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This reader gathers fifteen of the most important essays written in the field of southern environmental history over the past decade. Ideal for course use, the volume provides a convenient entree into the recent literature on the region as it indicates the variety of directions in which the field is growing. As coeditor Paul S. Sutter writes in his introduction, "recent trends in environmental historiography--a renewed emphasis on agricultural landscapes and their hybridity, attention to the social and racial histories of environmental thought and practice, and connections between health and the environment among them--have made the South newly attractive terrain. This volume suggests, then, that southern environmental history has not only arrived but also that it may prove an important space for the growth of the larger environmental history enterprise."

The writings, which range in setting from the Texas plains to the Carolina Lowcountry, address a multiplicity of topics, such as husbandry practices in the Chesapeake colonies and the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. The contributors' varied disciplinary perspectives--including agricultural history, geography, the history of science, the history of technology, military history, colonial American history, urban and regional planning history, and ethnohistory--also point to the field's vitality. Conveying the breadth, diversity, and liveliness of this maturing area of study, Environmental History and the American South affirms the critical importance of human-environmental interactions to the history and culture of the region. ... Read more

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Understand sustainable development from economic, ecological, and social perspectives

As world population continues to increase, the need grows for a safe, sustainable supply of food. Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability: Considerations for the Future provides the latest research results and vital information on the process of producing an enduring food supply that is healthy for consumers and does not harm the environment. Internationally respected experts provide diverse perspectives on the issues and problems in striving for a safe, continuous food supply that is stable for future generations. Researchers and practitioners will gain insight into the current and oncoming challenges in providing food for the hungry around the world.

The neglect of environmental factors would inevitably lead to the collapse of both industry and agriculture. Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability: Considerations for the Future focuses on the economic, ecological, and sociological issues that intertwine with efforts for effective agricultural sustainability in the coming years. This crucial look to the future provides a clear view of what needs to be done in long-term land use to ensure sustainability of resources, economic viability, and environmental preservation. This important resource is well-referenced and has several figures, tables, and graphs to clearly illustrate ideas.

Topics in Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability: Considerations for the Future include:

Sustainability of agriculture issues, such as economic returns, environmental preservation, and enhancing quality of life
Opportunities for alleviating poverty and stopping land degradation through agroforestry
Management principles to improve and restore soil
Whole-system modeling approach to work for sustainable agricultural systems
Global wheat mega-environments and sustainability
Enhancing the productivity and sustainability of the rice-wheat cropping system
Overcoming the use of the outmoded plow
Holistic model systems to help farm families become more food secure
The economic impact of bacterial wilt and drought stresses in banana production
The sale of environmentally friendly products in developed countries

Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability: Considerations for the Future is an essential resource for crop breeders, geneticists, agronomists and horticulturists, educators, and students and belongs in every agricultural university library.

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Edited by a recognized leader in the field, Herbicide-Resistant Crops is the first book to cover all of the issues related to the controversial topic of herbicide-resistant crops. It provides extensive discussions of the modern biotechnological methods that have been used to develop such crops, and reviews the implications - both positive and negative - of developing crops that are resistant to herbicides. The creation and anticipated applications of specific herbicide-resistant crops are also discussed. In addition, the book covers the potential impact of herbicide-resistant crops on weed management practices and the environment, and presents issues related to the regulation and economics of these crops. The editor has brought together a diverse group of professionals, representing the several distinct areas impacted by the new technology of herbicide-resistant crops. The wide range of viewpoints presented in this book creates a balanced and complete survey, providing a notable contribution to the literature. ... Read more

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The topic of fruit and seed production is given a broad and comprehensive treatment, with chapters covering the onset of flowering through to the development and growth of fruits and seeds, and finally to ecological and evolutionary aspects of fruiting. ... Read more

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Depending on who is telling it, the history of Euro-American farmers on the Great Plains has been a story of either agricultural triumph or ecological failure—an optimistic tale of taming nature for human purposes or a dire account of disrupting nature and suffering the environmental consequences.

In On the Great Plains, author Geoff Cunfer poses an alternative scenario: that people were not the masters of nature on the Great Plains. Land use in America's vast interior prairies has stayed remarkably stable throughout the twentieth century, changing little as droughts came and went, as farmers shifted from horses to tractors, and as federal subsidies and fluctuating crop prices transformed the economics of farming. An equilibrium between natural and human forces emerged as farmers plowed and planted the same amount of cropland during most of this period, maintaining two-thirds of the Great Plains in unplowed, native vegetation.

