Product Description
From Reclamation to Sustainability tells the story of four places in the West--the Arkansas Valley and the Grand Valley of Colorado, the Truckee-Carson basins of California and Nevada, and the Yakima Basin in Washington--where development and use of water, primarily for irrigated agriculture, have been central to economic and social development. In these places (and many others), the reclamation vision that helped settle the West now competes with a vision of a sustainable West.

All four regions tell of the essential role water has played in western agriculture and the importance of this agriculture for settlement of much of the West. They also exemplify the many difficulties of turning prairie and desert into productive croplands, and MacDonnell describes the sometimes extraordinary human committment and effort that made this possible.

Now, however, western water resources have been developed beyond their sustainable capacity in an attempt to irrigate as much land as possible, and MacDonnell illustrates the consequences of this overdevelopment, including declining rural communities, dewatered streams incapable of supporting native species, and degraded water quality. He also provides examples of efforts to repair some of the damages and of the challenges involved in such restoration.

MacDonnell argues that sustainable use of the West's water resources depends on reducing the gap between diverted water and used water, restoring the functional ecological integrity of water sources, allowing uses of developed water to change, and effective collaborative public/private processes that help reconcile competing interests in water. He concludes that the manner in which the West moves toward sustainable use of its limited water resources--particularly as it affects irrigated agriculture--matters at least as much as achieving sustainable use. It matters because the choices we make will have important consequences for the future West. ... Read more

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Explores the agricultural, economic, and regulatory factors that affect pesticide use. Examines crop and pest ecology, integrated pest management principles, and emerging analytical tools to improve the efficacy and cost-efficiency of pest control applications. ... Read more

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There is widespread public concern about the effects of nitrate derived from farming on water quality and public health. But research on nitrate during the past decade has revealed wide discrepancies between public perceptions and reality. The main problems from nitrate are ecological changes in coastal and estuarine waters and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere. This gas, largely derived from nitrate, is a threat to the ozone layer in the stratosphere and is also a greenhouse gas. This book builds on Farming, Fertilizers and the Nitrate Problem (CABI, 1991) by Addiscott, Whitmore and Powlson but has been restructured to take account of new developments and to bring out more clearly the role of politicians and economists in the 'nitrate problem'. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Comprehensive overview that's well written
This book caught my attention because of its title and my interest in nitrogen and the soil environment.It provided a well written overview of environmental aspects of soil nitrogen that revolves around good science.

Must read for anyone involved with basic issues surrounding soil nitrates and water quality or concerns about NOx gas emissions. ... Read more

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This text uses government and industry documents to show genetic engineering technologies being developed for use in agricultural crops are far from failsafe or risk-free. It explains the scale of what is going, and argues for full public accountability and control of these developments. ... Read more

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Apart from food and raw materials, agriculture can also provide ancillary benefits such as landscapes, biodiversity, cultural heritage and thriving rural communities. This book offers a state-of-the-art overview of strategies for sustainable management practices and their implementation through the adoption of suitable instruments. Such practices aim to sustain and support the multiple functions provided by agriculture and natural resources in the rural countryside.The authors explore the value of alternative governance structures and examine the design of policy models and institutional mechanisms for a range of different countries and agricultural methods. The empirical results allow them to identify successful examples as well as recognize practices which have failed. They can then transfer positive policies to geographical areas or production systems where effective and efficient strategies for the sustainable management of natural resources are urgently needed. In doing so, the authors hope to improve the design, identification and implementation of appropriate policy instruments to help sustain the rural economy in the future. They also aim to strengthen the establishment of markets for nature which overcome institutional constraints.This timely new book explores emerging perspectives on multifunctionality in agriculture and the rural environment. It will be widely read by academics, researchers and policymakers with an interest in agricultural and resource economics, environmental governance and sustainable development. ... Read more

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Reports from interdisciplinary areas including microbiology, biochemistry, animal nutrition, agricultural engineering and economics are integrated in this proceedings.

The major theme of this book is environmental preservation by controlling release of undesirable greenhouse gases to realize the sustainable development of animal agriculture. Technology exists for the effective collection of methane generated from anaerobic fermentation of animal effluent and its use as a biomass energy source. Fossil fuel consumption can be reduced and there can be increased use of locally available energy sources. In addition, promoting environmentally-conscious agriculture which does not rely on the chemical fertilizer can be realized by effective use of animal manure and compost products. ... Read more

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Nature and agriculture both shape the European countryside and one of the main challenges for the years to come will be to strengthen their interaction for the future development of rural areas. In this valuable and highly topical book, the authors demonstrate how economics and ecology can play a critical role in maintaining and sustaining this relationship.

