Agriculture

Biorenewable Resources: Engineering New Products from Agriculture, 2nd Edition will provide comprehensive coverage of engineering systems that convert agricultural crops and residues into bioenergy and biobased products. This edition is thoroughly updated and revised to better serve the needs of the professional and research fields working with biorenewable resource development and production. Biorenewable resources is a rapidly growing field that forms at the interface between agricultural and plant sciences and process engineering. Biorenewable Resources will be an indispensable reference for anyone working in the production of biomass or biorenewable resources.

Presents essays that convey a range of views on corporate farming, examining whether the world can be fed without corporate farms, and if corporate farming is environmentally, economically, and morally sustainable.

Pest control with beneficial insects -- Why farm with native beneficial insects? -- Evaluating beneficial insect habitat -- Designing new beneficial insect habitat -- Native plant field borders -- Insectary plantings -- Hedgerows -- Cover crops -- Buffer strips -- Beetle banks and other shelters -- Reducing pesticide impacts -- Long-term habitat management.

Organic food: an overview / Katherine J. Chen -- National standards for organic food / National Organic Program -- Consumers should support organic foods / Alan Greene -- Consumers should not support organic foods / Rob Johnston -- Non-organic foods are coated with pesticides / Vegetarians in Paradise -- Organic fertilizers pose more health risks than pesticides / Stanley Feldman -- The mass-marketing of organic food presents an ethical dilemma / Katherine Mangu-Ward -- Large companies compromise the organic food movement / Family Farm Defenders -- Large companies play an important role in the organic food movement / Samuel Fromartz -- Organic food is worth the extra expense / Alex Johnson -- Organic food is not worth the extra expense / Andrew Ellison -- Government subsidies could lower the cost of organic food / Christy Harrison -- The organic food market faces many challenges / Kimberley Kindy -- "Natural" food labels are not the same as "organic" labels / Stepfanie Romine -- Organic farming offers learning opportunities for volunteer workers / Tracie Cone -- Organic farm workers are as mistreated as non-organic farm workers / Jason Mark.

Midwestern gardeners and landscapers are becoming increasingly attracted to noninvasive regional native wildflowers and plants over popular nonnative species. The Midwestern Native Garden offers viable alternatives to both amateurs and professionals, whether they are considering adding a few native plants or intending to go native all the way. Native plants improve air and water quality, reduce use of pesticides, and provide vital food and reproductive sites to birds and butterflies, that nonnative plants cannot offer, helping bring back a healthy ecosystem.

Thousands of years of poor farming and ranching practices-and, especially, modern industrial agriculture-have led to the loss of up to 80 percent of carbon from the world's soils. That carbon is now floating in the atmosphere, and even if we stopped using fossil fuels today, it would continue warming the planet. In The Soil Will Save Us, journalist and bestselling author Kristin Ohlson makes an elegantly argued, passionate case for "our great green hope"-a way in which we can not only heal the land but also turn atmospheric carbon into beneficial soil carbon-and potentially reverse global warming. As the granddaughter of farmers and the daughter of avid gardeners, Ohlson has long had an appreciation for the soil. A chance conversation with a local chef led her to the crossroads of science, farming, food, and environmentalism and the discovery of the only significant way to remove carbon dioxide from the air-an ecological approach that tends not only to plants and animals but also to the vast population of underground microorganisms that fix carbon in the soil. Ohlson introduces the visionaries-scientists, farmers, ranchers, and landscapers-who are figuring out in the lab and on the ground how to build healthy soil, which solves myriad problems- drought, erosion, air and water pollution, and food quality, as well as climate change. Her discoveries and vivid storytelling will revolutionize the way we think about our food, our landscapes, our plants, and our relationship to Earth.

The chemical-based conventional agriculture industry claims that the synthesized concoctions they sell as pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides are safe when used as directed, but does the scientific evidence truly support their assertions? Organic agriculturist and lecturer André Leu delves into a wealth of respected scientific journals to present the peer-reviewed evidence that proves the claims of chemical companies and pesticide regulators are not all they seem. Leu translates technical jargon into layman s terms to break down the five most-repeated myths about pesticide safety, refuting them using scientific data. The pesticide industry argues that agriculture, and the global population itself, cannot survive without its products, but Leu warns that we are at risk unless we break free of their toxic hold and turn to more natural methods of pest and weed regulation.

Pesticide exposure has long been a cause for concern, and with good reason. Studies have shown that all persons, but especially children, pregnant women, farmers, farmworkers, and the elderly, may experience negative health effects from pesticide exposure. These effects may include acute poisoning, cancer, neurological damage, birth defects, reduced sperm count, suppressed immune systems, and reproductive and developmental harm. This book is a comprehensive examination of pesticide use, pesticide harm, and alternatives to harmful pesticides.
Levine highlights the role of farming, because a substantial majority―70 percent or more annually―of pesticides are applied in agricultural uses, thereby making their way into the food chain and into the water supply. More than 20 types of pesticides have been detected in U.S. groundwater, and it is believed that nearly 100 have the potential to invade our municipal water systems. Some level of pesticide contamination has been detected in every state, in both urban and agricultural areas.

Despite a history of several decades of pesticide regulation, continuous innovation, and considerable practical experience with using pesticides in agriculture, the environmental impact of pesticide use continues to be of serious concern.

Discussing the range of effects of pesticides on food and human safety, water quality, wildlife, and pest management, this book explores the agricultural, economic, and regulatory factors that affect pesticide use. It examines crop and pest ecology, integrated pest management principles, and emerging analytical tools to improve the efficacy and cost-efficiency of pest control. Expert contributions describe the current status of pesticides issues and those related to pest management. The book summarizes advances and trends in the crop protection industry, such as integrated pest management, hybrid seed and generic pesticide production, improved pesticide formulations, and plant biotechnology.

From the Publisher: A century after the birth of Rachel Carson, the world faces a new environmental disaster, from a chemical similar to DDT. This time the culprit appears to be IMD, or imidacloprid, a relatively new but widely used insecticide in the United States. Many beekeepers and researchers blame IMD for Colony Collapse Disorder, which has wiped out 23% of America's beehives. Even trace amounts make bees unable to fly back to their hive. Since honeybees are essential to the production of most major food crops, their demise could spell catastrophe. In a riveting, scientific/political detective story, Michael Schacker examines the evidence and offers a plan to save the bees. Like An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring, A Spring without Bees is both a powerful cautionary tale and a call to action.

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. It is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century.

n Since Silent Spring Frank Graham describes the background of a remarkable woman and scientist, the genesis of her book, and her reaction to the great controversy. He goes on to tell how the pesticide question stands today. He reports the mounting evidence, worldwide, that confirms the dangers Rachel Carson saw - and the essential questions which still have not been studied.

Rachel Carson, founder of the modern environmental movement, began work on her seminal book Silent Spring in the late 1950s, when a dizzying array of synthetic pesticides had come into use. Leading this chemical onslaught was the insecticide DDT. Effective against crop pests as well as insects that transmitted human diseases such as typhus and malaria, DDT had at first appeared safe. But as its use expanded, alarming reports surfaced of collateral damage to fish, birds, and other wildlife. Silent Spring was a chilling indictment of DDT and its effects, and it shocked the public and forced the government to take action despite a withering attack on Carson from the chemicals industry. The book awakened the world to the heedless contamination of the environment and eventually led to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and to the banning of DDT and a host of related pesticides.
ISBN

Based on a symposium on the topics posed in Rachel Carson's Silent spring, held in Philadelphia, Aug. 1984.