Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle Reading App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Apple
Android
Windows Phone
Android
To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
$26.04
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Gift-wrap available.
Frequently Bought Together
{"currencyCode":"USD","itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":26.04,"ASIN":"0813191718","moqNum":1,"isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":22.99,"ASIN":"1849027730","moqNum":1,"isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":11.14,"ASIN":"0486436098","moqNum":1,"isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"0813191718::I1WRTd99czuRVwujZ4htuOSid2aX13YLpDXcmkt4Ru2lYPdHDcLXrGP7awyTJI9nOR1vghNkO2xLm1qQp%2FMOJVBnPCtuVtuFIcM6Fmcx6%2BNUHFwr3cDy9w%3D%3D,1849027730::ssu0oUfg0H6E4h6YGQlxewOEtbmtn5VeFx6BdUDpYtkfhMDqoip7rjSx9vdi7s6oKsvBrUlag6NRlAxH5E%2F9GYpVak4Lot1QBafzV9%2FjU5buzidcxGetrQ%3D%3D,0486436098::sRZMwk7To6xppGLO%2Bbc16ZA8kHbJ%2BscjzC%2FMHPfPstyNbUQXfSPSNwdX%2BoP9CSGf8BPmHlbNYshGAjMgUqVFyLrP%2BIFPkd1i79f5aK84Rrk%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"shippingDetails":{"xz":"same","xy":"same","yz":"same","xyz":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z","w"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["Add to Wish List","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List","Add all four to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart","Add all four to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:","Price For All Four:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items","Pre-order all four items"]}}
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Save Big On Open-Box & Preowned:
Buy "The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agricultur...” from Amazon Warehouse Deals and save 17% off the $29.95 list price. Product is eligible for Amazon's 30-day returns policy and Prime or FREE Shipping.
See all Open-Box & Preowned offers from Amazon Warehouse Deals.
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This is one of the great classics of the organic farming movement. This legacy ought to be better remembered and understood." ―Wes Jackson, author of Becoming Native to This Place"
"Howard realized decades ago that chemical fertilizers and synthetic herbicides and pesticides deplete the soil, which leads to public health problems, including disease and environmental destruction. . . Thankfully, the University Press of Kentucky has recently reprinted Howard's 'The Soil and Health.' Originally published in 1945, the book largely inspired out modern-day organic movement. The time has come to re-think Howard's words, especially in light of recent research showing what's in organically grown food might matter as much as the missing synthetic pesticide and herbicide residues."―Melinda Hemmelgarn, Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune"
"A no-jargon, no-ostentation, no-fooling-around book that is as relevant as it was when it was first published in 1947. If some of us can take from it that the basic concepts or organic agriculture are timeless―simple and "organic"―then this reprint has done its job." ―Claus Sproll, Lilipoh"―
If you buy a new print edition of this book (or purchased one in the past), you can buy the Kindle Edition for FREE. Print edition purchase must be sold by Amazon.
Learn more.
For thousands of qualifying books, your past, present, and future print-edition purchases now lets you buy the Kindle edition for $2.99 or less. (Textbooks available for $9.99 or less.)
Thousands of books are eligible, including current and former best sellers.
Look for the Kindle MatchBook icon on print and Kindle book detail pages of qualifying books. You can also see more Kindle MatchBook titles here or look up all of your Kindle MatchBook titles here.
Best Books of the Month
Want to know our Editors' picks for the best books of the month? Browse Best Books of the Month, featuring our favorite new books in more than a dozen categories.
Product Details
Series: Clark Lectures
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky (January 12, 2007)
The Soil and Health is a wonderful book that is equal parts agricultural science and environmental advocacy, with just a dash of kooky Nature worship thrown in. Howard was a conventionally trained agricultural scientist in the late 19th and early to mid 20th century who was employed by the British government to bring modern industrial agriculture, based on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides to Britain's tropical colonies. Soon, though, he realized the value of more traditional agricultural practices from India and China, especially in keeping the microbial, fungal and invertebrate life in the soil healthy.
If you believe in the value of organic agriculture, it is somewhat sad to see how little has changed since 1945. Howard confidently predicts in his book that organic methods based on compost would soon sweep the globe. Things have changed some, though. We can now buy "organic" labeled products in most markets in America, and I believe that more people have an appreciation for the importance of treating the earth well. This book does an excellent job of establishing and reinforcing that appreciation.
1 Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Jared Diamond and others have written about how civilizations have destroyed themselves by exploiting their soils. Sir Albert Howard said the same thing, but he said it 100 years ago. Howard was the father of the modern organic, holistic farming movement. This book is incredibly readable and will change how you think about food, soil, and the fate of civilization.
2 Comments
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
As a long time reader of Wendell Berry, I have been fascinated to read this book that Berry claims to have influenced his thinking to such a great extent. Sir Albert Howard is a wonderful science writer, able to lucidly explain complicated biological processes and marshall all of his observations in the service of a coherent argument about our relationship to nature. I see deep truth in this book, and an approach to scientific thinking that never loses site of our unavoidable ignorance or our ultimately spiritual destiny.
Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
[[ASIN:0813191718 The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture (Culture of the Land)]
Robert Rodale dedicated the September,1948 issue of ORGANIC GARDENING as a memorial to Albert Howard . I made this note from that issue, "The purpose of this book is threefold:to record my own observations and reflections, which have accumulated during some forty-five years, on the occurance and prevention of disease, to establish the thesis that most disease can be traced to am impoverished soil, which leads to imperfectly synthesized protein in the green leaf and finally to the breakdown of those protective arrangements which Nature has designed for us." Howard's preface.
Also from my notes, "The quality of our food and health decreases each year. In 1995the USA ranked 17th in life expectancy, in 10000 we ranked 24th. Countries are not ranked 17th in life expectancy on the internet at WHO Statistical Information System. Dr. Christopher Murray, MD,PhD of Who has this to say,"Basically you die earlier and spend more time sidabled if you are an American rather than a member of most other developed countries"
A God bless you to Wendell Barry for your introduction. I am still haunted by your UNSETTLING OF AMERICA;CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE which I read many years ago.
Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Sir Howard is truthfully the beginer of the organic movement if there is such a thing, most important is his critical analysis of the begining of the industrial agriculture and it's impact on our health. It is quite sad that this kind of literature is not compulsive for agronomy degrees, even for biologist, but we deserve to educate ourselves holistically on the impact of our decisions and of those that direct politics in the food chain.
It's outmost surprising that so early there was someone with a clear eye of the root of many health problems: the health of out soils.
1 Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
This item: The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture (Clark Lectures)
