have a propensity to put forward hypotheses (e.g. about Darfur and the region) that are frightening in their ignorance." On a positive note, while I have always been the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction, I only entered into the top 100 and then the top 50 over-all, when Dick Cheney succeeded in frightening a significant portion of the population back into reading non-fiction. I consider it my sacred duty to be a human version of the Cliff Notes for all serious readers concerned about the future of the Republic.
The author specifies that the general public (that is to say, the 90% of us that have not looted the commonwealth but rather been subtly enslaved) is back to 1978 in terms of quality of life and sufficiency of income. All our hard word has enriched a few and left the Republic with bridges that collapse for lack of sustained investment in the public interest.
The author slams "just enough, just in time" logistics as unsustainable madness, and throughout the book, with both text and illustrations, shows how we must balance between "slow, steady, small" and "fast, random, big."
I liked the references to the role of the landscape as a means of storing energy, water, nutrients, and carbon. The author stresses the importance of understanding entropy (example from other work: water can be desalinated, but the energy cost, in the absence of renewable energy, is unaffordable over time). The author quotes Natural Capital many times, and I regard this book as a perfect complement to that strategic work--this is the operational, tactical, and technical counterpart. See also Priority One.
The author provides both maxims and principles in this book.
The maxims:
1. All observations are relative
2. Top-down thinking, bottom-up action
3. The landscape is the textbook
4. Failure is useful so long as we learn
5. Elegant solutions are simple, even invisible
6. Make the smallest intervention necessary
7. Avoid too much of a good thing
8. The problem is the solution
9. Recognize and break out of design cul-de-sacs
Permaculture design principles:
1. Observe and Interact
2. Catch and Store Energy
3. Obtain a Yield
4. Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback
5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services
6. Produce No Waste
7. Design from Patterns to Details
8. Integrate Rather than Segregate
9. Use Small and Slow Solutions
10. Use and Value Diversity
11. Uses Edges and Value the Marginal
12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change
The author tells us that self-reliance is a form of consumer boycott and also a form of political action.
In addition to sustainable design, the author believes that maintenance engineering has a bright future.
He points out that recycling uses much more energy than re-use.
He notes that the failure of the elites to self-regulate their greed is a recurring problem (violent comprehensive revolutions are often set off when a precipitating outrage follows a long precondition of concentrated wealth and externalized waste).
The sins of the father will curse seven generation (similar to Native American concept of making consensual decisions that are known to be relevant seven generations into the future--what Stewart Brand calls the Clock of the Long Now.
The author emphasizes that the world's poor represent a vast pool of human resources and capabilities as well as (CKP's point) a four trillion dollar marketplace.
Other helpful books in this domain:
Priority One: Together We Can Beat Global Warming
The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
The Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution and the Industrial System
Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West
Diet for a Small Planet
Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)
more abstract.......2005-07-05
it's not the nuts and bolts of how to do permaculture, it's the abstract basic reasoning that guides your thoughts when you come across something new.
BEYOND SUSTAINABILITY.......2004-01-29
That the world we now live in is unsustainable goes without saying. Our skyrocketing population puts enormous pressure on the productive and absorptive capacities of the land, outstripping the natural carrying capacity of the planet by some twenty percent (see Radical Simplicity, by Jim Merkel). In effect, we are stealing away the life of the planet and the life of future generations. As ever more fisheries collapse, forests shrink, rangelands deteriorate, soils erode, species vanish, temperatures rise, rivers run dry, water tables fall, ozone depletion expands and polar ice caps melt across the globe, the single most important question humanity has faced resonates ever louder: How can we live sustainably?
Amid the cacophony of scholarly and political debate surrounding this issue, the hushed emergence of permaculture has by and large gone unnoticed. Defined as the use of systems thinking and design principles to consciously design "landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs," the permaculture concept is nothing less than the science of sustainability. And since the joint publication of Permaculture One: A Perennial Agricultural System for Human Settlements (now out of print) by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the mid-seventies, permaculture has become a veritable movement - a legitimate answer to the environmental and agricultural crises which plague humanity. Unfortunately, for the past twenty-five years, those who wished to learn more about permaculture were limited to joining expensive seminars and workshops, thereby ensuring marginal public exposure. All of this has changed, though, with the publication of this book. Holmgren provides us with a no-nonsense guide to permaculture, accessible to laypersons and scholars alike.
If you are interested in moving away from consumer dependency and becoming a responsible productive person, this book is for you. The skills and ideas imparted here are not only necessary for those who seek to create a healthful, sustainable way of life, they are empowering. In my opinion, permaculture is the best tool we have with which to begin creating a viable, perhaps more-than-merely-sustainable future.
