Agricultural & Food Sciences

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs and Steel examines the rise of civilization and the issues its development has raised throughout history....

The Omnivore's Dilemma meets Fast Food Nation from a global perspective in this game-changing look at the science, economics, and history of ultra-processed food and the industry's effect on our health and planet....

Helen shares an honest portrait of rural life and an authentic exploration of both the hard work and reward of keeping a home and raising a family....

"What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another, this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat....

Have you ever desired, deep within your soul, to make a comfortable full-time living from a farming enterprise? Too often people dare not even vocalize this desire because it seems absurd. It's like thinking the unthinkable....

In Dirt to Soil, Gabe Brown tells the story of his ranch's amazing journey and offers a wealth of innovative solutions to our most pressing and complex contemporary agricultural challenge - restoring the soil....

For the last fifty years, we have been fighting a losing war on food. We have cut fat, reduced carbs, eliminated sugar, and attempted every conceivable diet only to find that eighty-eight million American adults are prediabetic....

A revelatory history of one of Stalin's greatest crimes - the consequences of which still resonate today....

In 1637, one Dutchman paid as much for a single tulip bulb as the going price of a town house in Amsterdam. Three and a half centuries later, Amsterdam is once again the mecca for people who care passionately about one particular plant....

To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar America. Though created by a handful of mavericks, the fast food industry has...

In a day when mainline farm experts predict the continued demise of the family farm, the pastured poultry opportunity shines like a beacon in the night, guiding the way to a brighter future....

Every time we eat, we have the power to radically transform the world we live in....

Prepare to set aside what you think you know about yourself and microbes. Good health - for people and for plants - depends on Earth's smallest creatures....

The Market Gardener is a compendium of proven horticultural techniques and innovative growing methods....

This second edition of Viticulture is an introduction to the professional world of growing grapes for wine production. It is written in an easy-to-digest style, arranged in 14 relatively short chapters, and illustrated with 100 photographs and charts....

Do you know the new rules for profit in today's land and livestock game? Using successful grass farmers as examples, Allan explains how leasing land can add up to profits with lower risk than ownership, and can be a means for young people to get into grassland agriculture today....

Introducing Clarkson's Farm favourite Kaleb Cooper's worldly wisdom on life's big issues, from the difference between straw and hay to the importance of having a hair perm....

Easy beekeeping for new-bees. Wouldn’t it be great to raise your own bees, have a fresh supply of honey, and bring thousands of healthy pollinators into your yard? Beekeeping for Beginners is a simple, step-by-step guide that helps you learn the fundamentals....

More than 40 years before Gary Taubes published The Case Against Sugar, John Yudkin published his now-classic exposé on the dangers of sugar - now with a new introduction by Robert H. Lustig, the best-selling author of Fat Chance....

Ahhh, livin’ the dream. Your own delicious organic food forest growing right outside your window. A harvest so bountiful, it feeds you, your family, and the whole neighborhood. Year-round abundance.

A counter to heavy industrial farming, permaculture is all about conscious planning that caters to the human needs while also respecting and healing the natural environment. At its core, it involves drawing inspiration from nature to build an ecosystem that thrives just like any other....

Fossil fuels and livestock grazing are often targeted as major culprits behind climate change and desertification. But Allan Savory, cofounder of the Savory Institute, begs to differ....

Twenty years ago, Joel Salatin wrote You Can Farm, which has launched thousands of farm entrepreneurs around the world....

We’ve been told that a vegetarian diet can feed the hungry, honor the animals, and save the planet. Lierre Keith believed in that plant-based diet and spent twenty years as a vegan....

Today’s optimistic farm-to-table food culture has a dark secret: The local food movement has failed to change how we eat. It has also offered a false promise for the future of food....

Dive into the captivating world of swine ranching with "The Landrace Pig Revolution", a groundbreaking eBook that provides an enlightening exploration about the role of Landrace pigs in the industry. This eBook will guide you through the unique journey from the historical perspective of pig breeding to the emergence of Landrace pigs, bringing forth unique attributes of these endearing creatures. With a focus on the biological overview of Landrace pigs, this eBook examines the importance of high fertility in swine ranching, delving into their adaptability and the physiology of fertility. ...

Dive deep into the exciting world of Australorp Chickens with 'Unleashing Australorp Power.' This comprehensive guide will take you through the journey of understanding, nurturing, and profiting from these black-feathered beauties. 'Unleashing Australorp Power' begins with a fascinating exploration into the origins and evolution of the Australorp breed, offering a comprehensive historical overview. Discover the distinct characteristics that set these chickens apart; it might surprise you how much they can differ from other breeds. The adventure continues as you delve into setting up the ...

Charles Wilber tells his personal story of learning to work with nature, and his philosophy and approach to gardening. He reveals for the first time how he grows record-breaking tomatoes and produce of every variety. There's no magic involved. Just a well thought out system that gives plants more than they could ever want, and makes it possible for them to reach their full potential. Wilber's compost is the cornerstone along with a wide circumference around plants layered with compost, alfalfa meal and mulch. Valuable pruning and watering details are given, too, as well as a new way of ...

