The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Agriculture
Edited By Jules Pretty OBE, University of Essex, UK
'A collection of essays from some of the world's leading experts in sustainable agriculture ...This is a fascinating read.'
Spore
Hardback
Our agricultural and food systems are not meeting everyone's needs, and despite great progress in increasing productivity over the past century, hundreds of millions of people remain hungry and malnourished. This book describes a different form of agriculture: one founded more on ecological principles and which is also more harmonious with people, their societies and cultures.
Edited by the world's leading expert on sustainable agriculture, this volume brings together the most influential scholarship in the field. The book maps out the complex subject area of sustainable agriculture and introduces and explains key and hard-to-find literature. It covers theoretical developments and critical appraisals of evidence, addressing what is not sustainable about current or past agricultural and food systems, as well as studies of transitions towards agricultural and rural sustainability at farm, community, regional, national and international levels, and through food supply chains.
This highly accessible one-of-a-kind collection is the essential student and practitioner reference text in sustainable agriculture.
'This volume brings together the most influential scholarship in the field, containing both theoretical developments and critical appraisals of evidence. Essential reading for students and anyone who wants to promote sustainable development'
Leisa Magazine
'[T]he book is a mine of information'
Livestock Science
CONTENTS (Expand Contents)
Part 1: Agrarian and Rural Perspectives
The Post-War Task
Thinking Like a Mountain
The Unsettling of America
Ecological Literacy
An Amish Perspective
Becoming Native to this Place
Creating Social Capital
Part 2: Agroecological Perspectives
Reality Cheques
The External Costs of Agricultural Production in the United States
From Pesticides to People: Improving Ecosystem Health in the Northern Andes
Agroecology and Agroecosystems
The Doubly Green Revolution
Part 3: Social Perspectives
Reversals, Institutions and Change
The Hawkesbury Experience: Tales from a Road Less Travelled
Social Capital and the Collective Management of Resources
Gateway to the Global Garden: Beta/Gamma Science for Dealing with Ecological Rationality
Ecological Basis for Low-toxicity Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in Rice
Part 4: Perspectives from Industrialized Countries
Landscapes Lost and Found
The Farm as Natural Habitat
Diet and Health: Diseases and Food
Coming in to the Foodshed
Part 5: Perspectives from Developing Countries
Rethinking Agriculture For New Opportunities
Soil Recuperation in Central America: How Innovation was Sustained after Project Intervention
Sustainable Rural Life and Agroecology, Santa Catarina State, Brazil
Lessons of Cuban Resistance
Benefits from Agroforestry in Africa, with Examples from Kenya and Zambia
Reducing Food Poverty by Increasing Agricultural Sustainability in Developing Countries
Professor Jules Pretty is Head of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex. His books include The Pesticide Detox (2004), Agri-Culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature (2002), The Living Land (1998), Regenerating Agriculture (1995), The Hidden Harvest (1992, co-authored) and Unwelcome Harvest (1991, co-authored).