Book Description
Biological farmers work with nature, feeding soil life, balancing soil minerals and tilling soils with a purpose. The methods they apply involve a unique system of beliefs, observations and guidelines that result in increased production and profit. This practical how-to guide elucidates their methods and will help you make farming fun and profitable.
A safe and sustainable system designed to keep production up. Biological farming does not mean less production; it means eliminating obstacles to healthy, efficient production. Once the chemical, physical and biological properties of the soil are in balance, you can expect optimal outputs, even in bad years. Biological farming improves the environment, reduces erosion, reduces disease and insect problems, and alters weed pressure and it accomplishes this by working in harmony with nature.
A common-sense approach. Biological farming focuses on ways to reduce input costs and to increase profits while improving soil conditions and livestock health.
Taking care of the soil. Skilled biological farmers learn how to take care of soil life they nurture it, feed it a balanced diet, and use tillage tools and methods to enhance soil life.
Learn how to fertilize. Biological farmers learn proper fertilizer uses to correct mineral and nutrient imbalances and to feed plants and soil life.
This is the farming consultant's bible. It schools the interested grower in methods of maintaining a balanced, healthy soil that promises greater productivity at lower costs, and it covers some of the pitfalls of conventional farming practices. Zimmer knows how to make responsible farming work. His extensive knowledge of biological farming and consulting experience come through in this complete, practical guide to making farming fun and profitable.
Customer Reviews:
Great details.......2006-02-25
Gary Zimmer goes in depth, yet remains understandable in his description of biological farming. I say four stars, at least.
Accurate, scientific in a simple comprehensive manner.......2003-01-24
A book focusing in improving the soil quality in field farming. Very detailed but at the same time extremely coprehensible even for begginers in organic farming. Although the major reference of the book is concerning soils the writer offers a very practical approach to the whole aspect of sustainable organic farming.
It remains to me (an organic fruit farmer) to set all the knowledge offered in the book working in my tree farm.
Under the strictest examination it easily achieves 4 stars.
Average customer rating:
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Soil Organic Matter in Sustainable Agriculture (Advances in Agroecology)
Manufacturer: CRC
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ASIN: 0849312949 |
Book Description
Recognition of the importance of soil organic matter (SOM) in soil health and quality is a major part of fostering a holistic, preventive approach to agricultural management. Students in agronomy, horticulture, and soil science need a textbook that emphasizes strategies for using SOM management in the prevention of chemical, biological, and physical problems. Soil Organic Matter in Sustainable Agriculture gathers key scientific reviews concerning issues that are critical for successful SOM management. This textbook contains evaluations of the types of organic soil constituents-organisms, fresh residues, and well-decomposed substances. It explores the beneficial effects of organic matter on soil and the various practices that enhance SOM. Chapters include an examination of the results of crop management practices on soil organisms, organic matter gains and losses, the significance of various SOM fractions, and the contributions of fungi and earthworms to soil quality and crop growth. Emphasizing the prevention of imbalances that lead to soil and crop problems, the text also explores the development of soils suppressive to plant diseases and pests, and relates SOM management to the supply of nutrients to crops. This book provides the essential scientific background and poses the challenging questions that students need to better understand SOM and develop improved soil and crop management systems.
Book Description
Microfarms—or small acreage farms—are gaining popularity across the country for their astoundingly high yields and great tasting produce, as well as their profitability. This handbook reveals the secrets of successful micro eco-farming and explains what eco-farmers need to know to start their own small agribusiness. Questions such as What can be grown? How do farmers reach their markets? and What sustainable production methods can be used? are answered in detail and supported be hundreds of real-life examples. A variety of unusual uses for crops are also provided, including producing organic spa products, building an urban greenhouse, creating a heritage rose farm, or cultivating a connoisseur apple orchard. Ecologists, amateur gardeners, farmers, and those interested in sustainable living will enjoy this in-depth look at the spiritually and financially rewarding aspects of this new field.
Customer Reviews:
Be careful about what you wish for.......2007-09-06
This is a very enchanting book, but I think the reader would be wise to take it with a grain of salt. The author makes a list of vegetables sound so good your mouth starts to water. Food literally comes to life. One farm has world class leafy lettuce. Another has miraculous tomatoes. A third has peppers for every taste. A fourth makes wool as smooth as silk.
