Seeds of Sustainability

Seeds of Sustainability

Author: Pamela A. Matson

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2012-09-26

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1610911776

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Seeds of Sustainability is a groundbreaking analysis of agricultural development and transitions toward more sustainable management in one region. An invaluable resource for researchers, policymakers, and students alike, it examines new approaches to make agricultural landscapes healthier for both the environment and people. The Yaqui Valley is the birthplace of the Green Revolution and one of the most intensive agricultural regions of the world, using irrigation, fertilizers, and other technologies to produce some of the highest yields of wheat anywhere. It also faces resource limitations, threats to human health, and rapidly changing economic conditions. In short, the Yaqui Valley represents the challenge of modern agriculture: how to maintain livelihoods and increase food production while protecting the environment. Renowned scientist Pamela Matson and colleagues from leading institutions in the U.S. and Mexico spent fifteen years in the Yaqui Valley in Sonora, Mexico addressing this challenge. Seeds of Sustainability represents the culmination of their research, providing unparalleled information about the causes and consequences of current agricultural methods. Even more importantly, it shows how knowledge can translate into better practices, not just in the Yaqui Valley, but throughout the world.


Sowing the Seeds for Sustainability

Sowing the Seeds for Sustainability

Author: Rachel Wiseman

Publisher: IUCN

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 2831706327

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Agriculture is one of the most important influences on biological diversity. Conventional agriculture has heavily contributed to reducing the diversity of ecosystems, species and genes, but it has also created new diversity. The eighth Interactive Session of the 2nd World Conservation Congress dealt with a broad spectrum of agricultural issues from around the world and examined the linkages between biodiversity, economy and society. This publication represents the opinions and issues raised by those participating in the Session, and it contains both the papers prepared by presenters and contributions from those unable to attend.


Sowing Seeds in the Desert

Sowing Seeds in the Desert

Author: Masanobu Fukuoka

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1603584188

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Argues that the Earth's deteriorating condition is man-made and outlines a way for the process to be reversed by rehabilitating the deserts using natural farming.


African Seed Enterprises

African Seed Enterprises

Author: Paul van Mele

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9781845938444

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In most developing countries, good quality seed is hard to obtain and farmers struggle to save seed from one year to the next. This title takes a people-centred look at the companies, public agencies and family farms that are taking on this role and making a difference to food security across Africa.


The Seed Underground

The Seed Underground

Author: Janisse Ray

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1603583068

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Discusses the loss of fruit and vegetable varieties and the genetically modified industrial monocultures being used today, shares the author's personal experiences growing, saving, and swapping seeds, and deconstructs the politics and genetics of seeds.


Growing Sustainable Together

Growing Sustainable Together

Author: Shannon Brescher Shea

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Published: 2020-06-16

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1623174724

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Tips, tools, advice, and activities for raising eco-friendly kids while nurturing compassion, resilience, and community engagement. Drawing from cutting-edge social-science research, parent interviews, and experiential wisdom, science writer and parenting blogger Shannon Brescher Shea shows how green living and great parenting go hand in hand to teach kids kindness, compassion, resilience, and grit--all while giving them the lifelong tools they need to be successful, engaged, and independent. Growing Sustainable Together is packed with easy tips, expert parenting advice, and practical hands-on activities for the toddler years up through the early teens. The enriching activities, resource guides, and recommended book lists in each chapter distill core sustainablility knowledge, like: Understanding energy efficiency and renewables Instilling anti-waste and anti-consumerist values Learning where our food comes from Developing a lifelong love for environmental activism, volunteering, and community engagement The book concludes with a practical appendix that gives talking points for engaging teachers, school systems, and fellow parents in eco-friendly activities.


The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food

The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food

Author: Joseph Tychonievich

Publisher: Ten Speed Graphic

Published: 2021-02-02

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1984857274

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first graphic novel guide to growing a successful raised bed vegetable garden, from planning, prepping, and planting, to troubleshooting, care, and harvesting. “A fun read packed with practical advice, it’s the perfect resource for new gardeners, guiding you through every step to plant, grow, and harvest a thriving and productive food garden.”—Joe Lamp’l, founder and creator of the Online Gardening Academy Like having your own personal gardening mentor at your side, The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food is the story of Mia, an eager young professional who wants to grow her own vegetables but doesn't know where to start, and George, her retired neighbor who loves gardening and walks her through each step of the process. Throughout the book, "cheat sheets" sum up George's key facts and techniques, providing a handy quick reference for anyone starting their first vegetable garden, including how to find the best location, which vegetables are easiest to grow, how to pick out the healthiest plants at the store, when (and when not) to water, how to protect your plants from pests, and what to do with extra produce if you grow too much. If you are a visual learner, beginning gardener, looking for something new, or have struggled to grow vegetables in the past, you'll find this unique illustrated format ideal because many gardening concepts--from proper planting techniques to building raised beds--are easier to grasp when presented visually, step by step. Easy and entertaining, The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food makes homegrown vegetables fun and achievable.


Saving Seeds

Saving Seeds

Author: Dan Jason

Publisher: Harbour Publishing

Published: 2020-02

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 9781550179002

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Part garden guide, part manifesto, this is an invitation to preserve our dynamic, sustainable food supply--one seed at a time.


Cultivating Knowledge

Cultivating Knowledge

Author: Andrew Flachs

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2019-11-05

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0816539634

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A single seed is more than just the promise of a plant. In rural south India, seeds represent diverging paths toward a sustainable livelihood. Development programs and global agribusiness promote genetically modified seeds and organic certification as a path toward more sustainable cotton production, but these solutions mask a complex web of economic, social, political, and ecological issues that may have consequences as dire as death. In Cultivating Knowledge anthropologist Andrew Flachs shows how rural farmers come to plant genetically modified or certified organic cotton, sometimes during moments of agrarian crisis. Interweaving ethnographic detail, discussions of ecological knowledge, and deep history, Flachs uncovers the unintended consequences of new technologies, which offer great benefits to some—but at others’ expense. Flachs shows that farmers do not make simple cost-benefit analyses when evaluating new technologies and options. Their evaluation of development is a complex and shifting calculation of social meaning, performance, economics, and personal aspiration. Only by understanding this complicated nexus can we begin to understand sustainable agriculture. By comparing the experiences of farmers engaged with these mutually exclusive visions for the future of agriculture, Cultivating Knowledge investigates the human responses to global agrarian change. It illuminates the local impact of global changes: the slow, persistent dangers of pesticides, inequalities in rural life, the aspirations of people who grow fibers sent around the world, the place of ecological knowledge in modern agriculture, and even the complex threat of suicide. It all begins with a seed.