To get an idea of what permaculture actually looks like on the ground, check out Ecovillage Living, by Hildur Jackson and Karen Svensson, and visit the Crystal Waters Permaculture Village website.
A remarkable resource.
j.w.k.
Rekindled my interest in Permaculture.......2003-09-16
This book has rekindled my interest in Permaculture.
The author, David Holmgren, is the co-creator, with Bill Mollison of the
term "permaculture", and the co-author of the original permaculture
book, _Permaculture One_. Now, some 25 years after that seminal
book, Holmgren has written a timely and comprehensive synthesis that
brings permaculture principles together in an exiting new way.
The book highlights our place at a unique moment in history: at the peak
of the global oil production curve; at the beginning of the end of cheap
fossil energy. This is, for me, the book's most compelling motif: it
positions permaculture as a strategy for a future of inevitable "energy
descent". Although Holmgren hints that this energy descent may take any
number of horrific pathways, he appears to have chosen the term
"descent" as a hopeful alternative to collapse, crash, or dieoff.
Holmgren insightfully points out that is not just our reserves of fossil
fuel that we've been burning through. Since the Reagan/Thatcher years,
he claims, global capitalism has been on a frenzy of job cutting and
"just-in-time" inventory reduction. This amounts to a destruction of
the embedded intelligence and a severe draw-down of the capital stocks
of our institutions: a severe loss of embedded energy. Furthermore, he
worries that due to privatization and short-term bottom-line thinking,
maintenance on our built-environment and physical infrastructure has been
neglected: another huge loss of embedded energy.
On a hopeful note, Holmgren compares this situation to a forest fire: as
the conflagration of global capitalism burns through its huge pulse of
embedded energy, the time will be ripe for pioneers to take root and
produce a flush of new growth. It is a moment of high potential for
systemic change, and Holmgren's book hopes to provide "Principles and
Pathways" to seed and guide that change.
The subtitle of this book includes the phrase "Beyond Sustainability".
It is a well-established insight of permaculture that sustainability is
not enough: in a world that is already degraded, we need to achieve an
excess yield beyond sustainability that we can feed back into the great
work of restoration. Holmgren's contribution to this area is to point
out is that it is hard to even give meaning to the term "sustainability"
while we are in the midst of a dramatic energy descent with constantly
declining energy availability. We must, of course, aim for a soft
landing and a smooth transition to a sustainable future but our
immediate problem is to safely negotiate the descent itself.
All this is in addition, of course, to Holmgren's wise and fresh take on the more traditional
subject matter of permaculture design. This book is a must-read, equal
in stature to Mollison's _Permaculture: a Practical Guide for a
Sustainable Future_.
Average customer rating:
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Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
Frank Ward
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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ASIN: 013113163X |
Book Description
The aim of this book is to provide an introduction to environmental and natural resource issues and to describe economic theories and methods used by experts working in the field.
Case Studies Comprehensive treatment of a wide range of environmental and natural resource issues.A real life introduction to each chapter engages the reader in the application of the topic at hand.Unique chapter on environmental justice.
Consultants or other professionals who works with economic analysis of environmental policy.
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Pollution Science
Ian L. Pepper ,
Charles P. Gerba , and
Mark L. Brusseau
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Wetlands
ASIN: 0125506600 |
Book Description
This beautifully illustrated text is designed to serve the integrated, rigorous science-based undergraduate curriculum that is emerging in environmental science. Emphasis is placed on a conceptual understanding of environmental impact by integrating the key scientific disciplines that investigate the sources, fate, transport, mitigation, and toxicology of pollutants. Abiotic and biotic processes in the soil/vadose zone, surface waters, and the atmosphere are all examined in the context of existing pollution and the potential to minimize future pollution. Innovative coverage includes the practical problems of remediation, environmental monitoring and risk assessment and management. The book will also serve as an authoritative reference for advanced students and environmental professionals.
* Integrates areas of biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and earth sciences related to the fate, mitigation, and transport of pollutants
* Evaluates pollution in the soil/vadose zone, the atmosphere, surface water, and groundwater
* Written by nationally recognized experts
* Richly illustrated and documented with 186 full color illustrations and photographs and 79 tables
* Concepts are clearly presented yet maintain rigor
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The Hope, Hype, and Reality of Genetic Engineering: Remarkable Stories from Agriculture, Industry, Medicine, and the Environment
John C. Avise
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Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age
ASIN: 0195169506 |
Book Description
An introductory tour into the stranger-than-fiction world of genetic engineering, a scientific realm inhabited by eager researchers intent upon fashioning a prodigious medley of genetically modified (GM) organisms to serve human needs.
