Book Description
Gardening can be a political act. Creativity, fulfillment, connection, revolution--it all begins when we get our hands in the dirt. Food Not Lawns combines practical wisdom on ecological design and community-building with a fresh, green perspective on an age-old subject. Activist and urban gardener Heather Flores shares her nine-step permaculture design to help farmsteaders and city dwellers alike build fertile soil, promote biodiversity, and increase natural habitat in their own "paradise gardens." But Food Not Lawns doesn't begin and end in the seed bed. This joyful permaculture lifestyle manual inspires readers to apply the principles of the paradise garden--simplicity, resourcefulness, creativity, mindfulness, and community--to all aspects of life. Plant "guerilla gardens" in barren intersections and medians; organize community meals; start a street theater troupe or host a local art swap; free your kitchen from refrigeration and enjoy truly fresh, nourishing foods from your own plot of land; work with children to create garden play spaces. Flores cares passionately about the damaged state of our environment and the ills of our throwaway society. In Food Not Lawns, she shows us how to reclaim the earth one garden at a time.
Customer Reviews:
An inspired 40-something.......2007-09-04
Food Not Lawns speaks to my heart and has inspired me in my home gardening. I bought copies for two dear gardening friends who are in their 20's and 30's, and they are also excited by the ideas presented in the book. The author takes a holistic view of community and gardening, of working with Nature as an orchestra of forces influencing each other and working collectively together. Heather Flores encourages us to think out of the box and some might find that uncomfortable, but I still think her vision and sense of hope is so needed in our world today. Share this book with family and friends!
completely false advertising.......2007-07-05
I see that this books appears a hit with many reviewers, but I am unfortunately going to dissent. I was excited to read this book when it arrived and was subsequently dissappointed in the overall quality of the work as a whole. First and foremost, Flores leaves out a great deal of detail with regard to the actual work involved in any form of agriculture, be it animal husbandry, permaculture, or anything between. I say this not only as an avid reader, but also an environmental studies major reviewing the work for a class as well. Second, Flores' method of combining the topics of agriculture and social change is facetious at best, with no real segway from the former to the latter. In other words, this is literally two unconnected books sharing the same binding. Finally, and most disheartening of all, the work gives faulty advice at best, especially with regard to her advice on dealing with numerous aspects of gardening (traditional and permaculture), pending jail time, and conflict management strategies(with latter are potentially dangerous). I will also note that I resold this book immediately upon completion due to the above. Those interested would be better served to read The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing, or other such related books by other reputable authors such as Joseph Jenkins, Eliot Coleman, Louise Riotte, or John and Martha Storey. In short, do not purchase this book if you are serious about either agriculture or social change.
if you are over 40 skip it... so gen X.......2007-05-25
This is a very shallow book by the new generation of writers that find fault with everything done in the twenty years before they were born,
Its very shallow, big type and very preachy.
If you are interested in gardening, try Giaas garden, a much more serious study of permiculture.
In this rambling book, the aurthor boasts of not making over 8 k a year, but inherited the money to buy her farm!
I liked camping living until I was thirty, now I am 45 and really like my freezer and new stove.( yes, I have my own three hens and belong to a CSA)
I know a number of the original flower/farm people, and as they got older they liked having a few more comforts.
So this is one of the new gen X books, shallow to a fault. Nothing but sound bites.
the aurthor sems all hyped about third world living, but I am not sure she has ever been to a third world and seen how hard that style of life is,,it is easy to glamorius the distant!!!
Not just Gardening--A guide to Activism and Environmentalism.......2007-01-23
I picked up this book to learn practical application of permacultural principles applied to urban yard scales--and there is a wealth of such information here. However, I do feel like Flores preaches just a little too much about the environmental destruction and political problems currently plaguing our country. In my view, anyone picking up a book called Food Not Lawns probably is already well-versed in such issues, and Flores is essentially preaching to the converted. That said, this book DOES have tons of practical information, and I would recommend it as an excellent counterbalance and companion book to Toby Hemenway's Gaia's Garden.