To support his theory, Cunfer looks at the entire Great Plains (450 counties in ten states), tapping historical agricultural census data paired with GIS mapping to illuminate land use on the Great Plains over 130 years. Coupled with several community and family case studies, this database allows Cunfer to reassess the interaction between farmers and nature in the Great Plains agricultural landscape. ... Read more

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The application of ecological theory and conservation biology to agricultural ecosystems has become an important and growing research field and undergraduate course component in recent years. This book is both an academic textbook and practical guide to farm conservation, and has evolved from the authors' extensive teaching experience. It covers the ecology of farmed land, how agricultural practices influence the environment, how agriculture has changed over time and how the species that inhabit the agri-environment have adapted. It also covers the history of agricultural policy and subsidies and the development of agri-environment schemes. A number of different farming systems are discussed, as are the difficulties in determining their relative merits. Guidance is offered on how to produce a workable farm conservation plan, and the final chapters look to the future and the development of new, greener farming systems. ... Read more

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World Agriculture and the Environment presents a unique assessment of agricultural commodity production and the environmental problems it causes, along with prescriptions for increasing efficiency and reducing damage to natural systems. Drawing on his extensive travel and research in agricultural regions around the world, and employing statistics from a range of authoritative sources including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization,the author examines twenty of the world?s major crops, including beef, coffee, corn, rice, rubber, shrimp, sorghum, tea, and tobacco. For each crop, he offers comparative information including:

? a ?fast facts? overview section that summarizes key data for the crop
? main producing and consuming countries
? main types of production
? market trend information and market chain analyses
? major environmental impacts
? management strategies and best practices
? key contacts and references

Customer Reviews (3)

Qualification
How is someone who works for the World Wildlife Fund qualified to write a book and explain the global agriculture industry?

Quick review
World Agriculture and Environment in my opinion is a very interestig book, in which you can find, besides the basic information of agricultural production, techniques that help to reduce damage to natural systems, and also this book gives important evaluations of modern agriculture and its failure.

Superb reference
This is a superb and unique reference.It provides an incredible amount of detail on crops that enter world trade, and their impact on the environment.
The very best thing about this book is that it is not strident and does not blatantly advocate a particular political agenda.It is written in a scientific, objective tone that makes it far more convincing than the rhetorical works.Only when he comes to tobacco (a crop that ruins the environment AND then ruins the consumers) does he use a few value-laden words!
The reader is struck by what a mess the world is in, and how easily we could fix a lot of that.The book provides enormous detail on soil erosion, chemical use, biodiversity reduction, and the rest of our woes, but it presents equal detail on how to prevent those problems.Only a few crops (notably cotton, salmon, chocolate) would be hard to manage well.
Two social themes stand out:first, the very rapid concentration of commodity trade in the hands of a very few firms; second, the degree to which governments subsidize production-at-any-cost as opposed to production-with-environmental-protection.(Subsidizing includes nonlegal subsidies, such as letting the rich get away with breaking environmental laws and dumping huge costs on poorer neighbors.)One cannot escape the conclusion that changing this subsidy structure would fix most of the damage, worldwide.
Environmentalists should think more about subsidies!
Meanwhile, what can a concerned reader do?The book tells how to seek out shade-grown coffee, responsibly raised beef and paper, and so on.It is much harder, at least in the US, to find decently-produced soybeans or corn or wheat, but you can do it.Cotton is a special problem, and the alternatives to it are mostly worse.The hemp advocates will be vocal!
We are in such a mess, and it would be so easy to do so much....This is not a time to lose hope or give up.By providing the big picture, this book should make every concerned citizen stop and think. The few errors I could spot in the book are trivial ones.
This is an absolute must-read and must-have for anyone who works on problems of production and environment or on problems of world food supply and health. ... Read more

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Membership of the IAAE is individual rather than organizational, and is motivated by a genuine wish to learn and achieve sustainable development through agricultural and rural progress in all regions. The theme of the 25th conference, Reshaping Agriculture's Contribution to Society was chosen to embrace the broadest possible set of contemporary issues covering these concerns, with four specific sub themes (1) strategies for reducing poverty, (2) efficiency in food and farming systems, (3) food safety and security, and (4) environmental management. ... Read more

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This book is a collection of state-of-the-art reviews on the global problems of diffuse water pollution from agriculture, which affects the water quality of rivers, lakes, reservoirs and the oceans. It includes chapters on eutrophication, phosphorus, nitrogen, manure, heavy metals, carbon/persistent organic pollutants and soil/siltation problems. The book is broken down into three parts and reflects the opinions of the world's experts in these subjects. ... Read more

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This is the third of three volumes based on the 2nd Pan-Pacific Conference on Pesticide Chemistry. The proposed title examines metabolism and residue analysis methods of environmental pesticides. ... Read more