Book Description
While cultural and scholarly traditions have led us to believe that war and control of nature are separate, there are many more similarities than most people might suspect. Tracing the history of chemical warfare and pest control, Edmund Russell shows how war and control of nature coevolved. Ideologically, institutionally, and technologically, the paths of chemical warfare and pest control intersected repeatedly in the twentieth century. War and Nature helps us to understand the impact of war on nature and vice versa, as well as the development of total war, and the rise of the modern environmental movement. Edmund Russell is an assistant professor in the Division of Technology, Culture, and Communication in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia. This is his first book.
Customer Reviews:
creative synthesis.......2003-05-01
In War and Nature Edmund Russell, Associate Professor of Technology, Culture, and Communication at the University of Virginia, cleverly traces the interaction between chemical warfare and pest control from World War I to the Vietnam War. His central thesis is that war and control of nature have coevolved: "the control of nature expanded the scale of war, and war expanded the scale on which people controlled nature" (p. 2). Following up on his dissertation (University of Michigan, 1993), which won the Rachel Carson Prize from the American Society for Environmental History, Russell culled a wide variety of recently declassified U.S. government documents, business publications, and contemporary books and articles. Russell finds that World Wars I and II and the Cold War forged close ties between military and scientific institutions, and efforts to maintain such links became hallmarks of the post-World War II era. Scientifically and technologically, pest control and chemical warfare each created knowledge and tools that reinforced the other (p. 4) For example, on the eve of World War I, there were few U.S. chemical companies. They manufactured primarily low-profit bulk chemicals. In contrast, Germany had the best chemical factories and schools and had the largest output of sophisticated products. Eight German companies made up almost 80 percent of the world's dyes (p. 18). However, the increased use of mustard and chlorine gas in the war boosted the demand by European allies for these chemicals from the United States. The "Chemical Warfare Service" was created within the U.S. Army to employ civilian chemists to conduct research on war gases. This research also stimulated the invention of new insecticides to deal with such menaces as the boll weevil (attacking cotton crops), house fly (spreading typhus), the San Jose scale (damaging fruit trees), and mosquitoes (spreading malaria).
The use of chemicals in warfare is not new. Interestingly, Russell points out that the first recorded use of poison gas was in 428 BC, when Spartans besieging Plataea attempted to kill its defenders by burning wood soaked in pitch and sulfur under city walls (p. 4). However, chemical warfare increased throughout the twentieth century. According to Russell, at least 90,000 people were killed in World War I by gas, and estimated 350,000 were killed by gas in World War II, not including all the victims in Hitler's gas chambers. Even these figures seem low. Russell skillfully shows through cartoons how federal entomologists and chemists used insects in their propaganda as metaphors for human enemies. One cartoon depicts a conversation between two worms, one of them exclaiming: "What! Me sabotage that guy's victory garden? What do you take me for-a Jap? (p. 100)."
The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 sought to exclude gas from warfare and define the rights of combatants. Public outrage at the use of chemicals as weapons of war continued to mount. After World War II, the Chemical Warfare Service and other chemical companies lobbied Congress vigorously, stressing the need to develop war gases as insecticides, for which increased funding was required. Noted chemists testified before Congress, claiming also that chemical and biological warfare was "more humane" than conventional warfare. According to Russell, who interviewed several of these chemists, Chief Chemical Officer William Creasy inanely argued in 1958 that 25,000 American casualties on Iwo Jima could have been avoided had the U.S. military employed chemical weapons (p. 208). Miracle "psychochemicals" were promoted, such as LSD-25 that could temporarily incapacitate troops but not permanently harm them. Russell cites a US Army propaganda film produced in 1958 in which a cat chased and caught a mouse, inhaled an unnamed gas, and then cowered from another mouse (p. 208). This publicity campaign persuaded Pentagon authorities to increase the U.S. Army's budget to $80,000,000 for chemical research.
Research to fight insects increased simultaneously with the development of chemicals to fight humans. As thousands of families moved to the suburbs in the 1950s, gardening became a popular hobby and stimulated the desire for pest control. Pesticide manufacturers such as Du Pont and Dow increased their marketing to this group of consumers, while federal crop dusting programs using DDT were initiated.
Russell shows how Rachel Carson's publication of Silent Spring in 1962 galvanized the American environmental movement, leading eventually to the ban on DDT in 1972. This immediate bestseller detailed the noxious effects of DDT on plants and animals and characterized pest control as a self-defeating form of warfare (p. 229).