On the other hand, some of the stories are fanciful at best. For example, there is the story of the 'good' coyote. A farmer takes pity on a limping coyote and offers it some food. The standard practice in the neighborhood was to shoot coyotes on sight, but this coyote touches the farmer somehow. The coyote mends. Once recovered, the coyote decides the farmer is 'one of the pack' and his chickens are 'his things'. Thus, she identifies the farmer's chickens as off limits and protects them from other coyotes, raccoons, and varmints. I've got chickens and cohabitate with coyotes. The idea of a coyote protecting the farmer's hens was good for a hearty laugh.
Another story concerns the 'good weed'. This story is part of section on letting plants restore soil depleted of essential trace minerals. The idea is that plants can concentrate trace minerals deep in the soil and deposit them on the surface. In this context, we meet the good thistle. The good thistle pulls out trace minerals out of the stony soil, then dies out as the soil returns to health. I had another good laugh with this story. In some ways there is truth in it, but let me tell you about my thistles. They are beautiful. Every year my soil gets better. I haven't noticed them dying out, though. Maybe next year!
Finally, there is the story of the weak plant calling out to nearby insects to end it's suffering. This theme is repeated numerous times. I guess it is the story of the 'good' bad insect. You see, those worms and beetles are not just eating any plant, they are consuming the suffering plant. I'm not going to argue that nature has a way of maintaining balance, but I had to laugh. I guess those squirrels that entirely consumed 3 trees of gorgeous, plump, red organic peaches were simply answering the peach trees cries of distress! I should have known!
If you want to grow your own food, more power to you. Don't be surprised if Mother Nature throws you a few curve balls along the way, though. Don't count on coyotes to protect your chickens, nor thistles to conveniently disappear.
Finally, Ms. Adams never mentions the local banker or tax man, which seems odd. I've never met a farmer that doesn't have something to say about these friendly folks.
Educational and Inspiring.......2007-03-09
If you've ever dreamed of having a small, productive farm but didn't know where to begin or how to creatively make money and have fun at the same time, this book is The Source for you. Barbara Berst Adams' "Micro Eco-Farming" is loaded with great ideas, sensible how-to information and strategies for starting, maintaining and expanding an environmentally friendly mini farm. The breadth of her knowledge is impressive. She obviously understands every aspect of small-scale farming from raising livestock and poultry to growing specialty herbs, flowers and vegetables. This is a practical handbook and a solid reference you will always want to keep on hand. It has earned a permanent place in my library.
Fantastic Resource for anyone wanting to get into agriculture.......2007-03-09
This is a must have book for anyone wanting to get more for less out of their garden, farm, or acreage. I loved it and found it interesting and informative. It'll stay on my shelf long after I pass it around to all of my friends and family! Bravo! The world would be a better place if more people read and would take to heart the message this book brings.
Make your dream come true.......2006-10-26
It has been my long-time dream to have a house in a rural place with a few acres and a cash crop. With this dream in mind, I read
"Micro Eco-Farming" by Barbara Berst Adams. It is a wonderful book. Besides great suggestions for types of small farm or backyard businesses that lend themself to success, the many real examples bring the possibilities to life. But, there is much more. The book describes how to go about setting up a small eco-business, why and how each one works, and how the benefits of such an endeavour go far beyond just cash. Of special interest to me is practical ways to make the most of a very small gardening plot or space. I don't have land yet (I'm still in a condo in a small city), but there was one tip that I used immediately. It was using trace minerals to help plants flourish, with sometimes dramatic results. I use trace minerals for my personal health, but never thought about my houseplants needing the same. This makes total sense, and I have just started adding trace minerals to their water! I thoroughly enjoyed reading Barbara's delightful book and can hardly wait until I get my
own small plot of land to make use of the wisdom she conveys through her own experience and that of others. I could almost taste the strawberries, smell the hay, and hear the sounds of the birds as I read her book. Ahhh.