Nature is complex, elegant, and infinite in its wisdom. Farmers who are truly successful learn nature's many facets and her intricate dance; they crack the code of how to honor and feed this boundless natural system while coaxing the production needed for the survival of a modern farm. Natural product formulator and farm consultant Jerry Brunetti wraps together a lifetime of learning and his uncanny observations in this fascinating volume on the interconnected dynamics in place on a farm -- the farm's geology, biology, and diversity of life forms. Learn to look at -- and manage -- your farm...

The cornerstones of ranch profitability are rooted in herd health, which in turn is rooted in soil fertility and animal nutrition, cattle breeding for better feed efficiency, and cattle breeding for longevity. Longevity, Newman Turner writes, is the most critical factor for success in livestock breeding and production. In this book, Newman Turner explains that livestock illness is a result of bad farming practices and that real livestock health begins with true natural farming disciplines such as composting, biodiverse pastures with deep-rooted forages and herbs, and sub-soiling, as well as...

Maynard Murray was a medical doctor who researched the crucial importance of minerals—especially trace elements—to plants and animals. Beginning in 1938 and continuing through the 1950s, Dr. Murray used sea solids—mineral salts remaining after water is evaporated from ocean water—as fertilizer on a variety of vegetables, fruits and grains. His extensive experiments demonstrated repeatedly and conclusively that plants fertilized with sea solids and animals fed sea-solid-fertilized feeds grow stronger and more resistant to disease. Sea Energy Agriculture recounts Murray's experiments ...

A resurgence of interest in heritage poultry breeds has invigorated poultry raising on family farms and backyards across the country. These are the birds that can and should be producing for today’s marketplace – for consumers that have come to value locally bred and grown, historically significant agricultural food. This book offers valuable insight into rare, heritage and heirloom breed selection, chick raising, breeding and marketing so you can start your own fully sustainable heritage chicken flock and raise eggs or meat for your family or small farm business.

Do you know ... how to grow great alfalfa and other forages? How can a healthy stand of alfalfa be established? What is most important in promoting vigorous forage growth - soil life, weed control, or balanced soil fertility? Is high potassium necessary for high quality? Does high tonnage automatically mean good feed for livestock? When should forages be cut - pre-bloom, first bloom, mid bloom? How can you measure forage quality? This book has these answers and more!

No amount of the hard, sweating work you do on the ranch - if you continue to make poor decisions - can bring you to the reality of successful ranching. Holmes has found that to be really successful, the critical factors are your decision making and planning abilities. Learn how to plan and make good decisions from Holmes, a cattleman who had struggled for decades to find this golden nugget. You too can feed more people than other ranchers, have grasslands that are more productive and useful than they previously were, and enjoy raising a family without spending all your time working. ...

This book represents the combined experience and wisdom of two leaders in sustainable cattle production. Gearld Fry offers a lifetime of practical experience seasoned by study and observation. Charles Walters draws on his own observations as well as interviews with thousands of eco-farmers and consultants over the past four decades. The result is an insightful book that is practical in the extreme, yet eminently readable. In this book you will learn: how to “read” an animal, what linear measurement is, why linear management selects ideal breeding stock, the nuances of bull fertility, ...

Join longtime ecological farming author/researcher Harold Willis as he explains the foundation concepts of natural farming and issues the call for cleaner forms of food and fiber production. In this single volume, the author details the interconnections between soil chemistry, microbial life, plants and livestock. He discusses the current problems in agriculture and suggests how lessons from nature provide the roadmap to efficiency, effectiveness and profitability. This book does not stop at providing recipes of what farmers need to do to farm better, but also passes along an understanding ...

New Zealand grazing consultant Peter Bacchus shares a lifetime of experience on applying biodynamics to pastures. His multi-pronged approach considers balance of fertility elements, organic matter levels, soil life, and particularly soil life forces. Through biodynamic preparations and other tools he seeks to produce optimum grass quality and production for grazing animals. Also covered are biodynamic methods of pest and weed control.

Ideas such as "crop and soil weatherproofing," the "row support system," and the "tillage commandments," exemplify the practicality of the soil/root maintenance program that serves as the foundation for Schriefer’s highly-successful "systems approach" farming. Schriefer was a pioneer in developing an awareness of the relation of tillage to soil fertility, focusing on three major soil basics — soil aeration, soil water, and soil decay. This book covers such topics as soil chemistry, plant and soil dynamics, above- and below-ground plant management, row support fertilization, zone-tillage...

This booklet is packed with knowledge that will help you grow superior examples of this profitable crop. You will learn: how bacteria helps your crop grow better; how to drought-proof your soil; whether herbicides and pesticides are really necessary; and what place hydrogen peroxide has on your farm. This slender volume can lead soybean producers to fat profits!

Ask the Plant, based on the agronomy of K. Chandler, offers farmers and growers a better way to grow plants that involves reading the unique language of plants, utilizing leaf and petiole testing, and in turn knowing how to produce a better crop using only the fertilizers and soil-building ingredients that are truly needed, when they are most needed. Instead of following the decades-old conventional model where plants are given copious amounts of soluble nitrogen fertilizers aimed to force-feed the landscape green, Ask the Plant addresses how to build a healthy soil without excessive inputs...