Farming and the Food Supply by
With modernity's technology comes incredible things, such as being able to mass produce crops. It's easy to forget that our food supply is not unlimited. There are costs and limits to everything. This well-researched book explores in detail the range of current and impending challenges that farming and food supply faces as a result of global warming. Readers are introduced to farming and its relationship to global warming. They will analyze the effect of population growth and climate change on daily calorie availability. Impact on crops from changes in temperature, precipitation, and carbon dioxide are explained. Concerns about water, soil, and pests are relayed. Readers will also evaluate what the future may hold, based on the facts presented here.
Agriculture by
Agriculture, one of the oldest human occupations, is practised all over the world, using techniques ranging from the profoundly traditional to the most scientifically advanced. Without it we would starve. Yet how many of us understand what is happening in the fields that we see as we drivethrough the countryside? How often do we think about the origins of the food in our trolley?In this Very Short Introduction Paul Brassley and Richard Soffe explain what farmers do and why they do it. Beginning with the most basic resource, the soil, they show why it is important, and how farmers can increase its productivity, before turning to the plants and animals that grow on it, andtracing the connections between their biology and the various ways in which farmers work with them. The authors conclude by looking at some of the controversial issues facing contemporary agriculture: its sustainability; its impact on wildlife and landscape; issues of animal welfare; and the affectof climate change and the development of genetically modified organisms on farmers.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, andenthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
A Revolution down on the Farm by
At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries.
The History of Agriculture by
How agriculture and domestication began
Early agricultural societies
Early agriculture in Asia
Improvements in agriculture in the west: 200 BCE to 1600 CE
Crop-farming changes in western Europe: 1600 to 1800
19th century power revolution on the farm: c. 1792-1914
20th century: new machines, crops, and farming techniques
New strains: genetics and the quest for productivity
Electricity, pest control, and the regulation of agriculture.
American Agriculture : from farm families to agribusiness by
This book tells the story of farming in America from contact between Native Americans and Europeans to the present. The book provide a narrative overview of significant historical trends explored through specific crop regions and their emergence over time. The book traces the decline of the family farm that at one time formed the backbone of America's agrarian culture and the emergence of large industrial farms that overproduce subsidized commodity crops.
Genetically Modified Crops and Food by
The book explains the reactions of scientists, farmers, chefs, and medical doctors to the scientific changes in agriculture, which have ranged from support to skepticism, and shows how different governments around the world view the inclusion of GMOs in food. The unbiased approach allows readers to decide for themselves whether GMOs are the answer to world hunger or could negatively impact the health of the world population.
Tomorrow's Table by
Tomorrow's Table argues that a judicious blend of two important strands of agriculture--genetic engineering and organic farming--is key to helping feed the world's growing population in an ecologically balanced manner. Pamela Ronald, a geneticist, and her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer, take the reader inside their lives for roughly a year, allowing us to look over their shoulders so that we can see what geneticists and organic farmers actually do.