Recommended reading ...I was not disappointed!.......2006-08-23
It made sense to me that I first saw this book recommended by the National Gardening Association. After all, some of the farms described in it successfully operate from backyard gardens and even urban lots. Later I saw that Rodale's New Farm magazine recommended it with the following quote:
"The author continually returns to the concept of the "whole farm," where each part integrates with the whole in a mutually beneficial relationship--from the animals, to the insects, to the soil, to the plants, to the farmer and his or her family, expanding outward to the local community and region. She offers an abundance of examples of how farmers have come up with one-of-a-kind products--from specialty wool to simply the experience of interacting with animals--or turned a problem into an advantage--such as the couple who sold homemade salsa "kits" like hotcakes right smack in the middle of a tomato glut."
I'm glad I now own a copy of this book. I was impressed to find out that the Trends Institute had correctly predicted a nationwide (if not worldwide) return to farms like these, or that a new world was opening up again for local farms. I liked learning what makes these new micro eco-farms very different from pre-industrial farms, as well as in what ways they are similar. I never expected it to be a step-by-step rehash of ag-extension grape-trellising or fence-making how-tos which are available free or low-cost to anyone, nor the details of just one person's farm that worked for that person in his or her location. It is non-technical and describes many microfarm examples, explains the concept of how they grow and expand continually (without getting physically larger). Most farms described are from backyard size to five acres, with some up to 15 acres or so, and even one larger farm that added a microfarm element that seemed to outdo its larger counterpart in business!
Book Description
When Rudolf Steiner gave these lectures eighty years ago, industrial farming was on the rise and organic methods were being replaced in the name of science, efficiency, and technology. With the widespread alarm over food quality in recent years, and with the growth of the organic movement and its mainstream acceptance, perceptions are changing. The qualitative aspect of food is on the agenda again, and in this context Steiner's only course of lectures on agriculture is critical to the current debate.
With these talks, Steiner created and launched "biodynamic" farming—a form of agriculture that has come to be regarded as the best organically produced food. However, the agriculture Steiner speaks of here is much more than organic—it involves working with the cosmos, with the earth, and with spiritual beings. To facilitate this, Steiner prescribes specific "preparations" for the soil, as well as other distinct methods born from his profound understanding of the material and spiritual worlds. He presents a comprehensive picture of the complex dynamic relationships at work in nature and gives basic indications of the practical measures needed to bring them into full play.
These lectures are reprinted here in the "classic" translation made by Rudolf Steiner's English interpreter, George Adams. This edition also features a preface by Steiner's colleague the medical doctor Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, as well as eight color plates.
This is the course that began the biodynamic movement. This is the essential work for anyone wanting to understand and use Steiner's methods of food production.
Book Description
Fatal Harvest takes an unprecedented look at our current ecologically destructive agricultural system and offers a compelling vision for an organic and environmentally safer way of producing the food we eat. It includes more than 250 profound and startling photographs and gathers together more than 40 essays by leading ecological thinkers including Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, David Ehrenfeld, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Vandana Shiva, and Gary Nabhan. Its scope and photo-driven approach provide a unique and invaluable antidote to the efforts by agribusiness to obscure and disconnect us from the truth about industrialized foods.
The book's many photographs and essays offer graphic testimony to the tragic consequences of how our food is produced. Readers will come to see that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest" - fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate farms.
As it exposes the ecological and social impacts of industrial agriculture's fatal harvest, the book also details a new ecological and humane vision for agriculture. It shows how millions of people are engaged in the new politics of food as they work to develop a better alternative to the current chemically fed and biotechnology-driven system. Designed to aid the movement to reform industrial agriculture, Fatal Harvest will inform and influence the activists, farmers, policymakers, and consumers who are seeking a safer and more sustainable food future.
Customer Reviews:
Kimbrell has done an amazing job.......2006-10-15
This book is beyond a book. It is like a movie on pages. The visuals are that powerful.
What is revealed in these pages is a secret that must be exposed. Andrew Kimbrell has done a wonderful job here. His work is pioneering a new awareness for the entire world.
Every person in America should read this book........2006-01-08
Like other reviewers, I was unable to put this book down once I opened it. Although I understood in sort of a theoretical way that corporate agriculture was not a good thing, the pictures in this book connected all the dots for me. There is something about the photography that is simply transfixing - which seems odd given that the photos are of agriculture - but true nevertheless.