Keys to change any reader can use........2006-12-14
For activist readers who believe activism is a political pursuit, FOOD NOT LAWNS: HOW TO TURN YOUR YARD INTO A GARDEN AND YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD INTO A COMMUNITY offers a different viewpoint, maintaining that growing food where you live is a key method of becoming a food activist in the community. Chapters advocate planting home and community gardens with an eye to drawing important connections between the politics of a home or community garden and the wider politics of usage, consumption, and sustainability. Another rarity: chapters promote small, easy changes in lifestyles to achieve a transition between personal choice and political activism at the community level, providing keys to change any reader can use.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
Starting a small-scale livestock farm? First, you need this book! Yes, you can have a prosperous farm and achieve the lifestyle of your dreams ; and farming expert Carol Ekarius will show you how. Small farms can pay big dividends, Ekarius explains, but hard work alone isn't enough: Success demands knowledge and effective management. Ekarius's natural, organic approach to livestock management produces healthier animals, reduces feed and healthcare costs, and maximizes your profit. Through case studies of successful farmers, nitty-gritty details on every facet of livestock farming, and fascinating insights for working with nature instead of against it, you'll learn to make your farm thrive. Small-Scale Livestock Farming will help you: * Determine what you want from your farming life (even if your farm is simply a few backyard animals) * Choose suitable livestock * Understand housing, fencing, and feeding needs of livestock * Learn about reproducing stock and caring for your animals' hea
Customer Reviews:
I loved this book.......2007-05-10
Small Scale LivestockFarming:... is a simple easy to read text containing a broad overview of many more topics with more depth than expected and providing numerous references for areas which the text is not indepth enough for your needs. This book had to be the best money spent on a starting source for related knowledge. It is highly recomended to anyone intested in this subject.
lots of frosting very little cake. .......2007-04-18
I was put off by the author so I had a difficult time finishing this book.
The section on biology was nothing more than an eighth grade biology course and really unnecessary.
It appears that information that would be easily gleaned from other sources was abundant but firsthand knowledge was seriously lacking.
I didn't like her double standards. She advises readers to "Feel free to mark up" (page 116). She prices her meat to rural buyers slightly higher than the local butcher but she would have raised her prices even higher if she had lived closer to urban buyers. I can understand pricing higher if you have to drive farther to get to the city but that's not the advice. Then, in a story on fighting a factory farm on pages 124 & 125 she dubs a local man "Joe Greed". According to the story he sued because he had planned to sell his land to the factory farm envisioning lots of dollars in his pockets but with the new zoning laws he wasn't able to. If he's Joe Greed then she's "Carol Greed" for wanting urbanites to pay more simply because they live in the city. I don't agree with either of them.
I wonder if she's taken to writing books on farming intended to sell to city folks who only dream of country living and will never know her advice is of little help.
It was the little things that made this book bothersome such as her advice to have a silage pile but according to the author a farmer needs lots of specialized equipment for this. In the book The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It Seymour describes how to harvest by hand. For those modern small scale farms an electric weed whacker makes it a little easier. Cut it, turn it, stack it right in the fields and cover it with a tarp, voila, a silage pile. Fence it in order to control feeding and your done, nothing special needed.
One other point that I found difficult was her statement that she followed all the guidelines to be organic but wasn't certified, but mostly she advises to call a vet. I would have excepted that advice if the author would have included some information on how to get the vet to help without the use of antibiotics. According to the author antibiotics negate an organic animal standing and it must be sold as conventional. She gives 3 or 4 treatments for ailing animals and acknowledges successes with alternative treatments even names a few but that's it. I would expect someone that was farming organically to have a wealth of knowledge and include it when writing on the subject.
Excellent Resource.......2003-10-22
My brother gave this book to me for my birthday, and it has been great. We are new to farming, and it has helped us determine how to move forward, and to plan for our operation. We're retired, but we need this to pay some income, and that is what this book is all about, making money, but doing it so you don't screw up the land. The author has lots of excellent advice not only on caring for your animals, but also on direct marketing to get a bigger share of the consumer's dollar. She writes with a down to earth style that I really appreciate.
Is This High School Biology???.......2003-08-02
I was looking for a substantial book about small-scale livestock farming, and instead I was treated to a very basic introduction to agriculture. This book would make a great high school agriculture text, but beyond that it falls short of providing any real, useful, institutional knowledge that I was looking for. For example, in the book the author reviews basic high biology concepts such as the water cycle, the food chain, and the energy pyramid. She also reminds readers how to round up or round down. And if that were not insulting enough, she then informs readers that to be a successful farmer, you must dress like a farmer; "clean bib overalls and a straw hat, or a plaid shirt, jeans, and a cowboy hat." Give me a break. Again, if you want a simplistic, new age, farming book of little practical use by an author who has less than a decade of farming experience, this book is for you. If you want a no-frills, no-fluff, useful, dirt under your nails, John Deere farmer kind of a book, I would look elsewhere and I would suggest Gene Logsdon's The Contrary Farmer.