Reading this book, one is struck by the immense irony of the twentieth century and the causal interaction of peace and war. Never before have so many human lives been saved (thanks to pesticides killing disease-carrying insects and increasing crop yields) and so many destroyed (mostly due to incendiaries, but also chemical weapons). Americans got better at saving lives partly because they got better at taking them, and vice versa. While War and Nature is almost too dazzling in its rich detail and sometimes a bit careless in its logic (e.g. implying that human beings should not be considered part of nature), the book breaks new ground in its connection of two traditionally disparate fields of inquiry, environmental and military history. It should be required reading in college courses in both security studies and environmental science.---Johanna Granville, Ph.D. (Stanford University)
angels and insects.......2002-10-01
World War I was just the beginning of an ongoing cultural and scientific process in which chemical based weapons were created and marketed for use against human and insect enemies. Russell reminds us that the cultural, institutional, and political evolution of twentieth century science and warfare in the United States began not with the J. Robert Oppenheimer and the physicists of Los Alamos but with chemists like James B. Conant and his colleagues at Harvard and American University, emergent corporations like Dupont and the Hooker Company, and government agencies such as the Department of Agriculture and the United States Chemical Warfare Service. With an eye for detail and a witty and readable narrative style, the author assembles scientific papers, declassified governmental and military planning documents, trade journals, and propaganda and advertising literature to reshape our understanding not only of the role of chemistry in warfare, but more importantly the reflexive nature of our understanding and relation to both technology and nature during times of peace.
Average customer rating:
- Quick review
- Superb reference
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World Agriculture and the Environment: A Commodity-By-Commodity Guide To Impacts And Practices
Jason Clay
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ASIN: 1559633700 |
Book Description
World Agriculture and the Environment presents a unique assessment of agricultural commodity production and the environmental problems it causes, along with prescriptions for increasing efficiency and reducing damage to natural systems. Drawing on his extensive travel and research in agricultural regions around the world, and employing statistics from a range of authoritative sources including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the author examines twenty of the world’s major crops, including beef, coffee, corn, rice, rubber, shrimp, sorghum, tea, and tobacco. For each crop, he offers comparative information including:
• a “fast facts” overview section that summarizes key data for the crop
• main producing and consuming countries
• main types of production
• market trend information and market chain analyses
• major environmental impacts
• management strategies and best practices
• key contacts and references
With maps of major commodity production areas worldwide, the book represents the first truly global portrait of agricultural production patterns and environmental impacts.
Customer Reviews:
Quick review.......2006-03-01
World Agriculture and Environment in my opinion is a very interestig book, in which you can find, besides the basic information of agricultural production, techniques that help to reduce damage to natural systems, and also this book gives important evaluations of modern agriculture and its failure.
Superb reference.......2004-05-18
This is a superb and unique reference. It provides an incredible amount of detail on crops that enter world trade, and their impact on the environment.
The very best thing about this book is that it is not strident and does not blatantly advocate a particular political agenda. It is written in a scientific, objective tone that makes it far more convincing than the rhetorical works. Only when he comes to tobacco (a crop that ruins the environment AND then ruins the consumers) does he use a few value-laden words!
The reader is struck by what a mess the world is in, and how easily we could fix a lot of that. The book provides enormous detail on soil erosion, chemical use, biodiversity reduction, and the rest of our woes, but it presents equal detail on how to prevent those problems. Only a few crops (notably cotton, salmon, chocolate) would be hard to manage well.
Two social themes stand out: first, the very rapid concentration of commodity trade in the hands of a very few firms; second, the degree to which governments subsidize production-at-any-cost as opposed to production-with-environmental-protection. (Subsidizing includes nonlegal subsidies, such as letting the rich get away with breaking environmental laws and dumping huge costs on poorer neighbors.) One cannot escape the conclusion that changing this subsidy structure would fix most of the damage, worldwide.
Environmentalists should think more about subsidies!
Meanwhile, what can a concerned reader do? The book tells how to seek out shade-grown coffee, responsibly raised beef and paper, and so on. It is much harder, at least in the US, to find decently-produced soybeans or corn or wheat, but you can do it. Cotton is a special problem, and the alternatives to it are mostly worse. The hemp advocates will be vocal!
We are in such a mess, and it would be so easy to do so much.... This is not a time to lose hope or give up. By providing the big picture, this book should make every concerned citizen stop and think. The few errors I could spot in the book are trivial ones.
This is an absolute must-read and must-have for anyone who works on problems of production and environment or on problems of world food supply and health.