After reading this book I could not bring myself to buy any more non-organic produce, so be forewarned - this is not a "coffee table book" in any ordinary sense. It should come with a warning label.
Buy one for yourself and one to share..........2005-08-25
After reading this book, your views about agriculture will be forever altered. Presented in a high quality, high impact format, the photography offers the reader the chance to see the stark contrast between the products generated by 'power farmers' and that of the 'small farmer' - the true agrarian. Upon opening the book for the very first time, you will be completely engaged; you will be unable to put the book down until you have rummaged through all of the pages. The images will be etched on your brain with a subtle permanence and the accompanying text is just as powerful.
Congratulations to those who prepared this volume.......2004-02-29
When I received this book recently as a gift I was completely overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the considerateness of the donor. Overwhelmed by the high quality of the production. Overwhelmed by the large number of "big names" who had contributed. Overwhelmed by the quality and meaningfulness of the photographs. Overwhelmed by the quality of the message that it gets across. Overwhelmed by the ammunition it gives me in my own personal drive for safer, more reliable food. Overwhelmed by how helpful it will be to the waverers who have not yet plucked up the courage to break their links with the chemical establishment.
Let me start with the photos which are not only high quality but extremely helpful because side by side we are given a picture of crops grown under two systems which represent the two poles of producing our food. The text on the left page goes like this: "Industrial Eye: see what you are looking at: MELONS: More than half the melons sold in the U.S. are grown in California where industrial melon farms stretch for miles and miles ... Two of the most heavily used toxins in industrial melon production are ... Life is also difficult for the melon pickers ..." On the right page we have: "Agrarian Eye: See what you are looking at: MELONS: These melons are one crop among dozens at the Live Earth's 23-acre farm near Santa Cruz, CA. The melons are part of a diverse system of annual and perennial fruit and vegetable crops that rely on soil health to support the plant's natural ability to deter pests. But it's not done so easily - there are many challenges ... Coastal fog also poses potential fungal problems for melons, which Broz addresses by using fungal-resistant varieties of melons ... The melons are sold at local farmers' markets and through the farm's community supported agriculture (CSA) program, where families receive a weekly box of seasonal fruits and vegetables throughout the growing season."
Next the text. "Part One: Farming as if Nature Mattered: Breaking the Industrial Paradigm" is composed of seven articles such as "Global Monoculture: The Worldwide Destruction of Diversity". Then "Part Two: Corporate Lies: Busting the Myths of Industrial Agriculture" is composed of articles each addressing one of the seven myths such as "Myth Two: Industrial Food is Safe, Healthy and Nutritious". The book continues through to "Part Seven: Organic and Beyond: Revisioning Agriculture for the 21st Century" with nine more articles such as "The Ethics of Eating: Why Environmentalism Starts at the Breakfast Table."
In these 370 pages we have all the information we need to convince those sitting on the fence that we must reduce our dependence on industrial agriculture. When confronted with this volume it is difficult to imagine how all those involved in the industrial agricultural chain will be able to put up an effective argument. On the contrary, it should be convincing to the thinking service organization that this is where their future profits lie and they should climb on the band wagon helping rather than hindering. For the farmer who is wavering - and probably for good reasons as his livelihood is affected - he will find in this volume the encouragement he needs; others have forged the trail and he can follow in the knowledge that the forerunners have solved the major problems.
Bravo to all those concerned with the preparation of this volume. You have done mankind a great service. It is a long tunnel down which we are travelling, but I for one can now see the light in the distance. Because of your initiative the rest of us will travel our own path with more confidence and with greater speed. At last we can hope for some sanity in our food production. If we can get this volume into the hands of enough people - people who care - then we really can change the world. If Silent Spring was the book that woke the world to the evils of indiscriminate chemical use, then this volume will go down as the one that banged home the last nail in the coffin of industrial agriculture.
The agrarian position.......2003-01-17
The central message of this rather large book (put some legs on it and it could serve as a coffee table itself) is that industrial agriculture is unnatural, inhumane, dangerous; that big farms and big chemical multinationals are destroying the land and causing massive hardship for not only the ecology of the planet but for humans as well.
