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Against The Wall
by Simon YatesSimon Yates is 'the one who cut the rope' in Joe Simpson's award-winning account of their epic struggle for survival in Touching the Void. Afterwards, Yates continued mountaineering on the hardest routes. Perhaps the most testing of all was one of the world's largest vertical rockfaces, the 4, 000-ft East Face of the Central Tower of Paine in Chile. Battered by ferocious storms and almost crippled with fear just below the summit, Yates and his three companions are forced into a nightmare retreat. After resting in a nearby town, they return to complete the climb, but Yates knows he still has to face one of life's greatest challenges...
Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization
by Richard ManningIn this bold book, Richard Manning narrates a fascinating revisionist history of agriculture, from the domestication of plants and animals ten thousand years ago to today's corporate megafarms. Instead of a bucolic Ur-myth, Manning portrays an enterprise that was from its inception expansionist, and that did not so much accompany colonialism as drive it. Drawing on the work of anthropologists, biologists, archaeologists, and historians, as well as on his own extensive research, he traces a commodification of grain that has reached its apex in contemporary agribusiness and that has helped to build some of the most familiar -- and dysfunctional -- features of our political and economic landscape.
Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization
by Richard ManningIn this provocative, wide-ranging book, Against the Grain, Richard Manning offers a dramatically revisionist view of recent human evolution, beginning with the vast increase in brain size that set us apart from our primate relatives and brought an accompanying increase in our need for nourishment. For 290,000 years, we managed to meet that need as hunter-gatherers, a state in which Manning believes we were at our most human: at our smartest, strongest, most sensually alive. But our reliance on food made a secure supply deeply attractive, and eventually we embarked upon the agricultural experiment that has been the history of our past 10,000 years.The evolutionary road is littered with failed experiments, however, and Manning suggests that agriculture as we have practiced it runs against both our grain and nature's. Drawing on the work of anthropologists, biologists, archaeologists, and philosophers, along with his own travels, he argues that not only our ecological ills-overpopulation, erosion, pollution-but our social and emotional malaise are rooted in the devil's bargain we made in our not-so-distant past. And he offers personal, achievable ways we might re-contour the path we have taken to resurrect what is most sustainable and sustaining in our own nature and the planet's.
Against the Seas: Saving Civilizations from Rising Waters
by Mary SoderstromAn incredible read.… While unflinching in her analysis, Soderstrom nevertheless gifts us with a message of hope and resilience. — MAUDE BARLOW, activist and author of Still Hopeful: Lessons from a Lifetime of Activism. What can we learn about coping with rising sea levels from ancient times?The scenario we are facing is scary: within a few decades, sea levels around the world may well rise by a metre or more as glaciers and ice caps melt due to climate change. Large parts of our coastal cities will be flooded, the basic outline of our world will be changed, and torrential rains will present their own challenges. But this is not the first time that people have had to cope with threatening waters, because sea levels have been rising for thousands of years, ever since the end of the last Ice Age. Stories told by the Indigenous people in Australia and on the Pacific coast of North America, and those found in the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as Roman and Chinese histories all bear witness to just how traumatic these experiences were. The responses to these challenges varied: people adapted by building dikes, canals, and seawalls; by resorting to prayer or magic; and, very often, by moving out of the way of the rushing waters. Against the Seas explores these stories as well as the various measures being taken today to combat rising waters, focusing on five regions: Indonesia, Shanghai, the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, the Salish Sea, and the estuary of the St. Lawrence River. What happened in the past and what is being tried today may help us in the future and, if nothing else, give us hope that we will survive.