Book Description
As concerned citizens recognize that the vibrancy of urban centers goes hand-in-hand with the vitality of the surrounding rural areas, a farmers' market renaissance is beginning throughout the country. Helping to increase local market success for both farmers and customers, this book serves as a three-part guide to marketing, being a resource for farmers or market gardeners selling their produce at farmers’ markets; for city planners or market managers in starting and building a market; and for community activists and city planners trying to foster appreciation for farmland while reinvigorating economic and social vitality in urban areas. Appendices cover insurance, customer surveys, farmers’ market profitability, and benefits of farmers’ markets.
Customer Reviews:
Easy to Read and great info.......2007-08-22
I bought this the other day and I am so glad that I did. We are moving to NC and going to start a hobby farm and sell at local produce markets. This is a great book. A true wealth of information and to think I almost didn't buy it. Can't go wrong with this book.
Worth Every Dollar.......2007-01-10
I have never before read a book with so much detailed information that still manages to give a great over view of it's subject. If you are into marketing your own produce, at your own stand or in a farmer's market, you are going to want to have this book. If you want to start a Farmer's market, this book is beyond value, it is a bible.
Sell your produce!.......2006-02-26
Eric Gibson is an agricultural journalist who wrote, along with Bud Kerr, "Sell what you Sow" in 1994. This book, written in conjunction with authors Vance Corum and Marcie Rozenweig, is an improvement on Gibson's previous book with updated information intended for anyone marketing their own produce. Learn how to succeed at farmers' markets. It covers the latest tips and trends from leading-edge sellers and managers from farmers markets across the country. Learn best products to grow and sell, learn display, merchandising, and selling tips, setting prices, managing and promoting the market, setting up an internet web site, dealing with rules and regulations, building community support for buying locally, and market issues and challenges. This book is a valuable resource for city planners, farmers market managers, as well as growers.
With its practical "how-to" approach, the many marketing ideas in this book will inspire you. Gibson gives you all the details needed to start a successful business selling and growing your own produce.
The best of all the market books I've read!.......2002-09-11
The cover is kind of "blah" but there's lots and lots of really god solid information inside. In fact, so far every question I've had has been addressed. A lot of the other books seem big on theory ("You must be organized!") but this book has the nuts and bolts. In fact, it's the only one that sits on my desk. The others are nicely preserved on my bookshelf.
What to do when you participate or start a farmers' market?.......2001-11-10
The answer is read this book! You don't have to be a student of marketing or have a masters degree to become an excellent marketer of your farm products. "The New Farmers' Market" is a great way to get your ideas rolling for you as a farmers' market manager or even a vendor. Information is presented in a clear, almost common sense way. As a marketing specialist for a government agency, this is a great asset to my library of resources for my clients.
Customer Reviews:
Viktor Schauberger was a Genius!.......2002-04-06
Viktor not only knew about water, unlike most people today, but he was a genius in regards to farming as well. When you live close to Nature, like Viktor did, you uncover a lot of truths about the world around you. This book is well written and was a pleasure reading. Without the forests we have no water and with poorly treated soil we end-up with poor quality food and more illnesses. If you care about the earth buy this book and spread the word. Cheers to Viktor Schauberger and all his insights, and to Callum Coats for translating it into English
Are you trying to save Mother Earth?.......2001-05-24
If you are in any way interested in the environement, then this book will appeal to you. This is the third book in the highly acclaimed "Eco-Technology" series by Callum Coats. Not only does the book delve into what man is doing to harm the environement, it also offers "fresh" ideas on what we can and should DO about it. I can't believe "Green Peace" or some other pro-environmental group doesn't have this book as part of their by-laws! Fascinating. Of coarse, the entire book is based on the revolutionary work of Viktor Schauberger. This one, if you are into farming, just have a back-yard garden, or are a hard core pro-earth person, will keep you reading till the end...and want to read the entire series. A very well written and inspiring book. A differnent view of natural phenomena, the influence of temperature and water movement, forestry, agriculture, the energy industry, the dying forest, timber and water in the building industry, soil fertilisation, increased productivity...wow! Again, whether you are just into learning what's happening to the earth, and why, or you are serious about trying to DO something to stop the damage already done, this book will open your eyes.
Books:
- James Herriot's Treasury for Children: Warm and Joyful Tales by the Author of All Creatures Great and Small
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- Mandated Landscape: British Imperial Rule in Palestine 1929-1948
- Mandated Landscape: British Imperial Rule in Palestine 1929-1948
- Marlene Koch's Sensational Splenda Recipes: Over 375 Recipes Low in Sugar, Fat, and Calories
- Medical Herbalism: The Science Principles and Practices Of Herbal Medicine
- Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts (Llewellyn's High Magick)
- Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
- Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
- No Rest for the Wicked (The Immortals After Dark, Book 2)
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