One of the arguments is that industrial agriculture actually leads to hunger and starvation for millions because it forces people off the land, land that is then used to produce foods or other products that are exported to the developed nations. The poor farmer cannot compete with the industrial farms and so has to go out of business. In the underdeveloped countries, land that once supported a variety of food plants that fed the local people has been turned into land that supports only a single crop destined for export, the profits going to middle men and the large land owners.
Clearly then, this is a polemic against industrial agriculture and in favor of a return to an agrarian life style. It is a tract against the use of pesticides and herbicides and in favor of organic farming. It is against monoculture farming and in favor of biodiversity and crop rotation. It is against genetic modified foods and Round Up ready seeds and in favor of the slightly blemished but flavorful produce from fields tended by hand and hoe. It is beautifully illustrated with breath-taking photos of farms, farmers, farm equipment and especially fields of verdant crops.
I am in substantial sympathy with the message of this book, but I do not appreciate facile or phony arguments in support of even the most agreeable message. I think unsubstantiated claims and superficial understandings do not help a worthy cause. Unfortunately there are a few of those in these pages.
On page 62, for example, the text suggests that "if biotech corporations really wanted to feed the hungry, they would...push for wealth redistribution, which would allow the poor to buy food." Obviously corporations don't work that way, and agrarian reform is not going to be helped by reviving delusive Marxist economics. On page 71 it is written, "...75 types of vegetables, or approximately 97 percent of the varieties available in 1900, [in the US] are now extinct." I am not sure what was left out here or misstated, but obviously more than about 2.34 vegetables (the 3% still extant) are still available. Worse yet is this from page 102: "In 1996...the fungal disease known as Karnal Bunt swept through the U.S. wheat belt, ruining over half of that year's crop and forcing the quarantine of more than 290,000 acres." However on page 100 it is reported that wheat fields take up "a total of 60-70 million acres" of land in the continental US. So how can a infestation that resulted in a quarantine of 290,000 acres (less than one-half of one percent of the total acreage devoted to wheat) ruin "over half of that year's crop"? Such slips tend to cast doubt on the credibility of the other figures in the book.
However, the central shortcoming of this otherwise laudable effort is the disinclination of the editor and the contributors to point to overpopulation as the root cause of hunger and starvation. Such a studied avoidance is disingenuous to say the least. The periodic starvations due to droughts that plague such places as Africa are due to too many people living on land that cannot reliably support them. In times of feast, the populations shoot up only to crash when the weather changes, as it must, as it has for millions of years. Furthermore to suggest (as the text on pages 50 and 51 does) that agriculture can keep pace with human population growth is mistaken. Fortunately, the essay, "The Impossible Race: Population Growth and the Fallacies of Agricultural Hope," by Hugh H. Iltis, which begins on page 35, presents a more realistic view.
Nonetheless, I applaud this effort by director Douglas Tompkins and those who contributed to the project. I was particularly taken with the photography and art design by Daniella Goff-Sklan who carefully avoids any "scare" photography. We are spared the sight of the bloated bellies of the starving poor. There are no photos of the horrendous conditions inside the poultry and meat packing industries. Clearly, the editors didn't want this book to be purely a propaganda piece. They wanted to get their message across without controversy; they wanted to be effective.
I am also in substantial sympathy with the agrarian movement itself. However whether it is possible or even desirable to return to an agrarian existence is in great doubt. Perhaps one might wax even more romantic and suggest a return to a hunting and gathering existence. Such nostalgic fantasies are just that, fantasies, like the notion of the noble savage or of an unspoiled garden of Eden. Humans have and will continue to alter the landscape. What I hope is that we find a balance between human needs and the needs of the planet's ecosystems before it is too late. Yes, a return to an agrarian culture (especially without the feudalism and warlord economies that existed concomitantly) would be a step away from the abyss that we are now approaching. But that isn't going to happen anytime soon. The surest way to save the planet from ourselves is to reduce our numbers. Until that message gets across, the planet will continue to be decimated by our insatiable desire to exploit and control. My vision of the future includes a large number of small farming communities with single family farms aplenty. But it also includes great tracts of forest and savannah, desert and tundra, unspoiled by human habitation. From my point of view the planet already contains too many humans. And that is why my vision and the agrarian vision so beloved by contributor Wendell Berry cannot yet become a reality.
