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Organic Farming Books
A New Vision for Iowa Food and Agriculture
Francis Thicke, PhD, is a scientist, an expert on sustainable agriculture, and a practicing dairy farmer. He is widely consulted for his clear explanations of the economic and ecological forces that are changing the way we produce food in the modern world. This book draws from his background as an organic dairy farmer, and as a soil scientist who has served at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. as National Program Leader for Soil Science. This introductory book addresses topics from industrial farming (including CAFOs - Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) to the ongoing conflicts between factory farms and family farms, to how family farms can be profitable after peak oil. He also examines industrial agriculture and nature's own ecological methods, and shows how, in his own dairy operation, new sustainable approaches can be less costly, more productive, and return more profits to farmers. Dr. Thicke is an advocate for the systematic improvement of agricultural technology and farming methods, and for the effective use of sustainable, renewable sources of energy to achieve self-sufficiency in food production. His insights have proven increasingly relevant in the development of new public policy for Iowa, with profound implications for the United States as a whole.
Food to Live By: The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook
Organic food is the best food possible. It’s synonymous with premium quality, delicious flavor, conscientious farming, and optimum health. It’s what we need to feed our kids, it’s what we deserve to feed ourselves. And thanks in part to Myra Goodman, co-owner and cofounder of Earthbound Farm with her husband, Drew, organic food is now available just about anywhere fresh food is sold, becoming more mainstream every day. Not only has Myra been growing organic food for over twenty years, she has been cooking with it, too. In Food to Live By she combines her twin food passions, serving up hundreds of recipes, ideas, shopping and cooking tips, health notes, and more. Illustrating the book are full-color photographs throughout that bring readers right into the breathtaking California sunshine. This is perfect cooking for friends and family, packed with irresistible dishes for weeknight dinners and casual entertaining, festive breakfasts and fall picnics. Recipes are all about the ingredients and their intrinsic qualities, not fancy techniques or time-consuming steps. Marry chicken with three simple accompaniments— rosemary, lemons, and garlic—and it’s transformed. Heighten the flavor of a springtime fava bean and orzo salad with an unexpected fava bean “pesto.” Combine Meyer lemon juice and soy sauce to create a marinade, tenderizer, and sauce that results in a perfect grilled flank steak. Food to Live By also includes a wealth of information about organic farming and how to make the wisest food choices; there are full-color Field Guides—to gourmet greens, apples, heirloom tomatoes, winter squash—and Farm Fresh ingredient guides to sorrel, corn, melons, avocados, organic poultry, asparagus, artichokes, ginger, and more, featuring what to look for plus care and handling. The book is a boon to food lovers.
America's Food: What You Don't Know about What You Eat
Winning entry, General Trade Cover/Jacket Category, in the 2009 New England Book Show sponsored by Bookbuilders of Boston. We don't think much about how food gets to our tables, or what had to happen to fill our supermarket's produce section with perfectly round red tomatoes and its meat counter with slabs of beautifully marbled steak. We don't realize that the meat in one fast-food hamburger may come from many different cattle raised in several different countries. In fact, most of us have a fairly abstract understanding of what happens on a farm. In "America's Food, " Harvey Blatt gives us the specifics. He tells us, for example, that a third of the fruits and vegetables grown are discarded for purely aesthetic reasons; that the artificial fertilizers used to enrich our depleted soil contain poisonous heavy metals; that chickens who stand all day on wire in cages choose feed with pain-killing drugs over feed without them; and that the average American eats his or her body weight in food additives each year. Blatt also asks us to think about the consequences of eating food so far removed from agriculture; why unhealthy food is cheap; why there is an International Federation of Competitive Eating; what we don't want to know about how animals raised for meat live, die, and are butchered; whether people are even designed to be carnivorous; and why there is hunger when food production has increased so dramatically. "America's Food" describes the production of all types of food in the United States and the environmental and health problems associated with each. After taking us on a tour of the American food system--not only the basic food groups but soil, grain farming, organic food, genetically modified food, food processing, and diet--Blatt reminds us that we aren't powerless. Once we know the facts about food in America, we can change things by the choices we make as consumers, as voters, and as ethical human beings.
From Foraging to Farming in the Andes: New Perspectives on Food Production and Social Organization
Archeologists have always considered the beginnings of Andean civilization from ca. 13,000 to 6,000 years ago to be important in terms of the appearance of domesticated plants and animals, social differentiation, and a sedentary lifestyle, but there is more to this period than just these developments. During this period, the spread of crop production and other technologies, kinship-based labor projects, mound-building, and population aggregation formed ever-changing conditions across the Andes. From Foraging to Farming in the Andes proposes a new and more complex model for understanding the transition from hunting and gathering to cultivation. It argues that such developments evolved regionally, were fluid and uneven, and were subject to reversal. This book develops these arguments from a large body of archaeological evidence, collected over 30 years in two valleys in northern Peru, and then places the valleys in the context of recent scholarship studying similar developments around world.