The book identifies the dilemmas facing European agriculture and explores their economic and ecological consequences. The authors believe a better understanding of these problems will be crucial in recognizing the potential options for the future role of agriculture and nature policy and will guide the identification of suitable policy instruments. They highlight current threats to the relationship between agriculture and nature - such as abandonment and intensification - and demonstrate how these problems can be resolved by a rational policy mix. The book also provides extensive empirical evidence from four case studies and concludes by scrutinizing the major changes in market conditions and the Common Agricultural Policy which could upset this important but fragile balance between agriculture and nature.

Providing a state-of-the-art overview of current thinking on the relationship between agriculture and nature in the context of EU policy, this book will be welcomed by policymakers and those studying and working in the fields of agricultural and resource economics, geography, and agri-business. ... Read more

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The foretelling of a scientific revolution has persistently raised expectations on the potential of agrobiotechnology, and first-generation agrobiotechnologies have had to confront such expectations in the field and in the market. The Economics and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech: A Global Perspective explains how well they have fared. It brings together leading authors from around the world who have analyzed the production, environmental and economic impacts of first generation agrobiotechnologies. By pooling experiences across various countries, time periods, crops, and traits this global panel synthesizes a complete picture of the impacts of first generation agrobiotechnologies. The Economics and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech: A Global Perspective offers this assessment, accounting for the full range of differences in geography, weather, pests, farm structures and institutions that had not been completed previously, and answers these important questions:
*What were the factors driving the widespread adoption of these first generation agrobiotechnologies?
*What were their economic and environmental impacts?
*How were such impacts distributed among innovators and adopters, developed and developing countries, exporters and importers, domestic and foreign consumers?
*How were such impacts and their distribution affected by market structures and government policies?

Customer Reviews (1)

Valuable and revealing work
This is an extremely useful and informative volume that should play an important role in informing the debate on the commercial release of GM varieties in Europe and elsewhere, where the potential benefits are yet to be realized.
- Susannah Bolton,
Rothamsted Research ... Read more

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Globalization of the world economy portends a wide rangeof benefits to citizens of all countries.However, thisground-breaking book finds that the impacts of trade liberalizationand globalisation appear to have a negative impact on agriculturalsustainability in developing countries.

This book explores the proposition that globalisation and tradeliberalization is an international win-win game and finds that thereis substantial evidence to suggest that there could be a range ofagricultural problems and negative impacts on rural communities andthe environment in poorer countries.The authors use cutting-edgeresearch from Brazil, Bolivia, Burkino Faso, Indonesia, ThePhilippines and Thailand to suggest that special attention needs to bepaid to local issues in poor countries in the face of globalisation.

Sustainable Agriculture and Environment will prove invaluable toscholars and policymakers in the areas of environmental and ecologicaleconomics. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Mushroom News, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2007. The length of the article is 2464 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Environmental credit trading: can farming benefit?(Reprint)
Author: Marc Ribaudo
Publication: Mushroom News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 55Issue: 11Page: 16(5)

Article Type: Reprint

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This volume comprises the proceedings of the First International Rehovot Conference on Modern Agriculture and the Environment. It is a unique book, covering the broad spectrum of environmental problems related to agriculture, from chemical pesticides, means to reduce their utilization and some of the main alternatives to their overuse and misuse, through pollution caused by chemical fertilizers, aquaculture and heavy metals, treatment of wastewater, recycling of municipal and agricultural wastes, to modelling and bioremediation of agricultural pollution, as well as economic and policy aspects of natural resources. Illustrated with numerous international case studies, it is intended for agriculturists, researchers, students, policy-makers and environmentalists. ... Read more

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Using the Chesapeake Bay as a case study, Agriculture and Phosphorus Management discusses the impact and management of phosphorus in watersheds. Although urban and other sources contribute phosphorus to the Bay, the papers presented focus on how its role in agriculture impacts water quality. They review the new guidelines and legislation slated for implementation by 2002 directed towards sustainable nutrient management and strategies for implementing them.Phosphorus, an essential element for plant and animal growth, has long been recognized as necessary to eliminate deficiencies and to maintain profitable crop and livestock production. It can increase the biological productivity of surface waters by accelerating eutrophication. Human activities accelerate the rate of eutrophication - principally by increasing the rate at which phosphorus enters the aquatic system. Written by experts from a range of disciplines Agriculture and Phosphorus Management provides a deeper understanding of the diverse, dynamic, and complex factors controlling the impact of agricultural phosphorus management on production and water quality. Each contributor addresses the questions: what do we know, what do we still need to know, where are the major gaps in our knowledge, and how does the information relate to phosphorus management strategies in the Bay Watershed, and other watersheds? As a result this series of papers provides a unique collection of information of regional, national, and international significance and gives prioritized phosphorus management options for not only the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, but for watersheds around the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

State of the Practice
The volume contains a timely and well balanced overview of the state of the practice in understanding and managing agricultural phosphorous.Particularly relevant are contributions addressing the saturation of soil sorbed phosphorous, and its implications for "threshold" behavior in P fate and transport for land application of animal waste. A current and useful over view and reference for current applied research. ... Read more