Environmental Aspects of Agriculture, Agriculture & Food Supply Policies, Agriculture - General & Miscellaneous, Agricultural Management & Techniques, Agricultural Technology & Equipment, Agricultural Economics

From the ground up

Name: From the ground up
Author: Helena Norberg-Hodge,Peter Goering,John Page
ISBN: 9781856499941

by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Peter Goering, John Page

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Overview

Modern industrial agriculture is in crisis. In our obsession with 'efficiency' and short-term profit, we are losing all real connection with the natural world. As a result, the dream of global abundance promised by the introduction of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and hybrid seeds is becoming a nightmare of health risks, degraded land and ailing communities. The way we produce our food is destructive and quite simply unsustainable.

From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture sets the decline of agriculture within the broader context of industrialisation as a whole, and explores some of the fundamental principles which underlie the 'growth-at-any-cost' thinking of modern society. At the same time, it documents the growing public distrust of conventional agricultural practices, and highlights some of the most promising alternatives leading to more sane, environmentally healthy ways of producing food.

This book is a valuable reference for those concerned with the future of agriculture - in the industrialised countries as well as in the South, where agricultural development continues to be modelled on the industrial ideal.

About the Author, Helena Norberg-Hodge,Peter Goering,John Page

Helena Norberg-Hodge is Director of the Ladakh Project and the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC).

Peter Goering is Research Coordinator and John Page is Program Director, all at ISEC.

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Editorials

Michael Redclift

A concise and very readable book covering many of the contradictions of industrial agriculture.

Patrick Holden

A deeply disturbing and an inspiring book.

Booknews

The authors present their views of the problems with what they term industrial agriculture in eight short chapters that outline the drive to homogenize, standardize, and centralize agriculture; the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides; the development of new seeds, including with biotechnology; the environmental cost of large equipment; and the impact this type of farming has had on traditional family farms. Not surprisingly, the five chapters on ecological agriculture that follow make it seem eminently ethical by comparison. Distributed by Palgrave. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)