The Next Green Revolution: Essential Steps to a Healthy, Sustainable Agriculture / Edition 1

by Raymond P Poincelot, Jim Horne, Maura Mcdermott

Overview

Explore the benefits of and necessity for sustainable agriculture!

Here is an easy-to-read, practical introduction to sustainable agriculture: what it means and why it is needed. It is the first book to synthesize the goals of sustainable agriculture into eight comprehensive steps. The Next Green Revolution presents a convincing critique of our current agricultural system and an introduction to an alternative system which gives more consideration to future generations. Interwoven through the book are Dr. Horne's reflections on social justice, quality of life, and how farmers and rural communities are inextricably linked.

The Next Green Revolution draws on the unique perspective of Dr. James E. Horne, President of a leading nonprofit agriculture organization, the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture. It is inspired by his experience as a traditional agriculturalist and educator coming to grips with the failings of the conventional system and searching for an alternative. Writing in the first person, he describes growing up in a sharecropper family in Oklahoma, running his own ranch, and consulting with farmers as an agricultural economist. He shares what he learned as the Kerr Center experimented with new “sustainable” approaches to old problems on the Center's ranch/farm, and his experiences working with the USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

With The Next Green Revolution, you will explore:

• the major problems of contemporary industrial agriculture
• definitions of sustainable agriculture
• the historical roots of sustainable agriculture
• the politics of sustainable agriculture
• sustainable agriculture practices
• changes needed to encourage a sustainable agriculture

and the eight steps to sustainable agriculture, which address:

• soil health and erosion
• water quality and use
• organic waste management
• crop and livestock adaptation
• biodiversity
• environmentally benign pest management
• energy use
• farm diversification
• profitability

The Next Green Revolution is a well-researched introduction to the field, written with a minimum of jargon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781560228868
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/16/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Raymond P Poincelot, Jim Horne, Maura Mcdermott

Table of Contents

Foreword , Preface , Chapter 1. On Trial: Industrial Agriculture , Indictment I , Indictment II , Indictment III , The Solution , Chapter 2. The Remedy: Sustainable Agriculture , Nature versus Industry , The Sustainable Era , What Is Sustainable? , Down to Earth: Eight Steps to the Next Green Revolution , Chapter 3. Down to Earth: Step 1—Create and Conserve Healthy Soil , Not Just Dirt , The Good Earth , Healing the Soil , Chapter 4. Clear, Clean Water: Step 2—Conserve Water and Protect Its Quality and Step 3—Manage Organic Wastes to Avoid Pollution , Washing the Water , Don't Drink Up the Pond , Manage Organic Wastes to Avoid Pollution , Don't Waste the Waste , Chapter 5. Think Local: Step 4—Select Plants and Animals Adapted to the Environment , Agroecology , Battling the Hill , The Right Cow for the Right Grass , Think Local , Chapter 6. All Creatures Great and Small: Step 5—Encourage Biodiversity , Stewards of Life , Endangered at Home , Terminator Tech , Chapter 7. The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Step 6—Manage Pests with Minimal Environmental Impact , From Conception Until Death , The Killing Fields , The Chemical Treadmill , It's Nature's Way , The Team Approach , Interactions , Chapter 8. Power: Step 7—Conserve Nonrenewable Energy Resources , Agriculture's Achilles' Heel , Low-Input Farming , Chapter 9. Money: Step 8—Increase Profitability and Reduce Risk , A Penny Saved , A Penny Earned , Ecological Economics , Chapter 10. Two Roads , Attachment to the Local Community and Care for the Surrounding Land , Notes , Bibliography , I

What People are Saying About This

Jill Shore Auburn

TIMELY, INFORMATIVE, READABLE. . . . Speaks to mainstream farmers in a very effective manner. Offers a vision of a more successful agriculture that supports both farmers and rural communities, and an eight-step plan for achieving it. A BLUEPRINT FOR FARMERS WHO WANT TO IMPROVE PROFITS AND STEWARDSHIP . . . should also be read by researchers, policymakers, and anyone who has an interest in the future of agriculture.(Jill Shore Auburn, PhD, former Associate Director, University of California Sustainable Agriculture Program; currently with USDA)