Book Description
Manfred Klett, a renowned biodynamic expert, provides a fascinating overview of the history of agriculture. He then goes on to the discuss the practicalities of spray and compost preparations and the philosophy behind them.
This book is essential for any biodynamic gardener or farmer who wants to understand the background to core biodynamic techniques.
Based on keynote talks by Manfred Klett at Biodynamic Agricultural Association conferences.
Book Description
This book is about one woman's vision and commitment to learning to live sustainably and in harmony with life on Earth. Since 1976 Anna Edey has made one astonishing discovery after another, developing methods of sustainable living under the name Solviva Solar-Dynamic, Bio-Benign Design. The results of her experiments and methods have again and again exceeded highest hopes and expectations. Solviva describes the exciting trials and triumphs of her journey and offers convincing proof that we can, with today's technology and knowledge, live in ways that reduce pollution and depletion of resources by 80 percent or more, and at the same time reduce the cost of living and improve the quality of life in urban and rural locations. Solviva contains 155 color illustrations and detailed instructions and recommendations to help others along their own journeys toward living sustainably.
Customer Reviews:
Viva Solviva.......2006-06-23
Solviva is a fresh and brillant exploration of the complexities involved in constructing a solar home. Anna Edey is beautifully human as she describes her real life adversity in bringing such a complex project into fruition.
Edey is an honest and telling author. She articulates her emotion involved in creating the energy necessary to endeavor so seemingly innocent and simplistic a notion as a house that you sustain and that sustains you as you sustain the Earth.
She vividly describes having to consider the marketing and distribution not to mention profit margins of raising organic restaurant quality garden vegetables and greens within the confines of her modest solar home.
With candor she conveys how interesting ones life becomes while taking on rabbits, chickens, and goats as a part of ones daily life, and indeed, in fact, as co habitants in as much as they too survived within the small solar house and that their presence yielded a profit.
Edey humbly describes discovering each vegetable and green with such surprise and satisfaction and that her vegetables were in fact prize winning and well sought after.
Because of the biproducts of such an efficently contained microecosystem Edey is able to support herself and her lifestyle comfortably within a selfsustaining home. Not without the residual income of the modern associate but with the profit yielded from her ingenius business and gardening method.
Ultimately the complexity of the solar structure itself combined with Edey's originality and genius in housing and growing botanicals within the solar home, in addition to the interactivity of the animals at the house, combine to make a kind of EARTHSHIP that does inevitably produce a profit.
Lots of practical ideas, even if you have only a small yard.......2006-05-19
This book reads much like a diary, rather than a how-to book. However, if you are mechanically inclined (or have access to someone who is), you can fairly easily glean the instructions for building most of her projects from her book. The sections on her wastewater disposal system are great. The author's website is also very informative, detailing her experience with a Solviva biocarbon wastewater system installed at the Black Dog Tavern in Vinyard Haven, MA.
Reason for only 4 stars: I feel she overestimates how much you can make from her operation. You might be able to do it if you have a family partnership going, as opposed to hiring employees. The right crops are also important (when she started, there were no bagged gourmet lettuce salads in the stores as there are now), as is your location--she's in Massachusetts, where there are plenty of people wealthy enough and willing enough to pay for chi-chi food. California is another place where this kind of niche farming works.
Bottom line: She definitely makes a case that a family could easily supplement their food supply and reduce their energy consumption, as well as creatively recycling waste products. The book is worth buying for that alone.
How to grow $5,000 on one acre.......2006-01-22
I am unable to figure out why Anna Edey came up with the title that she did for this book, but it certainly is a "hook". She may even be a bit eccentric or even quirky, with a second subtitle of "Revealing the Truth About How We Can Provide Electricity, Heating, Cooling, Transportation, Food, Solid Waste and Wastewater Management in Ways that Reduce Pollution and Depletion of Resources by 80 percent or more, and that At The Same Time Reduce Cost of Living and Improve Quality of Life". Whew!