Agave Spirits: The Past, Present, And Future Of Mezcals
by Gary Paul Nabhan David Suro Piñera“A manifesto…[and] a positive spin on the future of mezcal.” —Florence Fabricant, New York Times The agave plant was never destined to become tasteless, cheap tequila. All tequilas are mezcals; all mezcals are made from agaves; and every bottle of mezcal is the remarkable result of collaborations among agave entrepreneurs, botanists, distillers, beverage distributors, bartenders, and more. How these groups come together in this “spirits world” is the subject of this fascinating new book by the acclaimed ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan and the pioneering restauranteur David Suro Piñera. Join them as they delight in the diversity of the distillate agave spirits, as they endeavor to track down the more distant kin in the family of agaves, and as, along the way, they reveal the stunning innovations that have been transforming the industry around tequilas and mezcals in recent decades. The result of the authors’ fieldwork and on-the-ground interviews with mezcaleros in eight Mexican states, Agave Spirits shows how traditional methods of mezcal production are inspiring a new generation of individuals, including women, both in and beyond the industry. And as they reach back into a rich, centuries-long history, Nabhan and Suro Piñera make clear that understanding the story behind a bottle of mezcal, more than any other drink, will not only reveal what lies ahead for the tradition—including its ability to adapt in the face of the climate crisis—but will also enrich the drinking experience for readers. Essential reading for mezcal connoisseurs and amateurs interested in unlocking the past of a delightful distillate, Agave Spirits tells the tale of the most flavorful and memorable spirits humankind has ever sipped and savored. Featuring twelve illustrations by René Alejandro Hernández Tapia and indices that list common and scientific names for agave species, as well as the names of plants, animals, and domesticated agaves used in the production of distillates.
Agaves: Living Sculptures for Landscapes and Containers
by Greg StarrGardeners and garden designers are having a love affair with agaves. It's easy to see why—they're low maintenance, drought-tolerant, and strikingly sculptural, with an astounding range of form and color. Many species are strikingly variegated, and some have contrasting ornamental spines on the edges of their leaves. Fabulous for container gardening or in-the-ground culture, they combine versatility with easy growability. In Agaves, plant expert Greg Starr profiles 75 species, with additional cultivars and hybrids, best suited to gardens and landscapes. Each plant entry includes a detailed description of the plant, along with its cultural requirements, including hardiness, sun exposure, water needs, soil requirements, and methods of propagation. Agaves can change dramatically as they age and this comprehensive guide includes photos showing each species from youth to maturity—a valuable feature unique to this book.
Ageing, Wellbeing and Climate Change in the Arctic: An interdisciplinary analysis (Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research)
by Shahnaj Begum Marjaana Seppänen Paivi NaskaliThe Arctic and its unique natural resources have become objects of increasing concern. Rapid climate change and ageing of the population are transforming the living conditions in the region. This translates into an urgent need for information that will contribute to a better understanding of these issues. Ageing, Wellbeing and Climate Change in the Arctic addresses the important intersection of ageing, wellbeing and climate change in the Arctic region, making a key interdisciplinary contribution to an area of research on which little has been written, and limited sources of information are currently available. The book explores three key areas of discussion. First, various political issues that are currently affecting the Arctic, such as the social categorisation of elderly people. Second, the living conditions of the elderly in relation to Arctic climate change. Third, the wellbeing of elderly people in terms of traditional knowledge and lifestyles. The book also features contributions from a number of key researchers in the field which examine a broad range of case studies, including the impact of climate change on health in Lapland and elderly people and geographical mobility in Norway. This book will be of great interest to scholars of climate change, gerontology and social policy.
Agency in Earth System Governance
by Michele M. Betsill Tabitha M. Benney Andrea K. GerlakThe modern era is facing unprecedented governance challenges in striving to achieve long-term sustainability goals and to limit human impacts on the Earth system. This volume synthesizes a decade of multidisciplinary research into how diverse actors exercise authority in environmental decision making, and their capacity to deliver effective, legitimate and equitable Earth system governance. Actors from the global to the local level are considered, including governments, international organizations and corporations. Chapters cover how state and non-state actors engage with decision-making processes, the relationship between agency and structure, and the variations in governance and agency across different spheres and tiers of society. Providing an overview of the major questions, issues and debates, as well as the theories and methods used in studies of agency in earth system governance, this book provides a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers, as well as practitioners and policy makers working in environmental governance.