Organic Farming
Going organic may be a clear way of getting back to basics--and getting away from the havoc chemicals can wreak on our health and our environment--but the basics themselves may not be so clear. How to begin? What kind of fertilizer and feed are allowed? Is there natural pest management? What does certification entail? And is this the way to go? This book covers the basics and then some. Whether you're thinking of starting an organic farm or making the transition to organics, whether you're growing crops or raising animals, you'll find everything you need to know in these pages--from getting started to developing a marketing strategy. A list of resources also points the way to other books, websites, and organizations focusing on every aspect of organic farming, including state standards and more information.
The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses
Choosing locally grown organic food is a sustainable living trend thatas taken hold throughout North America. Celebrated farming expert Eliot Coleman helped start this movement with "The New Organic Grower" published 20 years ago. He continues to lead the way, pushing the limits of the harvest season while working his world-renowned organic farm in Harborside, Maine.Now, with his long-awaited new book, "The Winter Harvest Handbook," anyone can have access to his hard-won experience. Gardeners and farmers can use the innovative, highly successful methods Coleman describes in this comprehensive handbook to raise crops throughout the coldest of winters.Building on the techniques that hundreds of thousands of farmers and gardeners adopted from "The New Organic Grower" and "Four-Season Harvest," this new book focuses on growing produce of unparalleled freshness and quality in customized unheated or, in some cases, minimally heated, movable plastic greenhouses.Coleman offers clear, concise details on greenhouse construction and maintenance, planting schedules, crop management, harvesting practices, and even marketing methods in this complete, meticulous, and illustrated guide. Readers have access to all the techniques that have proven to produce higher-quality crops on Colemanas own farm.His painstaking research and experimentation with more than 30 different crops will be valuable to small farmers, homesteaders, and experienced home gardeners who seek to expand their production seasons.A passionate advocate for the revival of small-scale sustainable farming, Coleman provides a practical model for supplying fresh, locally grown produce during the winter season, even in climates where conventional wisdom says it ajust canat be done.a
Organic Marin: Recipes from Land to Table
"Now more than ever, we need to make decisions about cooking and eating that support the kind of agriculture that takes care of the land we hold in trust for future generations. This beautiful book, full of recipes for delicious, seasonal meals, is a tribute to the Marin County farmers, artisans, and cooks who uphold that stewardship and provid for our future." --Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Restaurant "Organic Marin" gives you a taste of what has become one of America's most vibrant local food scenes; indeed, this beautiful book is the next best thing to eating there." --Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food" "Every society is a direct reflection of the status of its soil . . . Everything comes from soil. We are nothing without it." --Helge Hellberg, executive director of Marin Organic "Organic Marin" is more than a regional cookbook. It also represents an organic movement reverberating around the globe, demanding a more thoughtful, less wasteful approach to life. The connection between field and farmer, land and table, and food and family translates to the passionate belief that food fosters community. And nowhere is this connection more apparent than in Marin County, California, the birthplace and standard-bearer of American organic farming. In "Organic Marin," 16 of America's most esteemed organic farms share their stories and philosophies alongside 50 mouthwatering organic recipes organized by season and contributed by 25 of the San Francisco Bay Area's most popular organic restaurants. With recipes for Heirloom Tomato Flat Bread, Seared Ahi Tuna with Asian Slaw, Chicken Fra Diavolo with Fennel and Dandelion Salad, Double ChocolateBread Pudding, and much more, anyone can create the delicious dishes featured in this beautiful and inspiring organic cookbook. Proceeds of "Organic Marin" support Marin Organic's school lunch program, which serves 12,000 lunches a week with food grown in Marin County.
From Seed to Table: A Practical Guide to Eating and Growing Green
Eating locally grown seasonal food is the solution to so many of the social and environmental problems raised by modern intensive food production methods. In From Seed to Table, organic gardener Janette Haase offers a month-by-month guide to growing a significant amount of food in a home garden. From the earliest salad leaves to the autumn's sweetest root vegetables, this book will show anyone with a small plot of earth and willing hands how to eat a healthier, more environmentally responsible diet--one with a smaller impact on both the environment and household food bills. The book's introductory chapter explains the importance of eating locally and seasonally and offers some practical considerations before beginning a garden of one's own. The rest of the book is divided into chapters covering each months. Haase takes the home gardener through the tasks of the gardening year, giving clear and helpful instructions for the work to be done at each time, from planning and planting to harvesting and storage. She also offers delicious seasonal recipes and menu ideas. From Seed to Table concludes with a thoughtful essay on food-related environmental issues, from greenhouse gasses to the genetic modification of seeds. Janette Haase was born in Montreal and was raised there and in Newfoundland. She holds a degree in geology from Queen's University. Haase started farming on fifty acres near Kingston, Ontario, and ran a large organic market garden. In 1998, as a single parent with a tiny front garden and no backyard in a village near Kingston, Haase planted vegetables and realized she could feed her family with what she could grow in a very small space.
