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OverviewModern 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 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. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Helena Norberg-Hodge , Peter Goering , John PagePublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Imprint: Zed Books Ltd Edition: 2nd edition Dimensions: Width: 13.80cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 21.60cm Weight: 0.181kg ISBN: 9781856499941ISBN 10: 1856499944 Pages: 160 Publication Date: 01 February 2001 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsIntroduction: Shifting from Global to Local: Sowing the Seeds of Community Part I: Industrial Agriculture: Broken Promises 1. The Context of Industrial Agriculture 2. New Seeds: Meeting Corporate Needs 3. Chemical Fertilisers: Artificial Abundance 4. Pesticides: The Deadly Solution 5. Animal Husbandry: Farm as Factory 6. Mechanisation: The Technological Treadmill 7. The Bigger Picture 8. Biotechnology and 'Free' Trade: More of the Same Part II: The New Agriculture: Back to Basics 9. The Context of Ecological Agriculture 10. Learning From the Past 11. Techniques of Ecological Agriculture 12. Positive Trends 13. 'Counter-Development' and New Ways Forward AppendixesReviews'There can be few more compellingly presented arguments for a radical and global move to organic agriculture than this. The authors have succeeded in focusing on the key factor behind the mass degradation of our fragile farmlands. They have also clearly demonstrated the existence of a practical ecological alternative' - Sir Julian Rose, organic farmer <br>' Both a deeply disturbing and an inspiring book that combines, for the first time, a comprehensive critique of industrial agriculture with visionary reviews of the potential of the new worldwide movement towards ecological agriculture' - Patrick Holden, Soil Association <br>' A superb overview...Not only details the cul-de-sac into which industrialized agriculture has taken us, but provides useful insights into ways out of the crisis' - Nicholas Hildyard, The Ecologist <br>' A concise and very readable book covering many of the contradictions of industrial agriculture and linking North/South problems in a very satisfactory way' - Professor Michael Redclift, Wye College, University of London <br>' I have often wanted a short, coherent argument about the nature of industrial agriculture, and an outline of realistic alternatives to it. At last, here is such a book' - Wes Jackson, The Land Institute<br> Author InformationHelena Norberg-Hodge is director of both the Ladakh Project and ISEC. Her formal training was in linguistics, including work at MIT with Noam Chomsky. She has lectured extensively on environmental issues in both Europe and North America, and is the author of Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh (1991), which explores the root causes behind today's environmental and social malaise, In 1986, she received the Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'. Peter Goering graduated in civil engineering from Princeton University. He received his MA from the Energy and Resources Group of the University of California at Berkeley, a department which conducts interdisciplinary research into the relationship between resources, society and the environment. He is currently preparing his doctoral dissertation on 'Sustainable Development and the Contradictions of Modernism', while also working as the ISEC's Research Coordinator. John Page was trained as a barrister in London. For the last decade he has coordinated the technical, educational and agricultural activities of the Ladakh Project, and is now programmes director of ISEC. He is the producer/director of two recent films: The Future of Progress, a compilation of interviews with internationally known environmentalists, and Ancient Futures: Lessons from Little Tibet, a documentary based on Ms Norberg-Hodge's book. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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