Showing titles in Agricultural & Food Sciences

It’s time to think big about small farms. Award-winning author and “green leader” (Grist) Ben Hartman shares practical how-to tips, personal stories, and surprising examples of cutting-edge farmers and innovators around the world to show us how.

Renowned business author David Magee fuses both the interesting history and philosophy of one of America's most well-known companies in this entertaining aid for business management. While other American businesses are crumbling under low-cost foreign competition, John Deere Company thrives by maintaining such ideas as building the best product, being open to change and innovation, listening rather than leading, and keeping virtuous business practices.

This book is for anyone wondering how our farmers and ranchers can raise cattle while also caring for the local and global environment. It includes a foreword by Gabe Brown, the bestselling author of Dirt to Soil.

Permaculture is the gardening and farming roadmap of the future. It teaches you to work with nature so that the Earth will be your ally, not your foe. It’s a must-have for every person concerned about the environment and sustainable living. It contains valuable lessons and strategies critical for the future of life on Earth.

In Cows Save the Planet, journalist Judith D. Schwartz looks at soil as a crucible for our many overlapping environmental, economic, and social crises. Schwartz reveals that for many of these problems - climate change, desertification, biodiversity loss, droughts, floods, wildfires, rural poverty, malnutrition, and obesity - there are positive, alternative scenarios to the degradation and devastation we face. In each case, our ability to turn these crises into opportunities depends on how we treat the soil. Drawing on the work of thinkers and doers, renegade scientists and institutional whistleblowers from around the world, Schwartz challenges much of the conventional thinking about global warming and other problems. For example, land can suffer from undergrazing as well as overgrazing, since certain landscapes, such as grasslands, require the disturbance from livestock to thrive.

This book will appeal to foodies & those who are deprived of cookbooks in the audio format. Molecular Gastronomy documents the sensory phenomena of eating and uses basic physics to put to bed many culinary myths. This audiobook presents pieces conventional wisdom - such as whether it is better to make a stock by placing meat in already boiling water, or water before it is boiled - and gives its history before making scientific pronouncements.

Yearning for self-sufficiency? Eager for a rewarding small business opportunity? Beekeeping isn't as complex as it seems. With the right guide, anyone can master the basics and succeed. No technical jargon, no experience needed! Here is your comprehensive, practical guide to beekeeping – master the fundamentals, maximize honey harvest, and contribute to environmental efforts.

Being among bees is a full-body experience, Mark Winston writes. Bee Time presents his reflections on three decades spent studying these remarkable creatures, and on the lessons they can teach about how humans might better interact with one another and the natural world, from the boardroom to urban design to agricultural ecosystems.

A Soil Owner's Manual: How to Restore and Maintain Soil Health is about restoring the capacity of your soil to perform all the functions it was intended to perform. This book is not another fanciful guide on how to continuously manipulate and amend your soil to try and keep it productive. This book will change the way you think about and manage your soil.

In Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, Vandana Shiva explores the devastating effects of commercial agriculture and genetic engineering on the food we eat, the farmers who grow it, and the soil that sustains it. This prescient critique and call to action covers some of the most pressing topics of this ongoing dialogue, from the destruction of local food cultures and the privatization of plant life, to unsustainable industrial fish farming and safety concerns about corporately engineered foods.

If you're looking for a way to become self-sufficient in terms of your food supply, then pay attention...Establishing a mini-farm in your backyard is an immensely beneficial and lucrative initiative. It will help you to become self-sufficient in terms of your food supply and also allow you to live a much more sustainable life. Regardless of how large or small your yard is, you can build a farm on it. You will learn how to get started with backyard farming; in addition to the mini-farm, you can raise bees and create a profitable honey business!

Bombastic headlines about science and technology are nothing new. To cut through the constant stream of information and misinformation on social media, or grab the attention of investors, or convince governments to take notice, strident headlines or bold claims seem necessary to give complex, nuanced information some wow factor. But hype has a dark side, too. It can mislead. It can distract. It can blinker us from seeing what is actually going on.

A couple working six months per year for 50 hours per week on 20 acres can net $25,000 to $30,000 per year with an investment equivalent to the price of one new medium-sized tractor. Seldom has agriculture held out such a plum. In a day when mainline farm experts predict the continued demise of the family farm, the pastured poultry opportunity shines like a beacon in the night, guiding the way to a brighter future.

Do you think raising chickens is only for farmers with acres of land? In reality: You can enjoy fresh eggs and feathery companions right in your backyard, no matter the size!

Known as Monsanto's Roundup by consumers, and as glyphosate by scientists, the world's most popular weed killer is used everywhere from backyard gardens to golf courses to millions of acres of farmland. For decades it's been touted as safe enough to drink, but a growing body of evidence indicates just the opposite, with research tying the chemical to cancers and a host of other health threats. In Whitewash, veteran journalist Carey Gillam uncovers one of the most controversial stories in the history of food and agriculture, exposing new evidence of corporate influence.

Beekeeping is an old practice that even the ancient Egyptians liked to do. In essence, beekeeping really means nurturing and supporting adult bee populations that produce honey and other bee products such as beeswax or royal jelly. Beekeeping can be extremely rewarding as a hobby, and there’s nothing quite so delicious as homegrown honey. But you should also keep in mind that beekeeping is no walk in the park - you need all the help you can get.

Do you want to start beekeeping and harvesting your own honey? Worried about getting stung? Or are you not sure how to set up and establish your hive? Then the Beekeeping Guide for Beginners is for you! From ordering your hive and the first exciting days, to maintaining a productive and efficient long-term colony, with this book you’ll be able to kickstart your beekeeping hobby and start harvesting your own honey in no time at all!

One of the few voices to challenge The Guardian's George Monbiot on the future of food and farming (and the restoration of nature) is academic, farmer and author of A Small Farm Future Chris Smaje. In Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future, Smaje presents his defense of small-scale farming and a robust critique of Monbiot’s vision for an urban and industrialized future.

To grow produce of the highest nutritional quality the essential minerals lacking in our soil must be replaced, but this re-mineralization calls for far more attention to detail than the simple addition of composted manure or NPK fertilizers. The Intelligent Gardener demystifies the process, while simultaneously debunking much of the false and misleading information perpetuated by both the conventional and organic agricultural movements. In doing so, it conclusively establishes the link between healthy soil, healthy food, and healthy people.

Acclaimed health journalist and National Geographic contributor Maryn McKenna documents how antibiotics transformed chicken from local delicacy to industrial commodity. Consumed more than any other meat in the United States, chicken is emblematic of today's mass food-processing practices and their profound influence on our lives and health. Tracing its meteoric rise from scarce treat to ubiquitous global commodity, McKenna reveals the astounding role of antibiotics in industrial farming, documenting how and why "wonder drugs" revolutionized the way the world eats.