For ALL Generations: Making World Agriculture More Sustainable [Paperback]

J. Patrick Madden (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0965576701 | ISBN-13: 978-0965576703 | Publication Date: June 25, 1997

Sustainable agriculture is not just a goal to be attained; it is an ongoing, dynamic process. Rather than a destination, it is a journey.

At the present time, the vast majority of the world's agriculture is non-sustainable. If this self-destructive trend is allowed to continue, future generations will suffer enormously. This book is about reversing that trend, by making world agriculture more sustainable.

On a tangible level, sustainable agriculture means raising food crops and livestock using systems that maintain and enhance the health of the soil and the environment. Part of a more general commitment to sustainable development, the goal of sustainable agriculture is to meet the food needs of the present without endangering the Earth's capacity to meet the needs of future generations. But the goals of sustainable agriculture go far beyond food security, encompassing many ecological, economic, and social dimensions. The goal is widespread adoption of highly productive farming and marketing systems that:

* prevent starvation through local food security;
* regenerate soils;
* enhance communities and family farms;
* promote the health of farm workers and consumers;
* protect the environment and biodiversity;

Gradually, governments are realizing the hidden dangers and real costs of chemical-intensive Green Revolution methods of farming. The public has begun to challenge the wisdom of industrialized farming systems that promise short-term gains, but yield long-term destruction, deplete and ruin natural resources, and threaten the health of both the people and their ecosystems. Donors and government officials are turning more often to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and innovative farmers in efforts to develop and encourage adoption of more sustainable farming methods. Successful efforts are highlighted, and persistent barriers are explored.

Part 1 includes 13 chapters on topics such as:

* Expanding the vision of sustainable agriculture
* Farmer-centered development
* Overcoming hunger and food insecurity
* Urban agriculture
* Public policies promoting sustainable agriculture
* Community Supported Agriculture
* Dominance by transnational corporations
* The increasing role of NGOs
* Can organic agriculture feed the world?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Frederick Kirschenmann, PhD, is a biodynamic farmer and President of Kirschenmann Family Farms, Inc., Windsor, North Dakota, USA. He is particularly interested in agroecology and the development of ecological farming systems. He holds a Ph.D. in Historical Theology from the University of Chicago and also is interested in the social evolution of our ecologically based production ethic.

Joan Dye Gussow, Ed.D, is Mary Swartz Rose Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Nutrition Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She served as a member of the National Organic Standards Board of the United States Department of Agriculture, and recently concluded a term on the US Food and Drug Administration's Food Advisory Committee. She served two terms on the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences. She has produced several books and a variety of articles on food and nutrition topics, including Chicken Little, Tomato Sauce and Agriculture, published by Bootstrap Press in 1991.

J. Patrick Madden, PhD, was founding Director of the federally funded grants program, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE, formerly called LISA). For 20 years starting in 1967, he was a professor of agricultural economics at the Pennsylvania State University. He was a co-founder and, until early 1998, was President and CEO of the private, nonprofit World Sustainable Agriculture Association (WSAA).

William D. Heffernan, PhD, is a professor in the Rural Sociology Department of the University of Missouri. For over a quarter of a century he has analyzed the changes in the agricultural system in the US and its sociological consequences. More recently he has documented the growing concentration in ownership and control of the global food system by a few transnational corporations and potential problems it can create.

Robyn Van En, pioneer of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), established the first CSA in the United States in 1985. An organic farmer in Massachusetts, Robyn was widely recognized as a key leader and innovator in the CSA movement until her sudden death in 1997.

Roger Blobaum is a Washington-based consultant providing professional services to organic and sustainable agriculture organizations. His international work includes serving as a consultant to the Regional Environmental Center in Budapest and the China Green Food Development Center in Beijing. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Organic Farming Research Foundation, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, and the International Organic Accreditation Service.

Bruce H. Moore, Executive Director of the Canadian PARTNERS in Rural Development, has extensive experience in development projects throughout Central America, East Africa, South and Southeast Asia. He has been instrumental in various Canadian and international educational and advocacy projects that have helped southern NGOs gain a greater voice in the North. He chaired the NGO Advisory Committee of IFAD for several years, and serves on the NGO Operational Task Force at the World Bank, and as the Northern NGO representative on the Desert Margins Initiative of the CGIAR.

Peter Rottach is working with Bread for the World (BftW), a Germany-based church development organization. He is in charge of the food security, agriculture and environment desk. Before joining BftW he worked as a scientific advisor to a soil erosion control project of the Tanzanian government.

Scott G. Chaplowe is a researcher, writer/editor, and advocate of just and sustainable approaches to development, especially in food production and security. He received his master's degree in Geography at UCLA, conducting graduate field research in Cuba for his masters thesis, Havana's Popular Gardens and the Cuban Food Crisis. In addition to this volume, Scott has worked with WSAA Los Angeles as a writer and co-editor (with Patrick Madden) of the report to the United Nations, The Emerging Role of NGOs in African Sustainable Development.

Product Details

• Paperback: 644 pages
• Publisher: Om Pub Consultants (June 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965576701
• ISBN-13: 978-0965576703
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,062,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)