Farming for Our Future


Book Description

Farming for Our Future examines the policies and legal reforms necessary to accelerate the adoption of practices that can make agriculture in the United States climate-neutral or better. These proven practices will also make our food system more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Agriculture's contribution to climate change is substantial--much more so than official figures suggest--and we will not be able to achieve our overall mitigation goals unless agricultural emissions sharply decline. Fortunately, farms and ranches can be a major part of the climate solution, while protecting biodiversity, strengthening rural communities, and improving the lives of the workers who cultivate our crops and rear our animals. The importance of agricultural climate solutions can not be underestimated; it is a critical element both in ensuring our food security and limiting climate change. This book provides essential solutions to address the greatest crises of our time.




Systems Research for Agriculture


Book Description




Environmentally Sensitive Road Maintenance Practices for Dirt and Gravel Roads


Book Description

Over 1.6 million miles of dirt and gravel roads exist within the United States providing a vital part of the nation's transportation system. An environmentally sensitive road maintenance practice is a practice that when implemented reduces the adverse effect of a road on the environment by treating the cuase of the problem and is in keeping wtih the natural landscape. This illustrated field guide provides examples of environmentally sensitive maintenance practices, which if implemented reduce erosion and sediment, maintain subsurface hydrologic connectivity, restore drainage density to more natural conditions, and eliminate diversion potential. It is organized to identify visual signs and problems associated with CAUSES and SOLUTIONS for the most commonly encountered road problens (road surface, ditch, cutbank, etc.) Highway inspectors, public works construction inspectors, to include some construction and building inspectors and engineers that must meet compliance with specifications, building codes, and other regulations, Additionally, City engineers, concrete masonry contractors, road maintenance specialists and workers, and technicians, as well as County Road Supervisors may ber interested in this volume. Students pursuing degree programs for Civil Engineering or certificates of study for Industrial Maintenance Technology or Public Works training in clases such as Roadway Asset Management Essentials, or Inspecting Pavement Markings or certified Public Infrastructure Inspector courses may be interested in this print field guide as a handy reference. Related products: Sign Up for the Public Roads print subscription to begin receiving valuable guidance bimonthly from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/750-005-00000-4?ctid= Drainage Manual can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/024-003-00177-5 Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils, Version 3.0 is available for purchase here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/001-000-04758-2 Converging Waters: Integrating Collaborative Modeling With Participatory Processes to Make Water Resources Decisions can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-022-00349-5 Gravel Roads Construction and Maintenance Guide is available for purchase here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/050-001-00348-1 Designing Sustainable Off-Highway Vehicle Trails: An Alaska Train Manager's Perspective is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/001-001-00701-3 Other resources that may be of interest produced by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/199 Other publications produced by the U.S. Forest Service within the United States Department of Agriculture can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/819 , .




Food Policy in the United States


Book Description

This book offers a broad introduction to food policies in the United States. Real-world controversies and debates motivate the book's attention to economic principles, policy analysis, nutrition science and contemporary data sources. It assumes that the reader's concern is not just the economic interests of farmers, but also includes nutrition, sustainable agriculture, the environment and food security. The book's goal is to make US food policy more comprehensible to those inside and outside the agri-food sector whose interests and aspirations have been ignored. The chapters cover US agriculture, food production and the environment, international agricultural trade, food and beverage manufacturing, food retail and restaurants, food safety, dietary guidance, food labeling, advertising and federal food assistance programs for the poor. The author is an agricultural economist with many years of experience in the non-profit advocacy sector, the US Department of Agriculture and as a professor at Tufts University. The author's well-known blog on US food policy provides a forum for discussion and debate of the issues set out in the book.




Crop Production


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A Revolution Down on the Farm


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At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation. Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come. Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.










Sustainable Agriculture


Book Description