The Farm as Natural Habitat
Reconnecting Food Systems With Ecosystems
312 pages
6 x 9
Book Description
The Farm as Natural Habitat is a vital new contribution to the debate about agriculture and its impacts on the land. Arising from the conviction that the agricultural landscape as a whole could be restored to a healthy diversity, the book challenges the notion that the dominant agricultural landscape -- bereft of its original vegetation and wildlife and despoiled by chemical runoff -- is inevitable if we are to feed ourselves. Contributors bring together insights and practices from the fields of conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, and environmental restoration to link agriculture and biodiversity, farming and nature, in celebrating a unique alternative to conventional agriculture.
Rejecting the idea that "ecological sacrifice zones" are a necessary part of feeding a hungry world, the book offers compelling examples of an alternative agriculture that can produce not only healthful food, but fully functioning ecosystems and abundant populations of native species. Contributors include Collin Bode, George Boody, Brian DeVore, Arthur (Tex) Hawkins, Buddy Huffaker, Rhonda Janke, Richard Jefferson, Nick Jordan, Cheryl Miller, Heather Robertson, Carol Shennan, Judith Soule, Beth Waterhouse, and others.
The Farm as Natural Habitat is both hopeful and visionary, grounded in real examples, and guided by a commitment to healthy land and thriving communities. It is the first book to offer a viable approach to addressing the challenges of protecting and restoring biodiversity on private agricultural land and is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of land or biodiversity conservation, farming and agriculture, ecological restoration, or the health of rural communities and landscapes.
Review Quotes
"...a book that would make Aldo Leopold proud...a testimonial to Leopold's Land Ethic and those 21st-century farmers, rural landowners, and policy analysts who are applying its tenets of conservation, restoration, and right livelihood."
Dave Egan, editor of "Ecological Restoration"
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword \ Nina Leopold Bradley
Introduction \ Laura L. Jackson and Dana L. Jackson
PART I. Agriculture as Ecological Sacrifice
Chapter 1. The Farm as Natural Habitat \ Dana L. Jackson
Chapter 2. Nature's Backlash \ Brian A. DeVore
Chapter 3. The Farm, the Nature Preserve, and the Conservation Biologist \ Laura L. Jackson
PART II. Restoring Nature on Farms
Chapter 4. Return to Coon Valley \ Arthur S. (Tex) Hawkins
Chapter 5. Reading the Land Together \ Wellington (Buddy) Huffaker
Chapter 6. Stewards of the Wild \ Brian A. DeVore
Chapter 8: Why Do They Do It? \ Brian A. DeVore
PART III. Ecosystem Management and Farmlands
Chapter 9. Nature and Farming in Britian \ Heather J. Robertson and Richard G. Jefferson
Chapter 10. Restoring Prairie Processes to Farmlands \ Laura L. Jackson
Chapter 11. Sustaining Production with Biodiversity \ Nicholas R. Jordan
Chapter 12. Conservation and Agriculture as Neighbors \ Judith D. Soule
Chapter 13. Integrating Wetland Habitat with Agriculture \ Carol Shennan and Collin A. Bode
PART IV. Steps toward Agroecological Restoration
Chapter 14. Composing a Landscape Rhonda R. Janke
Chapter 15. After the Deluge: Integrated Watershed Management in the Red River Valley \ Cheryl Miller
Chapter 16. A Refined Taste in Natural Objects \ Beth E. Waterhouse
Chapter 17. Food and Biodiversity \ Dana L. Jackson
Chapter 18. Agriculture as a Public Good \ George M. Boody
About the Contributors
Index
