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quarta-feira, 10 de outubro de 2012

Soil to Sky : of agroecology versus industrial agriculture' by The Christiansen Fund

http://www.campaignforrealfarming.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Soil-to-Sky-infographic-1.pdf

sábado, 14 de abril de 2012

Agriculture Course : The Birth of the Biodynamic Method

http://www.steinerbooks.org/detail.html?id=9781855841482

Rudolf Steiner, Preface by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Translated by George Adams

When Rudolf Steiner gave these lectures eighty years ago, industrial farming was on the rise and organic methods were being replaced in the name of science, efficiency, and technology. With the widespread alarm over food quality in recent years, and with the growth of the organic movement and its mainstream acceptance, perceptions are changing. The qualitative aspect of food is on the agenda again, and in this context Steiner’s only course of lectures on agriculture is critical to the current debate.

With these talks, Steiner created and launched “biodynamic” farming—a form of agriculture that has come to be regarded as the best organically produced food. However, the agriculture Steiner speaks of here is much more than organic—it involves working with the cosmos, with the earth, and with spiritual beings. To facilitate this, Steiner prescribes specific “preparations” for the soil, as well as other distinct methods born from his profound understanding of the material and spiritual worlds. He presents a comprehensive picture of the complex dynamic relationships at work in nature and gives basic indications of the practical measures needed to bring them into full play.

These lectures are reprinted here in the “classic” translation made by Rudolf Steiner's English interpreter, George Adams. This edition also features a preface by Steiner's colleague the medical doctor Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, as well as eight color plates.

This is the course that began the biodynamic movement. This is the essential work for anyone wanting to understand and use Steiner's methods of food production.

quarta-feira, 22 de fevereiro de 2012

Nature's Matrix: Linking Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty

http://www.powells.com/biblio/61-9781844077823-1

Landscapes are frequently seen as fragments of natural habitat surrounded by a 'sea' of agriculture. But recent ecological theory shows that the nature of these fragments is not nearly as important for conservation as is the nature of the matrix of agriculture that surrounds them. Local extinctions from conservation fragments are inevitable and must be balanced by migrations if massive extinction is to be avoided. High migration rates only occur in what the authors refer to as 'high quality' matrices, which are created by alternative agroecological techniques, as opposed to the industrial monocultural model of agriculture. The authors argue that the only way to promote such high quality matrices is to work with rural social movements. Their ideas are at odds with the major trends of some of the large conservation organizations that emphasize targeted land purchases of protected areas. They argue that recent advances in ecological research make such a general approach anachronistic and call, rather, for solidarity with the small farmers around the world who are currently struggling to attain food sovereignty. Nature's Matrix proposes a radically new approach to the conservation of biodiversity based on recent advances in the science of ecology plus political realities, particularly in the world's tropical regions.

Authors:
Ivette Perfecto is Professor of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan.
John Vandermeer is Asa Gray University Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan.
Angus Wright is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Studies at California State University Sacramento.