Farming

Eating Animals Part 6

EATING ANIMALS JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER BACK BAY BOOKS                       2009 PART VI   Chapter 4: Influence/Speechlessness   On average, Americans eat the equivalent of 21,000 entire animals in a lifetime. Lam Hoi-ka Johan Hultin, a six-foot-tall Swede arrived in Brevig on August 19, 1997, and got right to digging. Beneath the feet of solid ice were …

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Feeding the 10 Billion Part 11

FEEDING THE TEN BILLION PLANTS AND POPULATION GROWTH L.T. EVANS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS                  1998 PART XI Chapter 10: The Sixth Billion (1986-1998/9) 10.1 Introduction: the recognition of limits In 1998/9, just 200 years after Malthus first published his Essay on the Principle of Population, the world population will reach 6 billion. That is six times …

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Feeding the Ten Billion Part 9

FEEDING THE TEN BILLION PLANTS AND POPULATION GROWTH L.T. EVANS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS                  1998 PART IX 8.4 Silent Spring: The gathering storm In Silent Spring Rachel Carson wrote of the alienation between modern agriculture and nature: ‘Single crop farming does not take advantage of the principles by which nature works. Nature has introduced great variety …

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Feeding the 10 Billion Part 7

FEEDING THE TEN BILLION PLANTS AND POPULATION GROWTH L.T. EVANS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS                  1998 PART VII Chapter 7: The Third Billion (1927-1960) 7.1 Introduction: Inputs and interactions Adding the second billion to the population of the world had taken a century whereas the third billion took only a third as long. Nevertheless, those 33 years …

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A New Green History of the World Part 3

Book Review Introduction In Part 3 of A New Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations, Clive Ponting tells us that “Extensive deforestation has been a problem for a number of societies throughout history. Wood is the one readily available resource for heating, cooking and construction.” “The effects of …

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Sustainable Agriculture Part 16

THE EARTHSCAN READER IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE EDITED BY JULES PRETTY EARTHSCAN          2005 PART XVI   PART V: PERSPECTIVES FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Perspective 27: Reducing Food Poverty by Increasing Agricultural Sustainability in Developing Countries by Jules Pretty, James Morison and Rachel Hine (Cont) Improvements in soil health and fertility Soil health is fundamental for agricultural sustainability, …

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Feeding the 10 Billion Part 5

FEEDING THE TEN BILLION PLANTS AND POPULATION GROWTH L.T. EVANS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS                  1998 PART V Chapter 5: Towards the First Billion (1500-1825) (Cont) 5.5 The Norfolk agricultural ‘revolution’ The Norfolk agricultural revolution exemplifies the complex inter-relations between population growth, industrialization and agricultural development. Its roots in England go back to the beginnings of enclosure …

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Sustainable Agriculture Part 15

THE EARTHSCAN READER IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE EDITED BY JULES PRETTY EARTHSCAN          2005 PART XV   PART V: PERSPECTIVES FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Perspective 27: Reducing Food Poverty by Increasing Agricultural Sustainability in Developing Countries by Jules Pretty, James Morison and Rachel Hine Introduction Over the past 40 years, per capita world food production has grown by …

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Feeding the Ten Billion Part 4

FEEDING THE TEN BILLION PLANTS AND POPULATION GROWTH L.T. EVANS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS                  1998 PART 1V Chapter 5: Towards the First Billion (1500-1825) 5.1 Introduction: from subsistence to commercial farming Although there had been several bursts of population growth, e.g. following the Neolithic Revolution and in early medieval times, sustained rapid growth really began in …

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