Inspiring ............2003-05-30
I got this book only a few months ago and I must say it has been a wealth of information. I learned about toxic plants, diseases, grazing management, budgeting your opperation effiecently, and also info on different feeding scales of species. Not to mention everything on this book but it has been an eye opening experience to learn from this knowledge and then apply it to my life.
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:
- Everyone should read this...
- Great information!
- A Knowledge Guide for Healthy Eating and Drinking
- NOURISHING IF NOT QUITE SATIATING
- harvest for Hope Review
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Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating
Jane Goodall ,
Gary McAvoy , and
Gail Hudson
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Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man
ASIN: 0446698210 |
Amazon.com
World-renowned scientist and conservationist Jane Goodall earned her fame by studying chimpanzee feeding habits. But in Harvest for Hope, she scrutinizes human eating behaviors, and the colossal food industries that force-feed some cultures' self-destructive habits for mass consumption. It's an unsustainable lifestyle that Goodall argues must change immediately, beginning--not ironically--at a grassroots level.
Looping personal anecdotes from 40 years of global travels with stories from noble farmer Davids and corporate Goliaths, Goodall methodically builds her case for shopping organic and living modestly. Mustering a tender gumption, she details the vicious cycle of pesticide-ridden and genetically engineered crops which feed the unknowing majority of consumers; and also feed the antibiotic-treated animals that provide these folks with inexpensive entrees. Leaving nasty slaughterhouse scenes to less tactful pens, Goodall focuses more on the product of "factory farming" techniques: mountains of waste, nutritionally depleted soil, polluted water, displaced organic farmers, and severely compromised food.
Hope springs from positive sources: Edible Schoolyard programs in the U.K. and U.S., parents breaking their schools' "unholy alliance" with fast food chains and soft drink companies, a steady rise in organic purchases. Goodall offers many suggestions for rallying others, exercising one's own consumer powers, and just plain eating less meat. Conservationists might say this information is nothing new, which might explain why Goodall provides only tertiary references to her many statistics and facts. But for those who prefer that their own eating habits be stirred--not shaken--into question, the kindly Chimpanzee Lady provides the gentle touch required. --Liane Thomas
Book Description
World-renowned scientist and conservationist Jane Goodall earned her fame by studying chimpanzee feeding habits. But in Harvest for Hope, she scrutinizes human eating behaviors, and the colossal food industries that force-feed some cultures' self-destructive habits for mass consumption. It's an unsustainable lifestyle that Goodall argues must change immediately, beginning--not ironically--at a grassroots level.Looping personal anecdotes from 40 years of global travels with stories from noble farmer Davids and corporate Goliaths, Goodall methodically builds her case for shopping organic and living modestly. Mustering a tender gumption, she details the vicious cycle of pesticide-ridden and genetically engineered crops which feed the unknowing majority of consumers; and also feed the antibiotic-treated animals that provide these folks with inexpensive entrees. Leaving nasty slaughterhouse scenes to less tactful pens, Goodall focuses more on the product of "factory farming" techniques: mountains of waste, nutritionally depleted soil, polluted water, displaced organic farmers, and severely compromised food. Hope springs from positive sources: Edible Schoolyard programs in the U.K. and U.S., parents breaking their schools' "unholy alliance" with fast food chains and soft drink companies, a steady rise in organic purchases. Goodall offers many suggestions for rallying others, exercising one's own consumer powers, and just plain eating less meat. Conservationists might say this information is nothing new, which might explain why Goodall provides only tertiary references to her many statistics and facts. But for those who prefer that their own eating habits be stirred--not shaken--into question, the kindly Chimpanzee Lady provides the gentle touch required. --Liane Thomas
Customer Reviews:
Everyone should read this..........2007-04-17
It's time that everyone starts making changes, however small they may be. This book is perfect for just that! Jane Goodall has a warm way of conveying such critical information. An easy read, can't put it down!
Great information!.......2007-03-22
I read this book a long time ago (its been about two years) but Im still reminded of the big points that Jane Goodall brought up in her book.
Random stuff I remember.
- slightly boring in some parts (why there's 4 stars). I found myself picking up the book merely to gain more insight about food - not really extremely excited about reading it.
- however, some parts were just REALLY interesting.
Because you never have heard of companies like Monsanto (about them selling "killer seeds" to unwitting Africans, a David versus Goliath court case, the dangers of one company owning the world's food supply).
You dont REALLY know which companies that you previously thought were "small organic farms" were actually owned by Coke, General Mills, etc.