The fact is that this individual has successfully developed her farm at Martha's Vineyard since 1977 into a working solar dynamic, bio-benign environmental system as a result of her experiments and research with greener cultural practices. Her book relates her success story. It begins with an ample section of color illustrations of her farm, outbuildings, and waste management system. She provides details of constructing them and their maintenance. She shares the secrets of her year-round kitchen garden that supplies salad greens and tomatoes. And she shares her experiences with greenhouse gardening where she harvested 1600 servings a day of her organic salad mix without an artificial heat source (did she sell this at $30 a bag?).
In addition to sharing her farming and gardening experiences, she wants to save our planet and bring peace on earth. In Edey's "Call to Action", she envision her solar dynamic, bio-benign environmental system as being transferable to schools, businesses, and even the White House. Her robust optimism gives the reader a good feeling knowing that there are people voicing environmental convictions that actually practice what they preach! I am glad I had the opportunity to acquaint myself with this author's visions for peace on this planet.
Don't waste your money.......2005-09-09
This book doesn't tell you anything about making money from growing food. The author's only statement about the $500,000 amount is found on page 219 in the "Addendum for 2nd Printing" which states "Based on my experience, I still believe that it is possible to generate a gross income of $500,000 on one acre, IF it is done with great efficiency, steadily rollling full production, consistently hightest quality and totally reliable delivery."
Tarnished Hopes.......2005-06-07
I purchased this book a year ago and found many of its ideas quite provocative. Also I am in the planning stages of developing a farmstead home for which I want an attached solar greenhouse. My home plans encompass crushed volcanic rock, earthbaggs, roundwood, a northside earth bearm and a southside solar green house.
Within the last 10 days I sent Anna Edey two emails with links to my home plan and have made one phone call to her answering machine. Thus far our heroine of a greener world has ignored me. I expressed an intention to purchase a $250 set of her drawings and also a $50 drawing on her suspended grow tubes. I had hoped to find a way to adopt the solviva concept to my home plan. It seems that green angel Anna has no regard whatsoever toward guiding me, thus my Solviva dream is rapidly evaporating.
Book Description
Fatal Harvest takes an unprecedented look at our current ecologically destructive agricultural system and offers a compelling vision for an organic and environmentally safer way of producing the food we eat. The Fatal Harvest Reader brings together in an affordable paperback edition the essays included in Fatal Harvest, offering a concise overview of the failings of industrial agriculture and approaches to creating a more healthful and sustainable food system.
Customer Reviews:
Willis review for wrong book.......2005-12-01
Willis' review is for "Fatal Harvest" (ISBN 1559639407), NOT "Fatal Harvest Reader".
Very convincing.......2004-01-16
When I received this book recently as a gift I was completely overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the considerateness of the donor. Overwhelmed by the high quality of the production. Overwhelmed by the large number of "big names" who had contributed. Overwhelmed by the quality and meaningfulness of the photographs. Overwhelmed by the quality of the message that it gets across. Overwhelmed by the ammunition it gives me in my own personal drive for safer, more reliable food. Overwhelmed by how helpful it will be to the waverers who have not yet plucked up the courage to break their links with the chemical establishment.
Let me start with the photos which are not only high quality but extremely helpful because side by side we are given a picture of crops grown under two systems which represent the two poles of producing our food. The text on the left page goes like this: "Industrial Eye: see what you are looking at: MELONS: More than half the melons sold in the U.S. are grown in California where industrial melon farms stretch for miles and miles ... Two of the most heavily used toxins in industrial melon production are ... Life is also difficult for the melon pickers ..." On the right page we have: "Agrarian Eye: See what you are looking at: MELONS: These melons are one crop among dozens at the Live Earth's 23-acre farm near Santa Cruz, CA. The melons are part of a diverse system of annual and perennial fruit and vegetable crops that rely on soil health to support the plant's natural ability to deter pests. But it's not done so easily - there are many challenges ... Coastal fog also poses potential fungal problems for melons, which Broz addresses by using fungal-resistant varieties of melons ... The melons are sold at local farmers' markets and through the farm's community supported agriculture (CSA) program, where families receive a weekly box of seasonal fruits and vegetables throughout the growing season."
