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This timely book focuses on the liberalization of agricultural policy and questions whether it is compatible with the goal of achieving economic and environmental sustainability in the European Union. It presents an invaluable contribution to the growing literature on the sustainability and policy aspects of trade liberalization, focusing on European agriculture.Agriculture, Trade and the Environment discusses quantitative methods for the assessment of agriculture-environment trade-offs for policy analysis at the firm, regional or national levels.It also presents the experience of countries in Europe, with particular regard to the impact of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and the repercussions of the Uruguay Round. Using a wide range of analytical and quantitative tools, country case studies examine agricultural areas in Austria, Scotland, Italy, Spain, Greece and Estonia.The authors then go on to look at future developments in an enlarged EU context.They conclude that efficient policies for environmental management in the EU need to be tailored to fit local conditions.Any attempt to impose uniform policies across a region as environmentally and economically diverse as Europe will have widely divergent and unintended consequences.

This book will prove invaluable to academics and students with an interest in agricultural economics, environmental and ecological economics and the European Union. ... Read more

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Over the past two decades a growing movement has emerged to question the role of the agricultural establishment in promoting practices that contribute to such problems as topsoil depletion, groundwater contamination, the decline of family farms, escalating costs of production, and the disintegration of economic and social conditions in rural communities. Now gaining increasing support and acceptance within mainstream agriculture, this movement for sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals - environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity.

This text is written for both advanced undergraduate and graduate students in food and agricultural resources, technology and planning and related areas including economics, sociology and environmental studies. It will also be of interest to the many professionals in industries concerned with food and agriculture technology, management and sustainable food and agriculture systems, such as specialists in project management, information systems, systems analysis and simulation of systems. ... Read more

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Contributed articles. ... Read more

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Sustainable agriculture embodies many concepts in its attempt to integrate all the aspects of farming systems into a holistic system. This book explores the processes that occur within the components of a sustainable system and shows where we can build upon our existing knowledge to develop the concepts of sustainable agriculture into the new conventional agriculture. Well-known researchers examine a variety of aspects, including production goals, environmental considerations, and economics, to build a knowledge base that allows readers to see where changes in agriculture must be made and how challenges can be met. They compare existing systems against definitions of sustainability and pinpoint those areas where improvements can be made in current systems to further the concepts of sustainability. ... Read more

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Reproducing Chinese Culture in Diaspora describes how a group of anti-communist Chinese nationals managed to establish a farming community in Thailand's northern hills after voluntary exile from communist China in 1949. Though successful from an agricultural sustainability standpoint, this community of Chinese exiles has rigidly maintained its cultural ideals, driving away younger generations and ultimately threatening to derail the community's continued existence. ... Read more

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The increase in the world population and changes in welfare have led to an enormously expanding demand for food. In the industrialized world, food surpluses rather than shortages are a problem together with adverse environmental impacts from the overuse of chemicals and excessive exploitation of agricultural land. In the developing world, food production cannot keep up with population growth and the gap between demand and supply is growing. This book explores the theme of sustainable agricultural development in the developing world, with a particular focus on crop protection. Includes chapters on the ecology of food production, on sustainable agriculture and crop protection methods, on the economics of food production and more. ... Read more

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It is only recently that the implications of declining biodiversity for sustainable agricultural production and environmental protection have been recognized. However, while justifiable concern is expressed at the need to conserve and prevent from extinction the larger flora and fauna of the world, the importance of microorganisms and invertebrates in the stable functioning of ecosystems has attracted less overt attention. Nevertheless, this subject is now recognized as of major significance for a number of issues, such as maintenance of soil fertility and provision of natural enemies for the biological control of pests and pathogens.
This book addresses a number of these key issues and is based on a workshop organized by CAB International in association with the Committee on the Application of Science to Agriculture, Forestry and Aquaculture (CASAFA) of the International Council of Scientific Unions, the Commonwealth Science Council, and the Third World Academy of Sciences. Four main subject areas are covered: the importance of invertebrates and microorganisms as components of biodiversity: the importance of biodiversity in sustaining soil productivity; the importance of biodiversity to pest occurrence and management; and biotechnology and biodiversity among invertebrates and microorganisms. ... Read more

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Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sciences as diverse as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy, and social sciences. Indeed, sustainable agriculture decipher mechanisms of processes that occur from the molecular level to the farming system to the global level at time scales ranging from seconds to centuries. For that, scientists use the system approach that involves studying components and interactions of a whole system to address scientific, economic and social issues. In that respect, sustainable agriculture is not a classical, narrow science. Instead of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats problem sources. Because most actual society issues are now intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world. This book series gathers review articles that analyze current agricultural issues and knowledge, then propose alternative solutions. It will therefore help all scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers and politicians who wish to build a safe agriculture, energy and food system for future generations.

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A collection of reports on successfully promoting the linking up of small-scale, experimental farmers so that they can learn from one another. ... Read more

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Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) - the conversion of molecular nitrogen into ammonia - is one of the most important reactions in ecology and agriculture. It is performed exclusively by microbes (prokaryotes) that live in symbiosis with plants. This book summarizes the latest research on this reaction, the participating microbes and the genetics of how their relevant genes could be transferred into the plants. In the light of a more sustainable and less ecologically damaging agriculture, this is becoming an increasingly pressing issue. ... Read more

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This is the first comprehensive and up-to-date reference on the science, mechanism, methodology, and application of allelopathy. The objective of this practical reference is to report on the latest advances by inviting leading scientists to contribute in specific fields. The volume is organized under three major subsections: History of allelopathy, Allelochemicals, allelopathic mechanisms, and bioassays, and Application of allelopathy in agriculture and forestry.

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Reproducing Chinese Culture in Diaspora describes how a group of anti-communist Chinese nationals managed to establish a farming community in Thailand's northern hills after voluntary exile from communist China in 1949. Though successful from an agricultural sustainability standpoint, this community of Chinese exiles has rigidly maintained its cultural ideals, driving away younger generations and ultimately threatening to derail the community's continued existence. ... Read more