Louis Bromfield, Friends of the Land, and the Rise of Sustainable Agriculture
How Malabar Farm pioneered soil conservation and grew the sustainable agriculture movement Established in 1939 by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and farmer Louis Bromfield, Malabar Farm was once considered "the most famous farm in the world." Farmers, conservationists, politicians, businessmen, and even a few Hollywood celebrities-including ......
Challenges, Contested Knowledge, and the Need for Change
The greatest challenges of the twenty-first century stem from the fact that we are now living in a new epoch: the Anthropocene. The human footprint on the planet can no longer be denied. One of the greatest and most essential human innovations, agriculture, is being increasingly recognised as a leading contributor to climate change. According to global governance bodies, the world will need to feed a predicted nine billion people by 2050. However, in this Anthropocene, we must address the environmental inequalities in how these people will be fed. This book explores our current societal struggles to transition towards more sustainable agrifood systems. It suggests that debates around sustainable agriculture must be social as well as technical, exploring the growth of social movements campaigning for more democratic food systems. However, as each chapter demonstrates, both the problems and the solutions in sustainable agriculture are highly contested. Using the term 'agrifood' to capture the nexus between research, governance and the environment knowledge-environment-governance, this book provides an in-depth and wide-ranging account of current research around agricultural production and food consumption. The book introduces the Anthropocene along with the fundamental question that it poses about human-nature interactions. It outlines the core concerns related to agriculture and food and the debates around the need for agrifood system transitions. Each chapter investigates controversies in the field through case studies. These contributions offer a call for sociologists of agriculture and food to engage with the controversies unfolding in the Anthropocene.
In this concise and fascinating history, Bernard Jarman, former Director of the Biodynamic Agricultural Association for the UK, charts the development of biodynamics in Britain following its arrival in 1928 through to the present day.
The 2024 Maria Thun Biodynamic Almanac adapted for North American (EST) times. The original, and still the best, biodynamic sowing and planting calendar, now in its 62nd year. Shows the optimum days for sowing, pruning and harvesting plants and crops.
The Political Economy of Agrarian Transition in Developing Countries
Why Agriculture Productivity Falls: The Political Economy of Agrarian Transition in Developing Countries offers a new explanation for the decline in agricultural productivity in developing countries. Transcending the conventional approaches to understanding productivity using agricultural inputs and factors of production, this work brings in the ......
The Political Economy of Agrarian Transition in Developing Countries
Why Agriculture Productivity Falls: The Political Economy of Agrarian Transition in Developing Countries offers a new explanation for the decline in agricultural productivity in developing countries. Transcending the conventional approaches to understanding productivity using agricultural inputs and factors of production, this work brings in the ......
Bromfield's continuing reflections about life and work at Malabar Farm A sequel of sorts to his earlier book, Pleasant Valley, this book significantly adds to Louis Bromfield's body of work on agriculture, economics, and the value of home.
Bromfield's personal account of life and environmental practice at his Malabar Farm Both memoir and environmental commentary, this unique and classic work by Louis Bromfield engages and educates us as he demonstrates the importance of sustainable agriculture practices-not only for restoring the land but for restoring the home of the people who ......
Gendered Labor, Food Security, and Taste in Twentieth-Century Mali
Foregrounding African women's ingenuity and labor, this pioneering case study shows how women in rural Mali have used technology to ensure food security through the colonial period, environmental crises, and postcolonial rule. By advocating for an understanding of rural Malian women as engineers, Laura Ann Twagira rejects the persistent image of ......