The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year
When Spring Warren told her husband and two teenage boys that she wanted to grow 75 percent of all the food they consumed for one yearand that she wanted to do it in their yardthey told her she was crazy.She did it anyway.The Quarter-Acre Farm is Warren’s account of decidingdespite all resistanceto take control of her family’s food choices, get her hands dirty, and create a garden in her suburban yard. It’s a story of bugs, worms, rot, and failure; of learning, replanting, harvesting, and eating. The road is long and riddled with mistakes, but by the end of her yearlong experiment, Warren’s sons and husband have become her biggest fansin fact, they’re even eager to help harvest (and eat) the beautiful bounty she brings in.Full of tips and recipes to help anyone interested in growing and preparing at least a small part of their diet at home, The Quarter-Acre Farm is a warm, witty tale about family, food, and the incredible gratification that accompanies self-sufficiency.
Backyard Market Gardening: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling What You Grow
Discover how easy and profitable it is to grow ans sell vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs and small livestock from your own backyard market garden. Learn how others grow and sell: o 14,000 pounds of food, on less than one-eighth acre - Ohio o $150,000 from one-half acre, to fancy restaurants - California o $40,000 from one acre of oriental raised beds - Oregon o $36,000 from 3/4 acre, to city farmers' markets - Massachusetts Learn how you can: . Earn top dollar, with minimum effort and maximum profits. . Grow high-value crops in small spaces, efficiently and quickly. . Improve your garden soil for super yields and superb flavor. . Create markets that are profitable, reliable, fun and sustainable. . Improve your garden soil for super yields and superb flavor. . Buy or build tools that speed your work and increase profits. . Enjoy a guaranteed salary from community supported agriculture or a membership garden. Find your market niche in: membership gardening, community supported agriculture, farmers' markets, card table in your front yard, farm stands, clientele membership clubs, producers cooperatives, restaurants, caterers, institutions, pick your own and even growing specialty crops for your neighbor's salsa recipe. "BACKYARD MARKET GARDENING is the book that shows you how to do what you can with what you have where you are." - George DeVault, Organic Gardening Magazine. "Market gardening as described by Andy Lee is very rewarding to the soul, the soil, the environment, and the flow of capital."- Jim Hightower, Austin, Texas
Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement Is Changing the Way We Eat
A quiet revolution is taking place: People across the United States are turning toward local food. Some are doing it because they want more nutritious, less-processed food; some want to preserve the farmland and rural character of their regions; some fear interruptions to the supply of non-local food; some want to support their local economy; and some want safer food with less threat of contamination. But this revolution comes with challenges. "Reclaiming Our Food" tells the stories of people across America who are finding new ways to grow, process, and distribute food for their own communities. Their successes offer both inspiration and practical advice. The projects described in this book are cropping up everywhere, from urban lots to rural communities and everywhere in between. In Portland, Oregon, an organization called Growing Gardens installs home gardens for low-income families and hosts follow-up workshops for the owners. Lynchburg Grows, in Lynchburg, Virginia, bought an abandoned 6.5-acre urban greenhouse business and turned it into an organic farm that offers jobs to people with disabilities and sells its food through a local farmers' market and a CSA. Sunburst Trout Farm, a small family business in rural North Carolina, is showing that it's possible to raise fish sustainably and sell to a local market. And in Asheville, North Carolina, Growing Minds is finding ways to help bring fresh foods into schools. Author Tanya Denckla Cobb offers behind-the-scenes profiles of more than 50 food projects across the United States, with lessons and advice straight from their founders and staff. Photographic essays of 11 community food projects, by acclaimed photographer Jason Houston, detail the unusual work of these projects, bringing it to life in unforgettable images. "Reclaiming Our Food "is a practical guide for building a local food system. Where others have made the case for the local food movement, "Reclaiming Our Food "shows how communities are actually making it happen. This book offers a wealth of information on how to make local food a practical and affordable part of everyone's daily fare.
The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture
Sir Albert Howard presents a summary of his life's work in this book. Howard states "This law is true for soil, plant, animal, and man: the health of these four is one connected chain. Any weakness or defect in the health of any earlier link in the chain is carried on to the next and succeeding links, until it reaches the last, namely, man." Howard's work, decades ahead of its time, provides an insight into how he realized the value of organic methods though he went to India intending to teach the use of chemical fertilizers and chemical pest control. This text has been published under the title "The Soil and Health" and also under the title "Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease."
The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!
Put your backyard to work! Enjoy fresher, organic, better-tasting food all the time. The solution is as close as your own backyard. Grow the vegetables and fruits your family loves; keep bees; raise chickens, goats, or even a cow. The Backyard Homestead shows you how it's done. And when the harvest is in, you'll learn how to cook, preserve, cure, brew, or pickle the fruits of your labor.From a quarter of an acre, you can harvest 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds of vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, 75 pounds of nuts.