Agent-Based Modeling of Environmental Conflict and Cooperation
by Jürgen Scheffran Todd BenDorConflict is a major facet of many environmental challenges of our time. However, growing conflict complexity makes it more difficult to identify win-win strategies for sustainable conflict resolution. Innovative methods are needed to help predict, understand, and resolve conflicts in cooperative ways.Agent-Based Modeling of Environmental Conflict and Cooperation examines computer modeling techniques as an important set of tools for assessing environmental and resource-based conflicts and, ultimately, for finding pathways to conflict resolution and cooperation. This book has two major goals. First, it argues that complexity science can be a unifying framework for professions engaged in conflict studies and resolution, including anthropology, law, management, peace studies, urban planning, and geography. Second, this book presents an innovative framework for approaching conflicts as complex adaptive systems by using many forms of environmental analysis, including system dynamics modeling, agent-based modeling, evolutionary game theory, viability theory, and network analysis. Known as VIABLE (Values and Investments from Agent-Based interaction and Learning in Environmental systems), this framework allows users to model advanced facets of conflicts—including institution building, coalition formation, adaptive learning, and the potential for future conflict—and conflict resolution based on the long-term viability of the actors’ strategies.Written for scholars, students, practitioners, and policy makers alike, this book offers readers an extensive introduction to environmental conflict research and resolution techniques. As the result of decades of research, the text presents a strong argument for conflict modeling and reviews the most popular and advanced techniques, including system dynamics modeling, agent-based modeling, and participatory modeling methods. This indispensable guide uses NetLogo, a widely used and free modeling software package, to implement the VIABLE modeling approach in three case study applications around the world. Readers are invited to explore, adapt, modify, and expand these models to conflicts they hope to better understand and resolve.
Agent-Based Modeling of Sustainable Behaviors (Understanding Complex Systems)
by Juan Manuel Corchado Javier Bajo Amparo Alonso-Betanzos Noelia Sánchez-Maroño Oscar Fontenla-Romero J. Gary Polhill Tony CraigUsing the O. D. D. (Overview, Design concepts, Detail) protocol, this title explores the role of agent-based modeling in predicting the feasibility of various approaches to sustainability. The chapters incorporated in this volume consist of real case studies to illustrate the utility of agent-based modeling and complexity theory in discovering a path to more efficient and sustainable lifestyles. The topics covered within include: households' attitudes toward recycling, designing decision trees for representing sustainable behaviors, negotiation-based parking allocation, auction-based traffic signal control, and others. This selection of papers will be of interest to social scientists who wish to learn more about agent-based modeling as well as experts in the field of agent-based modeling.
Agents and Implications of Landscape Pattern: Working Models for Landscape Ecology
by Dean L UrbanThis is an ecology textbook focused on key principles that underpin research and management at the landscape scale. It covers (1) agents of pattern (the physical template, biotic processes, and disturbance regimes); (2) scale and pattern (why scale matters, how to ‘scale’ with data, and inferences using landscape pattern metrics); and (3) implications of pattern (for metapopulations, communities and biodiversity, and ecosystem processes). The last two chapters address emerging issues: urban landscapes, and adapting to climate change. This book stems from two graduate-level courses in Landscape Ecology taught at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. The subject has evolved over time, from a concepts-based overview of what landscape ecology is, to a more applied practicum on how one does landscape ecology. As landscape ecology has matured as a discipline, its perspectives on spatial heterogeneity and scale have begun to permeate into a wide range of other fields including conservation biology, ecosystem management, and ecological restoration. Thus, this textbook will bring students from diverse backgrounds to a common level of understanding and will prepare them with the practical knowledge for a career in conservation and ecosystem management.
