Sustainable Agriculture and Farming
Resources

Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture

Forty essays by leading ecological thinkers, poets, activists and chefs, as well as 250+ remarkable photographs. Describes our current ecologically destructive agricultural system—from E. coli and "mad cow disease" to pesticide-poisoned rivers and plummeting genetic diversity. Suggests solutions for sustainable food production. (by Andrew Kimbrell)

Ecoagriculture

Strategies to Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity

In this book, feeding the world, good farming practices, and biodiversity come together. Details 36 case studies showing how better-designed agricultural landscapes and technological innovation can improve biological diversity and increase yields simultaneously. (by McNeely, Scherr)

Why Grassfed Is Best!

The Surprising Benefits of Grassfed Meat, Eggs, And Dairy Products

Explains the advantages of products from animals that have been raised on pasture (as opposed to dirty, smelly, cramped feedlots, hog pens, and chicken houses). The benefits accrue not only to animal welfare, the environment, and small family farms, but also to human nutrition. Includes a state-by-state listing of suppliers of grassfed products. (by Jo Robinson)

Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them

Industrial agriculture is one of the causes of the "Six Modern Plagues" that Mark Jerome Walters says we've brought upon ourselves. The others are globalization, forest degradation, the bushmeat trade, and climate change. Coining the term "ecodemics," he explores how diseases such as SARS, West Nile Encephalitis, Lyme Disease, Mad Cow Disease and AIDS parallel environmental changes. (by Mark Jerome Walters)

Food for All: The Need for a New Agriculture

John Madeley specializes in Third World development, and here he offers his vision of how to achieve sustainable agriculture in the Third World, carried out on a small scale, without chemicals. Madeley's goal is to make agriculture work for small farmers, provide enough good-tasting food for all, and stop environmentally ruinous practices. (by John Madeley)

Eating in the Dark

America's Experiment With Genetically Engineered Food

Most Americans aren't aware that the corn and soy they eat is genetically modified, or whether that even matters. But there is a battle being waged for big profits and market domination, and the consumer is intentionally being left out of the discussion. Find out why you should care. (by K. Hart)

The Flower Farmer

An Organic Grower's Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers

If you want to grow great flowers and lean towards doing it organically, here's how. Based on interviews with hundreds of flower farmers. (by Lynn Byczynski)

How the Cows Turned Mad

Learn how mad cow disease relates to diseases like scabies, chronic wasting disease, and similar diseases in humans.
(by Maxime Schwartz)

Mad Cow U.S.A.: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?

They predicted it; now it's happened. Read how government cave-ins to the food industry put profit ahead of safety.
(by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton)

The Pathological Protein

Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases

Learn about the prion, the pathological agent responsible for mad cow disease. These nasty little buggers are worth keeping an eye on.
(by Philip Yam)

Lords of the Harvest

Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food

Agricultural biotechnology is quietly marching onward, surrounding your dinner plate. The campaign, led by Monsanto, has been underway for two decades. You may currently have little idea where your food comes from, but ignorance may not be bliss. (by Dan Charles)