You never have really thought of benefits from buying local produce (much less that commonshare? timeshare? I dont know, its a thing where you get in season fruits and veggies from local farmers for about $300 a month).
- Jane Goodall is very pro vegetarian. but, to the meat eaters, she does offer information that behooves you as well. Like ... which type of fish will probably have the least amount of chemicals in them. But you will have to hear about factory farming, etc (but its not a huge part of the book).
- surprisingly, she offers good advice about things that you can stray from buying organic as well as the things that you should buy organic.
- you learn about the dangers of improper farming. The lack of proper irrigation, pesticide use (which makes the pests more resilient leading to stronger pesticides needed), and the lack of correct crop rotation to reuse the soil.
And I havent read this book since over two years ago. It wasnt mind blowingly exciting to read, but somehow at the end, I learned some really interesting things.
And she DOES offer a message of hope. I dont want to feel like the world is going to die and we are all doomed after finishing a book. So I was glad that Jane Goodall (or her cowriters, whoever) presented this information in a hopeful manner.
PS. Im assuming there was slight bias. But I got the impression that this book was about as fact based as a biased book could get. If that makes sense.
PPS. I am really intrigued by the program she has set up for schools to teach kids how to eat properly. One of the shocking things she mentioned was showing kids various fruits and vegetables and they had no clue what they were, much less where the grew from (ie, out of the ground on a vine etc)
A Knowledge Guide for Healthy Eating and Drinking .......2007-03-16
This book was wonderful guide regarding the production of our food not only in the US but throughtout the world. As, consumers we need to realize how are food is produced, where it comes from, whats on it, does it have hormones, what are healthy nutrient ingredients, and is our water pure and clean to drink? What may seem healthy may not always be? Jane Goodall, gives excellent illustrations and examples in each chapter regarding what we can do as consumers demanding healthy good healthy food and water in ourlives. I bought several copies of this excellent book to give to family and friends. I would love to hear her oneday give a lecture and presentation on this subject.
NOURISHING IF NOT QUITE SATIATING.......2007-02-21
Written with Goodall's characteristically lucid, unpretentious prose, this book takes on one of the world's most urgent problems. Goodall, famous for her studies of wild chimpanzees, has become a global force for change, and this book is just the latest installment in her tireless efforts.
The most telling message of this book is, for me, that the chemical-dependent, monoculture-oriented, profit-margin-driven paradigm that predominates modern food production simply doesn't work. I challenge any reader not to come away without feeling at least some disdain towards the breathtaking greed and self-serving arrogance of Monsanto and other agribusiness giants. Goodall asks poignantly: "How could we have ever believed that it was a good idea to grow our food with poisons?"
I was disappointed by several omissions, for instance that there is no mention of the non-dairy milks (soy, rice, almond, etc.) and ice creams and faux meats now available. I also can't share Goodall's enthusiasm for buffalo meat (p. 105), or the implication that dairy products are healthful [...]. Readers can't verify many of the facts and statistics offered here because there are no cited sources to consult. Finally, this book needs an index!
In fairness, though, this book is a positive force because it is digestible for masses. Goodall is a master at tackling difficult subjects without sounding preachy or dogmatic. True to its title, this is an optimistic book. And it's empowering. Goodall offers many tidbits of advice on what consumers can do to help drive change away from industrialized, chemical-dependent agriculture and towards local, sustainable and tastier food. I applaud her for broaching what is ultimately the world's most over-arching problem: human overpopulation!
harvest for Hope Review.......2007-01-27
Wonderful book. Have followed Jane Goodall's studies for years,
love her handling of the subject, she writes with such grace and love.
I think this is one of her best yet, everyone should read it.
Book Description
This book on urban design extends and develops the widely accepted 'compact city' solution. It provides a design proposal for a new kind of sustainable urban landscape: Urban Agriculture. By growing food within an urban rather than exclusively rural environment, urban agriculture would reduce the need for industrialized production, packaging and transportation of foodstuffs to the city dwelling consumers. The revolutionary and innovative concepts put forth in this book have potential to shape the future of our cities quality of life within them.
Urban design is shown in practice through international case studies and the arguments presented are supported by quantified economic, environmental and social justifications.
