Making the Most of Agriculture

Making the Most of Agriculture PDF Author: Theodore Macklin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 560

Book Description


Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative Agriculture PDF Author: Richard Perkins
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578772738
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 750

Book Description
Regenerative Agriculture offers a clear and pragmatic approach to designing, installing and managing profitable small farms.

Farming for Our Future

Farming for Our Future PDF Author: PETER H.. ROSENBERG LEHNER (NATHAN A.)
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781585762378
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
Farming for Our Future examines the policies and legal reforms necessary to accelerate the adoption of practices that can make agriculture in the United States climate-neutral or better. These proven practices will also make our food system more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Agriculture's contribution to climate change is substantial--much more so than official figures suggest--and we will not be able to achieve our overall mitigation goals unless agricultural emissions sharply decline. Fortunately, farms and ranches can be a major part of the climate solution, while protecting biodiversity, strengthening rural communities, and improving the lives of the workers who cultivate our crops and rear our animals. The importance of agricultural climate solutions can not be underestimated; it is a critical element both in ensuring our food security and limiting climate change. This book provides essential solutions to address the greatest crises of our time.

Systems Research for Agriculture

Systems Research for Agriculture PDF Author: Laurie E. Drinkwater
Publisher: Department of Agriculture
ISBN: 9781888626162
Category : Agricultural systems
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description


The Changing Scale of American Agriculture

The Changing Scale of American Agriculture PDF Author: John Fraser Hart
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 9780813922294
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
Few Americans know much about contemporary farming, which has evolved dramatically over the past few decades. In The Changing Scale of American Agriculture, the award-winning geographer and landscape historian John Fraser Hart describes the transformation of farming from the mid-twentieth century, when small family farms were still viable, to the present, when a farm must sell at least $250,000 of farm products each year to provide an acceptable level of living for a family. The increased scale of agriculture has outmoded the Jeffersonian ideal of small, self-sufficient farms. In the past farmers kept a variety of livestock and grew several crops, but modern family farms have become highly specialized in producing a single type of livestock or one or two crops. As farms have become larger and more specialized, their number has declined. Hart contends that modern family farms need to become integrated into tightly orchestrated food-supply chains in order to thrive, and these complex new organizations of large-scale production require managerial skills of the highest order. According to Hart, this trend is not only inevitable, but it is beneficial, because it produces the food American consumers want to buy at prices they can afford. Although Hart provides the statistics and clear analysis such a study requires, his book focuses on interviews with farmers: those who have shifted from mixed crop-and-livestock farming to cash-grain farming in the Midwest agricultural heartland; beef, dairy, chicken, egg, turkey, and hog producers around the periphery of the heartland; and specialty crop producers on the East and West Coasts. These invaluable case studies bring the reader into direct personal contact with the entrepreneurs who are changing American agriculture. Hart believes that modern large-scale farmers have been criticized unfairly, and The Changing Scale of American Agriculture, the result of decades of research, is his attempt to tell their side of the story.

Making the most of agricultural investment: A survey of business models that provide opportunities for smallholders

Making the most of agricultural investment: A survey of business models that provide opportunities for smallholders PDF Author:
Publisher: IIED
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 116

Book Description


The Market Gardener

The Market Gardener PDF Author: Jean-Martin Fortier
Publisher: New Society Publisher
ISBN: 1550925555
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Book Description
Grow better not bigger with proven low-tech, human-scale, biointensive farming methods Making a living wage farming without big capital outlay or acreages may be closer than you think. Growing on just 1.5 acres, Jean-Martin and Maude-Helene feed more than 200 families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stands. The secret of their success is the low-tech, high-yield production methods they've developed by focusing on growing better rather than growing bigger, making their operation more lucrative and viable in the process. The Market Gardener is a compendium of proven horticultural techniques and innovative growing methods. This complete guide is packed with practical information on: Setting-up a micro-farm by designing biologically intensive cropping systems, all with negligible capital outlay; Farming without a tractor and minimizing fossil fuel inputs through the use of the best hand tools, appropriate machinery and minimum tillage practices; Growing mixed vegetables systematically with attention to weed and pest management, crop yields, harvest periods and pricing approaches. Inspired by the French intensive tradition of maraichage and by iconic American vegetable grower Eliot Coleman, author and farmer Jean-Martin shows by example how to start a market garden and make it both very productive and profitable.

Call of the Reed Warbler

Call of the Reed Warbler PDF Author: Charles Massy
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603588140
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 530

Book Description
“Charles Massy has written a definitive masterpiece that takes its place along with the writings of Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Masanobu Fukuoka, Humberto Maturana, and Michael Pollan. No work has more brilliantly defined regenerative agriculture and the breadth of its restorative impact upon human health, biodiversity, climate, and ecological intelligence." --Paul Hawken In Call of the Reed Warbler, Charles Massy explores regenerative agriculture and the vital connection between our soil and our health. It is the story of how a grassroots revolution—a true underground insurgency—can save the planet, help reduce and reverse climate change, and build healthy people and healthy communities, pivoting significantly on our relationship with growing and consuming food. Using his personal experience as a touchstone—from an unknowing, chemical-using farmer with dead soils to a radical ecologist farmer carefully regenerating a 2000-hectare property to a state of natural health—Massy tells the real story behind industrial agriculture and the global profit-obsessed corporations driving it. With evocative stories, he shows how other innovative and courageous farmers are finding a new way. At stake is not only a revolution in human health and in our communities, but the very survival of the planet. For farmers, backyard gardeners, food buyers, health workers, policy makers, and public leaders alike, Call of the Reed Warbler offers a tangible path forward and a powerful and moving paean of hope. It’s not too late to regenerate the earth. Call of the Reed Warbler shows the way forward for the future of our food supply, our planet, and our health.

Making the Most of Agriculture ... By T. Macklin ... W.E. Grimes ... and J.H. Kolb

Making the Most of Agriculture ... By T. Macklin ... W.E. Grimes ... and J.H. Kolb PDF Author: Theodore MACKLIN
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 542

Book Description


Lean in Agriculture

Lean in Agriculture PDF Author: Vibeke Fladkjaer Nielsen
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0429847432
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 181

Book Description
Responding to a recent surge in interest and application, this book is the first to comprehensively address how Lean thinking and tools can be implemented in agriculture and agribusiness. This tactical guide breaks down barriers, clearly depicting how improvement techniques originally developed for factories can derive the same powerful results on farms. Expert Lean farming consultants, Susanne Pejstrup and Vibeke Fladkjaer Nielsen, present these methods in a clear, easy-to-read style, accessible to farmers all over the world. Case studies from multiple farm types – including crops, pigs and dairy cattle – demonstrate how respect for people, continuous improvement, and visual management techniques can improve resilience and profitability on the farm. Richly illustrated, Lean in Agriculture appeals not only to farmers, but to farm workers, food processing companies, veterinarians, consultants and other stakeholders in the agribusiness sector. Key Features: Translates Lean thinking into agricultural terms. Takes a people-centric approach to a Lean agricultural production system. Serves as an implementation guide , with clear writing and concise, easy-to-follow instructions tailored to the agricultural sector. Illustrates agriculture-specific Lean implementation with a wide range of case studies and memorable images.