Books in Environmental Conservation & Protection

A Revolution Down on the Farm The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929

<p>At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation. Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come. Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.</p>

Birth, Death, and a Tractor Connecting An Old Farm To a New Family

IndieFab Book of the Year Award Winner!<br><br>Maine Literary Award Winner!<br><br>What happens when the last son leaves the farm, and the farmer grows old? Do the stories of six generations whisper into silence, as dust darkens the windows of the empty barn? <br><br>Or can a young boy, running in yellow boots through abandoned fields, bring new life back to the farm? There is much to explore, and time to wonder. There is also, for a short while, a gentle old man, atop a faded John Deere tractor, and the possibility of connection...<br><br>An unforgettable true story of history and hope on a small family farm in Somerville, Maine, from its settling in the early 1800s to its perilous transfer to a new farm family in 2008. <br>Chronicling the history of seven generations, it is a reminder of the role small farms have played in our national and family histories, and a challenge to find innovative ways to re-connect our communities to this rich but threatened resource.

Dirt to Soil One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture

<b>“A regenerative no-till pioneer.”—NBC News<br></b><br><b><i>“</i>We need to reintegrate livestock and crops on our farms and ranches, and Gabe Brown shows us how to do it well.”—Temple Grandin, author of <i>Animals in Translation</i></b><br><b><br>“<i>Dirt to Soil</i> is the [regenerative farming] movements’s holy text.”—<i>The Observer</i></b><br><br>Gabe Brown didn’t set out to change the world when he first started working alongside his father-in-law on the family farm in North Dakota. But as a series of weather-related crop disasters put Brown and his wife, Shelly, in desperate financial straits, they started making bold changes to their farm. Brown—in an effort to simply survive—began experimenting with new practices he’d learned about from reading and talking with innovative researchers and ranchers. As he and his family struggled to keep the farm viable, they found themselves on an amazing journey into a new type of farming: regenerative agriculture.<br><br>Brown dropped the use of most of the herbicides, insecticides, and synthetic fertilizers that are a standard part of conventional agriculture. He switched to no-till planting, started planting diverse cover crops mixes, and changed his grazing practices. In so doing Brown transformed a degraded farm ecosystem into one full of life—starting with the soil and working his way up, one plant and one animal at a time.<br><br>In <i>Dirt to Soil</i> Gabe Brown tells the story of that amazing journey and offers a wealth of innovative solutions to restoring the soil by laying out and explaining his “five principles of soil health,” which are:<br><br><br><br><ul><li>Limited Disturbance</li><li>Armor</li><li>Diversity</li><li>Living Roots</li><li>Integrated Animals</li></ul><br>The Brown’s Ranch model, developed over twenty years of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil. Using regenerative agricultural principles, Brown’s Ranch has grown several inches of new topsoil in only twenty years! The 5,000-acre ranch profitably produces a wide variety of cash crops and cover crops as well as grass-finished beef and lamb, pastured laying hens, broilers, and pastured pork, all marketed directly to consumers.<br><br>The key is how we think, Brown says. In the industrial agricultural model, all thoughts are focused on killing things. But that mindset was also killing diversity, soil, and profit, Brown realized. Now he channels his creative thinking toward how he can get more <i>life</i> on the land—more plants, animals, and beneficial insects. “The greatest roadblock to solving a problem,” Brown says, “is the human mind.”<br><b><br>See Gabe Brown―author and farmer―in the award-winning documentaries <i>Kiss the Ground </i>and <i>Common Ground</i>!</b>

Gardens of Earthly Delight The History of Deer Parks

This is a highly original, profusely illustrated, and well researched account of deer parks. With humility and respect Fletcher touches on errors commonly made by archaeologists and historians, taking issue with long held theories while drawing on his lifetime working with deer to formulate plausible explanations as to, for example, why they were not domesticated until the 20th century, how parks evolved from haga and elricks, why deer parks were created throughout Eurasia, why fallow so rapidly ousted red deer from medieval British parks, and much more. <br>He ranges from meat sharing amongst chimpanzees to the symbolism of venison as the elite product of hunting, ensconced within seven centuries of the English Royal Warrant, through the 300 year long prohibition on its sale within England and the continuing illegality of selling hunted venison within the USA, the aristocratic pursuit of park breaking, and the imposition of the Black Act. He stresses the cross-cultural importance of rulers being seen to hunt, compares ancient Chinese parks, the colossal Asian ring hunts, and the water hunts of Germany as expressions of man's urge to contain deer. <br>Within Britain, which has for a thousand years held more deer parks than any other part of the world, he describes how deer were fed, transported, enclosed, captured, castrated and housed, and how they were hunted in the confines of parks. The recent theory as to the use of trenches for handling deer in medieval Scotland is explored. The international symbolism of white deer, collared deer and enclosed deer is discussed. Recently, parks provided deer for English carted hunts and Scottish sporting estates; now we recognise their ecological and recreational value. We learn how parklands may be our spiritual home - the environment in which we are most content - and that parks have always been, in a fashion, designed landscapes.

Mountain Men Restoring North Carolina Deer

The Economics of Sustainable Urban Water Management: the Case of Beijing UNESCO-IHE PhD Thesis

<p>Rapid population growth, limited water availability, climate variability and environmental pollution together cause a significant challenge to provide sufficient water to urban residents in a sustainable and effective way. Advanced water treatment technology can contribute to the solution of problems physically, but it may not ensure sustainable operation of water systems. </p> <p>The obstacles to sustainable water supply and services often are from non-technical problems such as low cost recovery, lack of sound pricing systems and sustainable financing for increasing service coverage. The financial and economic factors could be a large barrier to the operation of water systems. Through the case of Beijing, the book demonstrates how to use economics in managing urban water systems. The research employs the methods of cost benefit analysis, linear programming and rough set analysis. An integrated and quantitative analysis of the economic, environmental and social effects of water systems considering the viewpoints of different stakeholders is carried out, which is rare in the existing literature. </p> <p>The research shows that economics contributes to identifying the non-technical problems in water systems and can help decision makers to make choices that are consistent with the long-term well being of the community. </p>

The Economics of Sustainable Urban Water Management: the Case of Beijing UNESCO-IHE PhD Thesis

<p>Rapid population growth, limited water availability, climate variability and environmental pollution together cause a significant challenge to provide sufficient water to urban residents in a sustainable and effective way. Advanced water treatment technology can contribute to the solution of problems physically, but it may not ensure sustainable operation of water systems. <br>The obstacles to sustainable water supply and services often are from non-technical problems such as low cost recovery, lack of sound pricing systems and sustainable financing for increasing service coverage. The financial and economic factors could be a large barrier to the operation of water systems. Through the case of Beijing, the book demonstrates how to use economics in managing urban water systems. The research employs the methods of cost benefit analysis, linear programming and rough set analysis. An integrated and quantitative analysis of the economic, environmental and social effects of water systems considering the viewpoints of different stakeholders is carried out, which is rare in the existing literature. <br>The research shows that economics contributes to identifying the non-technical problems in water systems and can help decision makers to make choices that are consistent with the long-term well being of the community.</p>

The Economics of Sustainable Urban Water Management: the Case of Beijing UNESCO-IHE PhD Thesis

Rapid population growth, limited water availability, climate variability and environmental pollution together cause a significant challenge to provide sufficient water to urban residents in a sustainable and effective way. Advanced water treatment technology can contribute to the solution of problems physically, but it may not ensure sustainable op