Agnes Chase#s First Book of Grasses: The Structure of Grasses Explained for Beginners, Fourth Edition
by Lynn G. Clark Richard W. PohlFor almost seventy-five years, Agnes Chase's First Book of Grasses has been the classic guide to the structure of this complex group of plants. Clearly written and copiously illustrated with line drawings, the book is accessible to those with little or no botanical training, yet it also is respected by botanists as an authoritative introduction to agrostology.Last updated in 1959, the book now has been thoroughly revised to reflect current scientific knowledge, nomenclature, and classification. Divided into twelve lessons, the guide first surveys the basic vegetative and reproductive parts of a grass plant, then in succeeding lessons takes up increasingly more complex modifications. Formally recognized groups of grasses are discussed in a taxonomic context, with the principal focus on grass structures, particularly those of inflorescences and spikelets. Virtually all of the species discussed are illustrated with detailed line drawings. With the addition in this edition of a lesson on bamboos, coverage now extends to tropical regions and encompasses all major groups of grasses. The book also includes a short biography of Agnes Chase in the foreword and, for the first time in this edition, a glossary accompanies the appendices on grass classification.
Agrarholz – Schnellwachsende Bäume in der Landwirtschaft: Biologie - Ökologie - Management
by Maik Veste Christian BöhmDas Buch bietet eine umfassende aktuelle Zusammenfassung und Bewertung der bisherigen Forschungserfahrungen zum Thema Agrarholz und berücksichtigt sowohl Plantagenwirtschaft als auch agroforstliche Nutzungsformen. Es greift die verschiedenen Aspekte der Etablierung von Agrarholz in der Landwirtschaft aus Sicht der Pflanzenökologie und der Ökosystemforschung auf und diskutiert diese im Kontext mit der Produktivität und dem Agrarholz-Management. Zudem werden auch Aspekte der historischen Landnutzung, der Landschaftsplanung und des praktischen Flächenmanagements behandelt und wesentliche Grundlagen zur Biologie, Genetik, (Landschafts-)Ökologie, und der Nutzung von Agrarholz vermittelt. Zielgruppe sind Studierende und Lehrende der Agrar- und Forstwissenschaften, der (Landschafts)-Ökologie, der Umwelt-, Natur- und Landschaftsplanung, des Umwelt- und Ressourcenschutzes sowie Wissenschaftler, Vertreter von Fachbehörden und -verbänden, Naturschützer, Land- und Forstwirte und Anwender angrenzender Fachbereiche.
Agrarian Capitalism, War and Peace in Colombia: Beyond Dispossession (Routledge Studies in Global Land and Resource Grabbing)
by Jacobo GrajalesBased on extensive research conducted in Colombia since 2009, this book addresses the connection between land grabbing and agrarian capitalism, as well as the unfulfilled promises of peace and justice. While land remains a key resource at the core of many contemporary civil wars, the impact of high-intensity armed violence on the formation of agrarian capitalism is seldom discussed. Drawing on nearly 200 interviews, archival research, and geographical data, this book examines land grabbing and the role of violence in capital with a particular focus on one key actor in the Colombian civil war: paramilitary militias. This book demonstrates how the intricate ties between armed conflict and economy formation are obscured by the widespread belief that violence is a radical form of action, breaking with the normal course of society and disconnected from the legal economy. Under this view, dispossession is perceived as diametrically opposed to capitalist accumulation. This belief is enormously influential in precisely those bureaucratic agencies that are in charge of peacebuilding, both domestically and internationally. However, this narrow view of the relationship between armed violence and capitalism belies the close ties between plunder and lawful profit, and obscures the continuity between violent dispossession and the free market. By the same token, it legitimizes post-war inequality in the name of capitalist development. The book concludes by arguing that the promotion of radical democracy in the government of land and rural development emerges as the only reasonable path for pacifying a violent polity. The book is essential reading for students, scholars, and development aid practitioners interested in land and resource grabbing, agrarian capitalism, civil wars, and conflict resolution.
