-PDF Download- Cultivating Revolution EBOOK

Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life

Author: David R. Montgomery

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2017-05-09

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0393608336

Finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award “A call to action that underscores a common goal: to change the world from the ground up.”—Dan Barber, author of The Third Plate For centuries, agricultural practices have eroded the soil that farming depends on, stripping it of the organic matter vital to its productivity. Now conventional agriculture is threatening disaster for the world’s growing population. In Growing a Revolution, geologist David R. Montgomery travels the world, meeting farmers at the forefront of an agricultural movement to restore soil health. From Kansas to Ghana, he sees why adopting the three tenets of conservation agriculture—ditching the plow, planting cover crops, and growing a diversity of crops—is the solution. When farmers restore fertility to the land, this helps feed the world, cool the planet, reduce pollution, and return profitability to family farms.

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.

The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution

Author: Andrew Mefferd

Publisher: New Society Publishers

Published: 2019-03-05

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1771422726

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Learn how to use natural no-till systems to increase profitability, efficiency, carbon sequestration, and soil health on your small farm. Farming without tilling has long been a goal of agriculture, yet tilling remains one of the most dominant paradigms; almost everyone does it. But tilling kills beneficial soil life, burns up organic matter, and releases carbon dioxide. If the ground could instead be prepared for planting without tilling, time and energy could be saved, soil organic matter increased, carbon sequestered, and dependence on machinery reduced. The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution is the comprehensive farmer-developed roadmap showing how no-till lowers barriers to starting a small farm, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, increases efficiency and profitability, and promotes soil health. This hands-on manual offers: Why roller-crimper no-till methods don't work for most small farms A decision-making framework for the four no-till methods: occulation, solarization, organic mulches grown in place, and applied to beds Ideas for starting a no-till farm or transitioning a working farm A list of tools, supplies, and sources. This is the only manual of its kind, specifically written for natural and small-scale farmers who wish to expand or explore chemical-free, regenerative farming methods.

Urban Agriculture

Author: David Tracey

Publisher: New Society Publishers

Published: 2011-04-26

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1550924737

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Urban Agriculture is packed with ideas and designs for anyone interested in joining the new food revolution. First-time farmers and green thumbs alike will find advice on growing healthy, delicious, affordable food in urban settings. From condo balconies to community orchards, cities are coming alive with crops. Get growing!

Green Revolution: Cultivating the Future without Soil

Author: Geremy Green

Publisher: Youcanprint

Published: 2023-10-24

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"Green Revolution: Cultivating the Future without Soil" is an essential and innovative guide aimed at introducing the reader to the fascinating world of hydroponics and aquaponics, two revolutionary cultivation methods that could redefine the future of agriculture. Hydroponics, which involves growing plants in nutrient-rich water solutions rather than soil, and aquaponics, which integrates plant cultivation with fish farming in a circular system, are explored in detail. The author guides the reader through the fundamental principles of these methods, illustrating how they work, what their advantages are, and how they can contribute to a more sustainable and efficient agriculture. The book also delves into the latest innovations in the field, showcasing how technology is evolving and how new tools and techniques are making these methods even more effective and accessible. From home systems to large-scale commercial setups, "Green Revolution" covers a wide range of applications, providing practical advice and tailored solutions for every need. In addition to technical details, the work emphasizes the importance of sustainable agriculture in a world where resources are becoming scarcer and the population is growing. The author explores how hydroponics and aquaponics can help address some of the greatest challenges of our time, such as food security, water conservation, and reducing the environmental impact of agriculture. Concluding with an overview of strategies to make hydroponic and aquaponic farming not only sustainable but also profitable, "Green Revolution" is an indispensable text for anyone interested in the future of agriculture and who wishes to contribute to a greener and more sustainable world.

The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution

Author: Matthew L. Jones

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2008-09-15

Total Pages: 809

ISBN-13: 0226409562

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Amid the unrest, dislocation, and uncertainty of seventeenth-century Europe, readers seeking consolation and assurance turned to philosophical and scientific books that offered ways of conquering fears and training the mind—guidance for living a good life. The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution presents a triptych showing how three key early modern scientists, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, and Gottfried Leibniz, envisioned their new work as useful for cultivating virtue and for pursuing a good life. Their scientific and philosophical innovations stemmed in part from their understanding of mathematics and science as cognitive and spiritual exercises that could create a truer mental and spiritual nobility. In portraying the rich contexts surrounding Descartes’ geometry, Pascal’s arithmetical triangle, and Leibniz’s calculus, Matthew L. Jones argues that this drive for moral therapeutics guided important developments of early modern philosophy and the Scientific Revolution.

The One-Straw Revolution

Author: Masanobu Fukuoka

Publisher: New York Review of Books

Published: 2010-09-08

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1590173929

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book,” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.” Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort. Whether you’re a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here—you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.

The Good Food Revolution

Author: Will Allen

Publisher: Avery

Published: 2013-07-02

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1592407609

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Previously published as a Gotham Books hardcover edition.

Dirt

Author: David R. Montgomery

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2007-05-14

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 0520933168

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.