* Is THE first book on urban agriculture for architects, landscape architects and urban designers
* Presents concepts with the potential to have an immense impact on the future shape of cities
* Includes over 200 images providing readers a clear visual idea of this pioneering subject
Book Description
Fair trade is a fast-growing alternative market intended to bring better prices and greater social justice to small farmers around the world. But is it working? This vivid study of coffee farmers in Mexico offers the first thorough investigation of the social, economic, and environmental benefits of fair trade. Based on extensive research in Zapotec indigenous communities in the state of Oaxaca, Brewing Justice follows the members of the cooperative Michiza, whose organic coffee is sold on the international fair trade market. It compares these families to conventional farming families in the same region, who depend on local middlemen and are vulnerable to the fluctuations of the world coffee market. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book carries readers into the lives of these coffee producer households and their communities, offering a nuanced analysis of both the effects of fair trade on everyday life and the limits of its impact. Brewing Justice paints a clear picture of the complex dynamics of the fair trade market and its relationship to the global economy. Drawing on interviews with dozens of fair trade leaders, the book also explores the changing politics of this international movement, including the challenges posed by the entry of transnational corporations into the fair trade system. It concludes by offering recommendations for strengthening and protecting the integrity of fair trade.
Customer Reviews:
Great overview of fair trade coffee.......2007-07-20
Jaffee did a great job covering the important aspects of fair trade coffee. He thoroughly explained the history of the market and explained the coffee market during the ICA years as well. He also covers the drawbacks of fair trade. I would recomend this book to anyone interested in coffee as well as anyone interested in social justice.
Average customer rating:
- the best permaculture book for beginners
- a bit dry...
- For anyone who wants to build a better world
- The Permaculture Way
|
The Permaculture Way: Practical Steps To Create A Self-Sustaining World (Practical Steps)
Graham Bell
Manufacturer: Permanent Publications
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Similar Items:
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Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability
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Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
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ASIN: 1856230287 |
Book Description
The Permaculture Way shows us how to consciously design a lifestyle which is low in environmental impact and highly productive. It demonstrates how to meet our needs, make the most of resources by minimizing waste and maximizing potential, and still leave the Earth richer than we found it.
Customer Reviews:
the best permaculture book for beginners.......2005-12-06
Regardless of one person's opinion about this book being dry, it is considered one of the best tried and true permaculture manuals out there. The illustrations are funny and poignant and the information accessible and aplicable to a modern world.
Also be sure to check out the forthcoming "Food Not Lawns" by Heather Coburn due out next Summer. It is sure to be among the best-ever urban gardening books.
a bit dry..........2005-11-04
This being my first text on Permaculture, I was hoping to be awed and enthused after reading. Rather, I was a bit tired and dreary eyed. The book does contain many useful and convincing ideas. It also seems to have the depth of research I like in a text. Yet I could not wait to put the book down. It's common sense approach, not the revolutionary style I had come to link with Permaculture, left me wondering why I ordered it and if there is another trext more inspiring...
Look further before buying.
For anyone who wants to build a better world.......2004-01-31
What is permaculture? Permaculture is a way of life; it makes maximum use of resources by minimizing waste and maximizing potential; it is a tool for planet-repair; it is a way of creating wealth without causing environmental damage; it is about meeting our own needs without making the lives of other less pleasant; it is about limiting personal consumption but gaining more than you lose; it is about using technology when it is the best way to accomplish a task; it is developing interdependence with the community rather than self-sufficiency; it is about reducing the work required to meet a given end; it is about giving each of us the power to influence the world from our own home. Permaculture is not about getting away from it all but taking control of our lives where we are. It is a concept and a practice with global implications because it is possible under any culture, in any climate and by people with any skills. Permacultue invites you to take care of yourself, your family and your immediate community, and to care for your neighbors in the widest possible sense, all around the globe. Permaculture is based on sound economics while making our lives more harmonious with the needs of the planet.
Put in its simplest terms, permaculture asks people to put as much into life as they demand from it; but it starts with each individual because that is what is immediate and within our control and because only we have the power to affect the future by acting creatively for the good of ourselves and others. Permaculture starts in the home because that is the central point in time and space from which all daily occupations radiate. Designing the home to supply much of its own needs and to consume its own outputs would be a massive contribution to global cleansing. Thoreau, in his book 'Walden' reviews his two-year experiment in simple living as a counter to industrialization and commerce that have driven people into virtual slavery. His remedy was to concentrate on simple requirements to free up time and energy for our spiritual needs. Our house should provide health for the family, peace for the spirit and harmony with the environment - and that is what permaculture strives to attain. Think globally but act locally is a slogan that reminds us, not just of our duty, but of our personal ability to affect change for the better. Permaculture is best expressed in your own garden because gardening exhibits all the qualities of planet-care - it is small scale, local, ethical, and a personal responsibility that brings together all strands of our relationship with nature; it is a common bond between families throughout the world. Permaculture is best expressed through the individual because leadership is so vital to building a better world. Every parent is a leader; every adult and every child can become a leader. All it requires is to do something when you see something that needs doing and that something may be as simple as creating a garden along the lines described in this book.
