The One-Straw Revolution

The One-Straw Revolution PDF Author: Masanobu Fukuoka
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590173929
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book,” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.” Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort. Whether you’re a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here—you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.

The One-Straw Revolution

The One-Straw Revolution PDF Author: Masanobu Fukuoka
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590173929
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book,” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.” Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort. Whether you’re a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here—you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.

One-Straw Revolutionary

One-Straw Revolutionary PDF Author: Larry Korn
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603585303
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
One-Straw Revolutionary is the first book to offer an intimate look at the philosophy and work of one of natural farming's most influential practitioners - Japanese farmer and philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka. This offers readers a rare insight into natural farming and what Mr. Fukuoka was like as a person. It explains how simple farming naturally actually is and why it offers our only real hope for reestablishing a wholesome relationship with the earth.

Sowing Seeds in the Desert

Sowing Seeds in the Desert PDF Author: Masanobu Fukuoka
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603584188
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
Argues that the Earth's deteriorating condition is man-made and outlines a way for the process to be reversed by rehabilitating the deserts using natural farming.

The Natural Way of Farming

The Natural Way of Farming PDF Author: Masanobu Fukuoka
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788185987002
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
...A natural way of farming that renounces all human knowledge and intervention. - preface.

Straw Bale Gardens Complete

Straw Bale Gardens Complete PDF Author: Joel Karsten
Publisher:
ISBN: 1591869072
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Provides information about how to use straw bales as planting containers for vegetable gardening.

The Soil and Health

The Soil and Health PDF Author: Albert Howard
Publisher: A Distant Mirror
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 463

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Book Description
This is a newly edited revision of Albert Howard's important text on organic farming and gardening, and the central role of humus in maintaining soil health and fertility. No single generation has the right to exhaust the soil from which humanity must draw its sustenance. Modern agricultural practices, with their emphasis on chemicals, poisons, and toxins, lead to the impoverishment and death of the soil. THE SOIL AND HEALTH is a detailed analysis of the vital role of humus and compost in soil health — and the importance of soil health to the health of crops and the humans who eat them. The author is keenly aware of the dead end which awaits humanity if we insist on growing our food using artificial fertilisers and poisons. Albert Howard (1873-1947) was one of the leaders of the British organics movement in the mid-twentieth century. He was the first westerner to document and publish research on traditional techniques of agriculture, including Indian and Chinese farming and management of the soil. "Agriculture is the fundamental industry of the world and must be allowed to occupy the primary position in the economies of all countries." — Albert Howard CONTENTS 1 - Soil Fertility and Agriculture 1.1 The operations of Nature - The life of the plant - The living soil - The significance of humus - The importance of minerals 1.2 Systems of agriculture - Primitive forms of agriculture - Shifting cultivation - The harnessing of the Nile - Staircase cultivation - The agriculture of China - The agriculture of Greece and Rome - Farming in the Middle Ages 1.3 Soil fertility in Great Britain - The Roman occupation - The Saxon conquest - The open-field system - The depreciation of soil fertility - The low yield of wheat - The Black Death- Enclosure - The Industrial Revolution and soil fertility - The Great Depression of 1879 - The Second World War 1.4 Industrialism and the profit motive - The exploitation of virgin soil - The profit motive - The consequence of soil exploitation - The easy transfer of fertility - The road farming has travelled 1.5 The intrusion of Science - The origin of artificial fertilisers - The advent of the laboratory hermit - The unsoundness of Rothamsted - Artificials during the two world wars - The shortcomings of current agricultural research 2 - Disease in Present-day Farming and Gardening 2.1 Diseases of the soil - Soil erosion - The formation of alkaline land 2.2 The diseases of crops - Sugar Cane - Coffee - Tea - Cacao - Cotton - Rice - Wheat - Vine - Fruit - Tobacco - Leguminous crops - Potato 2.3 Disease and health in livestock - Foot-and-mouth disease - Soil fertility and disease - Concentrates and contagious abortion - Selective feeding by instinct - Herbs and livestock - The maintenance of our breeds of poultry 2.4 Soil fertility and human health 2.5 The nature of disease 3 - The Problem of Manuring 3.1 The origins and scope of the problem - The phosphate problem and its solution - The reform of the manure heap - Sheet-composting and nitrogen fixation - The utilisation of town wastes 3.2 The Indore Process - Some practical points - The New Zealand compost box - Mechanisation - The spread of the Indore Process 3.3 The reception by scientists 4 - Conclusions and Suggestions

Getting a Grip

Getting a Grip PDF Author: Frances Moore Lappe
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458716619
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Designated by The New York Times Book Review as a must-read in 2008 for the next U.S. president, Lapps unique take and laser-like logic invite readers to try on a new, invigorating way of seeing the world. With her characteristic boldness, she takes on a set of disempowering ideas driving economic and ecological crises, challenging readers to rethink the meaning of power, democracy, and hope itself. In her punchy, no-holds-barred style, Lapp weaves together fresh insights, startling facts, and stirring vignettes of regular people pursuing ingenuous solutions. ""My books intent,"" Lapp writes, ""is to enable us to see what is happening all around us but is still invisible to most of us people in all walks of life penetrating the spiral of despair and reversing it with new ideas, innovation and courage."" This updated and revised edition responds to Obama's presidency and the global financial collapse, concluding with reflection questions that are perfect for book groups.

The Resilient Farm and Homestead

The Resilient Farm and Homestead PDF Author: Ben Falk
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company
ISBN: 1603584447
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
The Resilient Farm and Homestead is a manual for developing durable, beautiful, and highly functional human habitat systems fit to handle an age of rapid transition. Ben Falk is a land designer and site developer whose permaculture-research farm has drawn national attention. The site is a terraced paradise on a hillside in Vermont that would otherwise be overlooked by conventional farmers as unworthy farmland. Falk's wide array of fruit trees, rice paddies (relatively unheard of in the Northeast), ducks, nuts, and earth-inspired buildings is a hopeful image for the future of regenerative agriculture and modern homesteading. The book covers nearly every strategy Falk and his team have been testing at the Whole Systems Research Farm over the past decade, as well as experiments from other sites Falk has designed through his off-farm consulting business. The book includes detailed information on earthworks; gravity-fed water systems; species composition; the site-design process; site management; fuelwood hedge production and processing; human health and nutrient-dense production strategies; rapid topsoil formation and remineralization; agroforestry/silvopasture/grazing; ecosystem services, especially regarding flood mitigation; fertility management; human labor and social-systems aspects; tools/equipment/appropriate technology; and much more, complete with gorgeous photography and detailed design drawings. The Resilient Farm and Homestead is more than just a book of tricks and techniques for regenerative site development, but offers actual working results in living within complex farm-ecosystems based on research from the "great thinkers" in permaculture, and presents a viable home-scale model for an intentional food-producing ecosystem in cold climates, and beyond. Inspiring to would-be homesteaders everywhere, but especially for those who find themselves with "unlikely" farming land, Falk is an inspiration in what can be done by imitating natural systems, and making the most of what we have by re-imagining what's possible. A gorgeous case study for the homestead of the future.

The Organic No-till Farming Revolution

The Organic No-till Farming Revolution PDF Author: Andrew Mefferd
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780865718845
Category : Alternative agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution is the no-till chemical-free growing roadmap, showing how no-till lowers barriers to starting a small farm, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, increases efficiency and profitability, and promotes soil health. This hands-on manual is specifically written for natural and small-scale farmers.

Noah's Garden

Noah's Garden PDF Author: Sara Bonnett Stein
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780395709405
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Chronicle of the unmaking of a gardener with explorations into the ecology of backyard gardens.