Agrarian Systems and Climate Change: Journeys of adaptation in the Global South
by Hubert Cochet Olivier Ducourtieux Nadège GaramboisThis book examines the link between global change and impacts and adaptation at the local level, combining a systemic approach and connecting different scales of analysis. It unravels the complex ties between the scenarios developed at global, continental, regional scales of analysis and farmers' concrete experiences, lived at the territorial level. In addition to this great discrepancy in terms of scales of analysis and understanding of processes, there is a need to relate the multi-generational scale of possible climatic changes to that of agricultural practices carried out on the agricultural season level. Based on the detailed study and comparison of a dozen contrasting local situations in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia, the authors highlight the processes and trajectories which explain the high exposure to the hazards of different groups of farmers, as well as their unequal capacity to adapt. They explain the causes of this vulnerability and illustrate the weight of past and current choices in terms of agricultural, environmental and trade policies. Finally, they present the adjustment modalities and the past and current transformations of peasant practices moving towards a reduction in exposure to hazards, a reduction in vulnerability, and better adaptation to global changes: climate change, demographic growth, increased competition for access to resources, changes in relative prices and market fluctuations, deregulation and decline in public support, etc. In conclusion, they outline possible paths in terms of adaptation and proposals for political measures to support producers.
Agribusiness and the Neoliberal Food System in Brazil: Frontiers and Fissures of Agro-neoliberalism (Earthscan Food and Agriculture)
by Antonio Augusto IorisDue to new production areas and persistent productivity gains, Brazil has consolidated its position as a global leader and even as a ‘model’ of commercial, integrated crop production. The country is now seen as an agricultural powerhouse that has a lot to offer in terms of reducing the prospect of a looming, increasingly global, food crisis. Agribusiness and the Neoliberal Food System in Brazil focuses on the intensification of Brazilian agribusiness as a privileged entry point into the politicised geography of globalised agri-food. Drawing on rich empirical analysis based around three fieldwork campaigns in the state of Mato Grosso, the book examines the connections between farming, markets and the apparatus of the state. The importance of agribusiness expansion within the wider politico-economic context of Brazilian neoliberalism is demonstrated, thus drawing broader conclusions about the main trends of agribusiness in the world today and providing recommendations for future research. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of agribusiness, neoliberalism and global food production, as well as those interested in Brazil and Latin America more generally.
Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change
by Christopher R. Bryant Mamadou A. Sarr Kénel DéluscaThis book deals with one of the major challenges facing human society and its governments, climate change and variability. The principal objective of the book is to explore how agricultural production through the actions primarily of farmers, including peasant farmers, adapt to these changing circumstances, what the limitations of adaptation are, how the process of adaptation varies between different territories (e. g. developed countries versus developing countries), and what are or can be the most effective roles for actors other than the farmers, including different levels of government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as professional associations of farmers and community organizations. The principal argument is threefold: 1) while there are significant differences between territories and countries in terms of the capacity of farmers (and the other actors) to engage in capacity building to be able to adapt effectively to climate change and variability, 2) the critical roles are those played out by the farmers themselves, but that 3) other actors can play an important role in accompanying farmers in their adaptation process, providing relevant and strategic information, counseling them and facilitating networking and meetings when appropriate. This effectively means that without engaging in the local adaptation processes governments can really only play effective roles by working with other actors at the local and regional levels. When it occurs, it can be very effective, but when it does not, farmers are left to their own devices (and even then, many are able to use their own creativity and local knowledge to survive and continue to develop). Essentially therefore, the secondary argument that is followed throughout the book is that adaptation is essentially a social process that requires an understanding of social processes and dynamics in each farming community and territory. It involves an understanding, for instance, of information diffusion processes in the different farming communities and territories, which provides a set of tools to promote and facilitate the adoption process in the context of adaptation to climate change and variability.