This book shows us how to meet our basic needs while leaving the earth richer; it helps us to relearn the value of nature; it helps us to understand new ways of being wealthy; it helps us to create a productive lifestyle without causing environmental damage. Although the specifics of this book are for the British Isles, the principles and philosophies are universal. At present, the earth cannot keep up with our rate of production and consumption. We must deepen our understanding of the land and our relationship to it. This doesn't mean that we all have to become peasant or subsistence farmers; permaculture seeks more rewarding paths to paradise. This book helps us to design our lives efficiently, not just to feed and clothe ourselves better but to take as little as possible of the earth's space for the production of those needs; to do as little damage as possible to the environment and whenever possible to return as much as possible to nature.
David Bellamy starts his preface with these words. "I have four books in my library which form the cornerstones of my hope for the future: Marcus Porcius Cato's 'Treatise on Agriculture' (about 160 AD); Robert Sharrock's 'History of the Propagation and Improvement of Vegetables by the Concurrence of Art and Nature' (1660); Hans Jenny's 'The Soil Resource' (1980); and Bill Mollison's 'permaculture' (1988). I can now add this book to the collection, for it is of great importance. This is a spring-board text, which relaunches the wisdom of almost twenty centuries into the arena where it is most needed and from which it can be most effective - the rich countries of the temperate world."
At the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit for Sustainable Development, one resolution was to declare a Decade for Education on Sustainable Development starting in 2005. We must now start thinking about what should be included in the new curriculum. Permaculture should definitely be included. If you want to move away from the consumerist lifestyle; if you want to live by more enduring values; if you are looking for answers to the question 'What can I do about curing our world?'; if you are looking for ways to improve your health and to live more harmoniously with nature; if you agree with Edmund Burke that "for the triumph of evil it is only necessary that good men do nothing"; then this well may be the book you have been looking for. This book should be in the library of everyone interested in building a better world.
The Permaculture Way.......2000-05-29
I read this book about a year ago so I can't be too detailed. But I appreciated this accessible introduction to the entire field of permaculture as a philosophy. Not just focused on farm or landscaping design, Bell explicates deeper community design and planning that mollison usually just suggests in passing. Particularily interesting was his discussion of Community centered currency and exchange programs like BREAD in Berkeley
Book Description
Providing the theoretical and conceptual framework for this continually evolving field, Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems, Second Edition explores environmental factors and complexities affecting agricultural crops and animals. Completely revised, updated, and reworked, the second edition contains new data, new readings, new issues and case studies, and new options. It includes two completely new chapters, one on the role of livestock animals in agroecosystems and one on the cultural and community aspects of sustainable food systems. The author clearly delineates the importance of using an ecosystem framework for determining if a particular agricultural practice, input, or management decision contributes or detracts from sustainability. He explains how the framework provides the ecological basis for the functioning of the chosen management strategy over the long-term. He also examines system level interactions, stressing the need for understanding the emergent qualities of populations, communities, and ecosystems and their roles in sustainable agriculture. Using examples of farming systems in a broad array of ecological conditions, the book demonstrates how to use an ecosystem approach to design and manage agroecosystems for sustainability.
Customer Reviews:
EASY TO READ: and .......2007-05-21
so most text books are really dificult to fallow. NOT THIS ONE. it's easy to read the chapters, at about 10 pages of easy to to read print with a high degree of readability. This book is about CONCEPTS. it's just that simple not real indepth. i think the first comment should drop out of college because if he can't read this book, he just wont make it in the real world.
This book is taking concepts about our enviroment and using them in our agricultural production. however he spends alot of time talking about mexico, which has some huge enviromental hinderances. This book isn't indepth, not technical it's just an "idealistic" way of production.
The class i had the book in was about the ecology of agriculture with an emphasis on recognizing sustanible systems.