Next the text. "Part One: Farming as if Nature Mattered: Breaking the Industrial Paradigm" is composed of seven articles such as "Global Monoculture: The Worldwide Destruction of Diversity". Then "Part Two: Corporate Lies: Busting the Myths of Industrial Agriculture" is composed of articles each addressing one of the seven myths such as "Myth Two: Industrial Food is Safe, Healthy and Nutritious". The book continues through to "Part Seven: Organic and Beyond: Revisioning Agriculture for the 21st Century" with nine more articles such as "The Ethics of Eating: Why Environmentalism Starts at the Breakfast Table."
In these 370 pages we have all the information we need to convince those sitting on the fence that we must reduce our dependence on industrial agriculture. When confronted with this volume it is difficult to imagine how all those involved in the industrial agricultural chain will be able to put up an effective argument. On the contrary, it should be convincing to the thinking service organization that this is where their future profits lie and they should climb on the band wagon helping rather than hindering. For the farmer who is wavering - and probably for good reasons as his livelihood is affected - he will find in this volume the encouragement he needs; others have forged the trail and he can follow in the knowledge that the forerunners have solved the major problems.
Bravo to all those concerned with the preparation of this volume. You have done mankind a great service. It is a long tunnel down which we are travelling, but I for one can now see the light in the distance. Because of your initiative the rest of us will travel our own path with more confidence and with greater speed. At last we can hope for some sanity in our food production. If we can get this volume into the hands of enough people - people who care - then we really can change the world. If Silent Spring was the book that woke the world to the evils of indiscriminate chemical use, then this volume will go down as the one that banged home the last nail in the coffin of industrial agriculture.
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Handbook Of Sustainable Weed Management (Crop Science)
Manufacturer: Haworth Reference Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 156022956X |
Book Description
Discover innovative strategies for managing weeds in an environment-protective manner
The Handbook of Sustainable Weed Management presents the latest international strategies for controlling weeds while preventing dangerous chemicals from endangering the ecosystem or human lives. This compendium focuses on designing future weed management strategies that reduce herbicidal usage, restore ecological balance, and increase food production. This book provides new insights and approaches for weed scientists, agronomists, agriculturists, horticulturists, farmers, extentionists, teachers and students. Tables, figures, and over 125 illustrations—including a color photo section!—make complex information easy to access and understand.
In the Handbook of Sustainable Weed Management, experts from Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia organize in one resource the scattered information related to weeds and their management from different ecosystems around the world. The text captures the multifaceted impacts of and approaches to managing weeds from field, farm, landscape, regional, and global perspectives. Generously illustrated with tables and figures, this book not only describes the various techniques for weed management but shows you what methods work best for a given site, invasive weed, or invaded crop.
The Handbook of Sustainable Weed Management includes different aspects of weed management relevant to the scope of modern weed science such as:
cultural practices
cover crops
crop rotation designs
potential of herbicide resistant crops
bioherbicides
allelopathy
microorganisms
integrated weed management In spite of advancement in technologies and procedures, weeds continue to pose a major ecological and economical threat to agriculture. The Handbook of Sustainable Weed Management takes a broad view of weeds as a part of an agricultural system composed of interacting production, environmental, biological, economic, and social components all working together to find balance. This comprehensive book is a vital addition to the debate of how global weed management is changing in the twenty-first century.
Books:
- The Divided States of America?: What Liberals AND Conservatives are missing in the God-and-country shouting match!
- The Dot (Irma S and James H Black Honor for Excellence in Children's Literature (Awards))
- The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure, Third Edition
- The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming
- The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals
- The Ruin (Forgotten Realms: Year of Rogue Dragons, Book 3)
- The Sciatica Relief Handbook
- The Secret of the Old Clock/The Hidden Staircase/The Bungalow Mystery/The Mystery at Lilac Inn/The Secret of Shadow Ranch/The Secret of Red Gate Farm (Nancy Drew, Book 1-6)
- The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalized Economy
- The Toyota Product Development System: Integrating People, Process And Technology
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