Agricultural Commercialization, Gender Equality and the Right to Food: Insights from Ghana and Cambodia (Earthscan Food and Agriculture)
by Christophe Golay Elisabeth Prügl Joanna Bourke Martignoni Christophe Gironde Dzodzi TsikataThis volume explores agricultural commercialization from a gender equality and right to food perspective. Agricultural commercialization, involving not only the shift to selling crops and buying inputs but also the commodification of land and labour, has always been controversial. Strategies for commercialization have often reinforced and exacerbated inequalities, been blind to gender differences and given rise to violations of the human rights to food, land, work and social security. While there is a body of evidence to trace these developments globally, impacts vary considerably in local contexts. This book systematically considers these dynamics in two countries, Cambodia and Ghana. Profoundly different in terms of their history and location, they provide the basis for fruitful comparisons because they both transitioned to democracy in the early 1990s, made agricultural development a priority, and adopted orthodox policies of commercialization to develop the sector. Chapters illustrate how commercialization processes are gendered, highlighting distinctive gender, ethnic and class dynamics in rural Ghana and Cambodia and the different outcomes these generate. They also show the ways in which food cultures are changing and the often-problematic impact of these changes on the safety and quality of food. Specific policies and legal norms are examined, with chapters addressing the development and implementation of frameworks on the right to food and land administration. Overall, the volume brings into relief multiple dimensions shaping the outcomes of processes of commercialization, including gender orders, food cultures, policy translation, national and sub-national policies, corporate investments and programmes, and formal and informal legal norms. In doing so, it offers insight not only on our case countries, but also provides proposals to advance rights-based research on food security. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food security, agricultural development and economics, gender, human rights and sustainable development.
Agricultural Depression in the 1920's: Economic Fact or Statistical Artifact? (Routledge Library Editions: Agriculture #1)
by Thomas H. JohnsonFirst published in 1985. This study explores the agricultural depression in the United States of America in the 1920’s. The author examines overproduction, wartime optimism and the farm crisis, and continuity and change in agriculture during this period. This title will be of great interest to students of history, agriculture, and economics.
Agricultural Digitization and Zhongyong Philosophy: Creating a Sustainable Circular Economy (Routledge Focus on Environment and Sustainability)
by Ye Li Yiyan Chen Hooi Hooi LeanThis interdisciplinary book combines digital technology with Eastern philosophy to examine how the concept of Zhongyong in Confucianism can be used to coordinate digital technology with sustainable agriculture. Zhongyong comes from the connotation of moderate and sustainable in ancient Chinese culture. It is with this concept in mind that this book presents a novel collaboration between philosophy and computer technology to explain how Zhongyong can play an important part in realizing agricultural digitization within a circular economy in order to help solve the current food crisis. The book examines two popular, yet contradictory, digital technologies—blockchain and the green data center. It showcases how the use of traditional Chinese Zhongyong can promote the decentralization of blockchain and the centralization of the green data center and explains the advantages of using both technologies simultaneously. The book puts forward a digital circular agricultural framework that embeds both blockchain and the green data center through an actual case study. While this book specifically focuses on agriculture, it also provides readers with a new perspective for thinking further on how to break down the disciplinary barriers between the social sciences and natural sciences. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of agriculture, digital technologies, circular economy, sustainable development, and Eastern philosophy.
Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia
by Clifford GeertzAgricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia is one of the most famous of the early works of Clifford Geertz. It principal thesis is that many centuries of intensifying wet-rice cultivation in Indonesia had produced greater social complexity without significant technological or political change, a process Geertz terms "involution".Written for a US-funded project on the local developments and following the modernization theory of Walt Whitman Rostow, Geertz examines in this book the agricultural system in Indonesia and its two dominant forms of agriculture, swidden and sawah. In addition to researching its agricultural systems, the book turns to an examination of their historical development. Of particular note is Geertz's discussion of what he famously describes as the process of "agricultural involution" in Java, where both the external economic demands of the Dutch rulers and the internal pressures due to population growth led to intensification rather than change.