BEST BOOK ON AGROECOLOGY.......2000-09-04
I highly recommend the Book Agroecology by Steve Gliessman. It reflects indepth knowledge of agricultural issues of today food production systems. Those of us interested in challenging thoughts and ideas to achieve sustainability must look at the contributions of this book. Some chapters demand basic knowledge of Ecology while other chapters demand higher level of ecology and Biology. The book provides examples from different parts of the world (tropical and temperate zones) so that it should be very useful to agronomists, and agroecologists from countries other than the US. As an agroecologist I highly recommend this book. I find it very useful to teach Agroecology and Ecology, in both agricultural schools and Biology students.
Take No-Doz if you're going to read this book!.......2000-01-12
My gosh, I've never fallen asleep faster! I pity all of you students who are required to read this pathetic work of literature. While Mr. Gliessman definitely knows his agroecology, he has difficulties conveying his thoughts to the reader. Also, you may be in a bit of trouble if you don't have a Ph.D in this field as the book takes off with a very complex vocabulary and may as well be Morse code: you can figure out what he's trying to say with the help of numerous other reference books. One suggestion to those students needing to buy this book for a class: DROP OUT!
Book Description
The miracle of the Green Revolution was made possible by cheap fossil fuels to supply crops with artificial fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation. Estimates of the net energy balance of agriculture in the US show that ten calories of hydrocarbon energy are required to produce one calorie of food. Such an imbalance cannot continue in a world of diminishing hydrocarbon resources.
Eating Fossil Fuels examines the interlinked crises of energy and agriculture and highlights some startling findings:
- The world-wide expansion of agriculture has appropriated fully 40% of the photosynthetic capability of this planet.
- The Green Revolution provided abundant food sources for many, resulting in a population explosion well in excess of the planet's carrying capacity.
- Studies suggest that without fossil fuel based agriculture, the US could only sustain about two thirds of its present population. For the planet as a whole, the sustainable number is estimated to be about two billion.
Concluding that the effect of energy depletion will be disastrous without a transition to a sustainable, relocalized agriculture, the book draws on the experiences of North Korea and Cuba to demonstrate stories of failure and success in the transition to non-hydrocarbon-based agriculture. It urges strong grassroots activism for sustainable, localized agriculture and a natural shrinking of the world's population.
Customer Reviews:
Great coverage of the issues of agriculture and oil.......2007-09-18
This book covers the coming problems in agriculture due to a shortage of oil and thus fertilizers and pesticides. But it covers more about what to do and how to cope with the return to locally grown foods. Highly recommended.
This is an important book........2007-09-09
This book is a must read for everyone. It carries an important and sonewhat frightening message.
worldwide famine or sustainability?.......2007-08-15
This is one of the best books I've read in the last several years on the theme of peak oil. It's an easy read, a fast read, and meticulously researched. What this jaded reader found most informative and startling were the descriptions of the recent agricultural breakdown of North Korea and Cuba after they lost access to Soviet and Chinese oil. North K's situation was horrific and remains so (3-6 million dead from famine, and just today I read about more severe flooding there, taking out all their infrastructure, this flooding exacerbated by their lack of oil since they have to cut down their forests for fuel, a desperate tactic grimly outlined in Eating Fossil Fuel). In contrast, Cuba's is a story of hope, ingenuity, community, and is pretty uplifting in how they feed themselves, though many Americans would find their diet of nigh zero meat and dairy protein upsetting. At least they live, no thanks to the embargo. Whlie North Korea dies, miserably. Which way will we go? Everyone should read this book and take it to heart, NOW.
Also highly recommended for those who like to learn from history: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, and for fictionThe Greenlanders
By Lesley Thomas, author of Flight of the Goose
The Wane Of Industrial Agriculture?.......2007-04-29
As a farmer, albeit part time, I am concerned about rising fuel prices, and other costs of production, nearly all energy related. In this book author Dale Allen Pfeiffer reviews possible consequences of the coming worldwide peaking of the production of conventional oil. These consequences may be dire and not limited to transportation, also affecting agriculture as we know it. Industrial agriculture with it's vast corporate interests tends to be very fuel inefficient, which includes all sorts of things such as tilling, fertilizer, perticides, harvesting, processing, transportation to markets, and more. When peak oil hits food may become much more expensive.
