The Farm as Natural Habitat is a vital new contribution to the debate about agriculture and its impacts on the land. Arising from the conviction that the agricultural landscape as a whole could be restored to a healthy diversity, the book challenges the notion that the dominant agricultural landscape -- bereft of its original vegetation and wildlife and despoiled by chemical runoff -- is inevitable if we are to feed ourselves. Contributors bring together insights and practices from the fields of conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, and environmental restoration to link agriculture and biodiversity, farming and nature, in celebrating a unique alternative to conventional agriculture.Rejecting the idea that ""ecological sacrifice zones"" are a necessary part of feeding a hungry world, the book offers compelling examples of an alternative agriculture that can produce not only healthful food, but fully functioning ecosystems and abundant populations of native species. Contributors include Collin Bode, George Boody, Brian DeVore, Arthur (Tex) Hawkins, Buddy Huffaker, Rhonda Janke, Richard Jefferson, Nick Jordan, Cheryl Miller, Heather Robertson, Carol Shennan, Judith Soule, Beth Waterhouse, and others.The Farm as Natural Habitat is both hopeful and visionary, grounded in real examples, and guided by a commitment to healthy land and thriving communities. It is the first book to offer a viable approach to addressing the challenges of protecting and restoring biodiversity on private agricultural land and is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of land or biodiversity conservation, farming and agriculture, ecological restoration, or the health of rural communities and landscapes.
Acknowledgments Foreword \ Nina Leopold Bradley Introduction \ Laura L. Jackson and Dana L. Jackson
PART I. Agriculture as Ecological Sacrifice Chapter 1. The Farm as Natural Habitat \ Dana L. Jackson Chapter 2. Nature's Backlash \ Brian A. DeVore Chapter 3. The Farm, the Nature Preserve, and the Conservation Biologist \ Laura L. Jackson
PART II. Restoring Nature on Farms Chapter 4. Return to Coon Valley \ Arthur S. (Tex) Hawkins Chapter 5. Reading the Land Together \ Wellington (Buddy) Huffaker Chapter 6. Stewards of the Wild \ Brian A. DeVore Chapter 8: Why Do They Do It? \ Brian A. DeVore
PART III. Ecosystem Management and Farmlands Chapter 9. Nature and Farming in Britian \ Heather J. Robertson and Richard G. Jefferson Chapter 10. Restoring Prairie Processes to Farmlands \ Laura L. Jackson Chapter 11. Sustaining Production with Biodiversity \ Nicholas R. Jordan Chapter 12. Conservation and Agriculture as Neighbors \ Judith D. Soule Chapter 13. Integrating Wetland Habitat with Agriculture \ Carol Shennan and Collin A. Bode
PART IV. Steps toward Agroecological Restoration Chapter 14. Composing a Landscape Rhonda R. Janke Chapter 15. After the Deluge: Integrated Watershed Management in the Red River Valley \ Cheryl Miller Chapter 16. A Refined Taste in Natural Objects \ Beth E. Waterhouse Chapter 17. Food and Biodiversity \ Dana L. Jackson Chapter 18. Agriculture as a Public Good \ George M. Boody
About the Contributors Index
"...a book that would make Aldo Leopold proud...a testimonial to Leopold's Land Ethic and those 21st-century farmers, rural landowners, and policy analysts who are applying its tenets of conservation, restoration, and right livelihood."