Agricultural Land Use and Natural Gas Extraction Conflicts: A Global Socio-Legal Perspective (Earthscan Studies in Natural Resource Management)
by Madeline Taylor Tina HunterOnshore unconventional gas operations, in most jurisdictions, operate on the legal principle that all activities during exploration and extraction are ‘temporary’ in nature. The concept that the onshore unconventional gas industry has a temporary effect on the land on which it operates creates a regulatory paradox. On one hand, unconventional gas activities create energy security, national wealth and a bourgeoning export industry. On the other, agricultural land and agriculturalists may be significantly disadvantaged by unconventional gas activities potentially producing permanent damage to non-renewable fertile soils and spoiling the underground water tables. Thus, threatening future food security and food sovereignty. This book explores the socio-regulatory dimensions of coexistence between agricultural and onshore unconventional gas land uses in the jurisdictions with the highest concentration of proven unconventional gas reserves – Australia, Canada, the USA, the UK, France, Poland and China. In exploring the differing regulatory standpoints of unconventional gas land uses on productive farming land in the chosen jurisdictions, this book provides an original three-part categorisation of regulatory approaches addressing the coexistence of agricultural land and unconventional gas namely: adaptive management, precautionary and, finally, statism. It offers a timely and topical approach to socio-legal natural resource governance theory based on the participation, transparency and empowerment for agricultural landholders, examining how differing frameworks such as the collective bargaining framework can create equitable and sustainable contractual arrangements with unconventional gas companies.
Agricultural Land Use: Structural Transformations, Environment Challenges, Planning and Policy (Earthscan Food and Agriculture)
by Jerzy BańskiThis book presents contemporary trends and challenges in agricultural land use, drawing on an array of global case studies.This volume examines agricultural land use through a three-pronged approach: structural transformations, environmental challenges, and planning and policy. Reflecting the global relevance of contemporary challenges to agricultural land use, the book presents a wide range of novel case studies from across the world, including Poland, Hungary, Denmark, Slovenia, Czechia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Algeria, Northeast Africa countries, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, USA, and Brazil. Each chapter focuses on a particular issue related to agricultural land use in that country or region, including land fragmentation, reduction of crop land, agricultural intensification, desertification of soils, climate change, biodiversity loss, traditional agricultural systems, urbanization and rural development, and planning challenges for agricultural land. Together the chapters present a global view of the challenges facing the agricultural industry and offer solutions for developing sustainable agricultural practices to ensure food security and environmental and biodiversity conservation.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food and agriculture, land use and land management, rural studies, and sustainable development.
Agricultural Law: Current Issues from a Global Perspective (LITES - Legal Issues in Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies #1)
by Mariagrazia Alabrese Margherita Brunori Silvia Rolandi Andrea SabaThis book focuses on the social and environmental issues being addressed by agricultural law within the current globalised system. What is agricultural law? Agricultural regulations concern and affect essential human needs and values that must be dealt with by pursuing a comprehensive and coordinated global approach. By tracking the developments in this context, this book explores the new challenges that agricultural law needs to address in order to frame emerging dilemmas. International governance of natural resources and their role in addressing food insecurity is the object of the first Part of the volume, which deals with sustainable agriculture and agro-ecosystem services in connection with the food security issue. The second Part focuses on the regulation of food as the main product of agricultural activity, and explores the answers that the law can provide in order to accommodate consumers' interests and concerns (inter alia, novel foods, animal welfare, direct sales and e-commerce). The third Part examines the social, environmental and legal consequences of a renewed interest in agricultural investments. Further, it analyses the evolution and the interplay between different legal systems with regard to land tenure, environmental concerns and investments in agriculture.
Agricultural Mechanics: Fundamentals & Applications
by Ray V. HerrenA text for students learning basic mechanical skills in high school and postsecondary programs in agriscience, production agriculture, agribusiness, ornamental horticulture, and agricultural mechanics. Treatment begins with information on careers, then provides instruction on basic mechanical skills and applications. Covers use of hand tools, power tools, and stationary power equipment with numerous materials, touching on processes of wood- and metalworking, electric and gas welding, electrical wiring, robotics, plumbing, and construction. Includes color photos of male and female students, and 54 project plans. This fourth edition is revised to reflect the latest developments in the field. Annotation c. Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)