Do we have time to correct this, as a move to a sustainable food production system would allow? Pfeiffer writes to this question to some length, the jury is still out on it. He does write that most oil experts expect about a two percent decline per year of oil after peak oil hits, that would allow a transition, however rough, to a more energy efficient food production infrastructure. Pfeiffer gives the example of North Korea, where many have starved after their oil supply was mostly cut off after the Soviet Union collapsed, very poor planning there, then gives the example of Cuba, which also lost most of it's supply of Soviet oil, and how they successfully overcame that and converted to a sustainable agriculture system. North Korea and Cuba remain exceptions, Pfeiffer writes, as they abruptly lost most of their oil stream. The rest of the world will face a more gradual decline (my guess, sometime between now and 2025 peak oil will hit). Anyway, Pfeiffer writes that production and consumption need to be closer to each other, with local communities and individuals participating in food production. This is obviously a large and difficult problem to solve. There is also discussion in the book about corporations with their special interests which could be a problem to overcome. In the last chapter Pfeiffer describes twelve 'fun' activities if you want to become an activist. Farmers' markets, for example, are a good way to sell local produce to local people, eliminating the middleman, and overall more energy efficient than buying food shipped thousands of miles, Pfeiffer writes. But in reality the marketplace will determine the real winners and losers here, with convenience and quality also considerations, none of this is stressed in the book. Overall, though, Pfeiffer gives readers a great introduction to a subject that will probably get much more attention in the future.
good concise review of the coming crisis in agriculture.......2007-04-25
"Eating Fossil Fuels," by David Allen Pfeiffer, is a fascinating review of the upcoming crisis in production of food for our population. He starts with a quick discussion of land degradation and water degradation, and then goes into the data behind the use of fossil fuels in modern agriculture. With the approaching decline in global oil production, our ability to produce food will be severely compromised.
For anyone who reads much about "peak oil" or modern agricultural policy, this will come as no surprise. Pfeiffer's book shines, though, in his discussions of the examples of South Korea and Cuba. It is fascinating to consider the different paths taken by each of these countries during their politically-imposed sudden drop in oil availability.
Pfeiffer goes finishes with a discussion of sustainable agriculture and some ideas for what a concerned activist might do.
On the whole, I learned much from the short, well-written book about an important topic.
Average customer rating:
- Good Principles, Little Information
- Alternative perspective on human interaction with the earth
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Becoming Native to This Place
Wes Jackson
Manufacturer: Counterpoint
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Similar Items:
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New Roots for Agriculture (New Edition) (Farming and Ranching)
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Rooted in the Land: Essays on Community and Place
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ASIN: 1887178112 |
Amazon.com
Ideas seem to advance in waves upon the modern mind, and one of the concepts cresting at present is the notion of place. This recent swell could be charted back to Daniel Kemmis's 1992 book Community and the Politics of Place as well as his more recent meditation on the inhabitation of cities (The Good City and the Good Life). Wendell Berry's A Place on Earth continued the theme, as has Alan Thein Durning's recent book This Place on Earth. Wes Jackson, a bioligist by training, applies the notion of place to a rethinking of ecological and agricultural policy. His hope is that the concept of place will seep deeply into our thoughts and affect the very way we inhabit the world. In effect, Jackson argues for inverting the slogan "think globally, act locally": when we think of the whole Earth on a local level as a group of loved places rather than territory or resource pools, then we will be headed in the right direction.
Customer Reviews:
Good Principles, Little Information.......2006-12-15
I purchased this book because I have become very interested in agriculture and rooting it and our communities in the local ecosystems of the places we live in. I this book looked like it was going to be a good introduction to this. Well, it was a good introduction to the values of Jackson's practice but doesn't say much about the practice itself. But perhaps that's because trying to apply something other than principles from a book would be counter to the respect for local specifics that Jackson has. Either way the book is well written and inspiring, but i still wish there were more specifics.
Alternative perspective on human interaction with the earth.......2000-06-19
Very easy reading, short book.
Wes Jackson describes a growing perspective that we need to interact symbiotically with the earth rather than considering the earth a "resource" at our disposal. He mixes philosophy with actual personal experiences to further illustrate the story.
The fact that he began the Land Use Institute in Kansas and is still and active participant lends credibility to his dialog.
Books:
- Food, Science, Policy and Regulation in the Twentieth Century: International and Comparative Perspectives (Studies in the Social History of Medicine)
- Forest Trees (Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants) (Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants)
- From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books (Voyage of the Beagle, The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals)
- Fundamentals of Industrial Hygiene, Fifth Edition
- Geoenvironmental Engineering: Site Remediation, Waste Containment, and Emerging Waste Management Techonolgies
- Golf Course Irrigation: Environmental Design and Management Practices
- Greener Pasture on Your Side of the Fence: Better Farming Voisin Management-Intensive Grazing (4th Edition)
- Handbook of Soil Analysis: Mineralogical, Organic and Inorganic Methods
- Handy Farm Devices: And How to Make Them
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
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