By J. I Rodale
2 used and new from $6.00
First tagged by Clockwork Books
Customer tags: organic farming, farming, organic food, organic, agriculture
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The organic method on the farm (Paperback)
By J. I Rodale
2 used and new from $6.00
First tagged by Clockwork Books
Customer tags: organic farming, farming, organic food, organic, agriculture
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Plunkett's Food Industry Almanac 2011: Food Industry Market Research, Statistics, Trends & Leading Companies (Paperback)
By Jack W. Plunkett
Buy new: $299.99
First tagged by Jack W. Plunkett
Customer tags: investing, biotechnology, economics, finance, consumer goods, agriculture, marketing, globalization, innovation, future, business, entrepreneurship
Review & Description
The food industry is among the most competitive and globally-linked of all business sectors. Plunkett's Food Industry Almanac will be your guide to the entire food business, from production, to distribution, to retailing. This exciting new book covers everything you need to know about the food, beverage and tobacco industry, including: Analysis of major trends and markets; historical statistics and tables; major food producers such as Kraft and Frito Lay; retailers of all types, from convenience store operators to giant supermarket chains; emerging technologies including genetically-engineered (GM) foods; giant distributors such as Sysco; beverage companies such as Coca-Cola; wine, liquor and beer producers; tobacco, candy and gum; and much more. We discuss trends in food commodities demand, agricultural biotechnology, imports and exports, as well as growing demand in China and other emerging markets. This book includes statistical tables, industry contacts and indexes. The corporate section includes our proprietary, in-depth profiles of 450 leading companies, public and private, in all facets of the industry. Purchasers will find a form in the book enabling them to register for 1-year, 1-seat online access to tools at Plunkett Research Online, including the ability to view the market research/industry trends section and industry statistics. You have access, at no additional charge, to the very latest data posted to Plunkett Research Online. Online tools allow you to search and view selected companies, and then export selected company contact data, including executive names. You'll find a complete overview, industry analysis and market research report in one superb, value-priced package. Read more
Monday, June 27, 2011
What Is Hybrid Corn? (Extension Service of the College of Agriculture, Univ. of Wisconsin Circular 282) (Pamphlet)
By N. P. Neal, E. J. Delwiche A. H. Wright
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Structures of Everyday Life: Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century Volume 1 (Paperback)
By Fernand Braudel
262 used and new from $0.10
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Customer tags: civilization(3), early modern europe(2), economics(2), commerce(2), agriculture(2), capitalism(2), history, daily life, industry, architecture, innovation, europe
Product Images
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Your Chickens (Paperback)
By Gail Damerow
Buy new: $10.37
72 used and new from $1.67
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Customer tags: chicken(3), gail damerow(2), reference book(2), agriculture(2), farm animals(2), eggs, dvd regarding chickens, chicks, egg whites, chicken and the egg, chicken feed, diseases
Review & Description
Our friendly and encouraging children's animal reference series features information on selection, housing, behavior, feeding, health, and showing in mature yet easy-to-understand language, for ages 9 and up. Read more
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sand and Shovel (Kindle Edition)
By sandnwat3r
Buy new: $1.99
First tagged by Linda Lindall "sandnwater"
Customer tags: kindle authors, farm, homesteading, agriculture, shovel, garden tools, food science, gardening, goats, kindle blog, sandbox, home farm
Friday, June 17, 2011
True Cow Tales: Literary Sketches and Stories by Farmers, Ranchers, and Dairy Princesses (Paperback)
By C.R. Lindemer
Buy new: $12.95
17 used and new from $10.01
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Customer tags: country life(6), cows(5), dairy(5), farming(4), history(3), cowgirl(3), agriculture(3), cowboy(3), farms(2), beef(2), farm animals(2), cattle(2)
Review & Description
For the love of Bessie, grab a glass of milk, pull up a comfy chair, and partake of a cow tale or two!
These 40 stories by farmers and ranchers in the U.S. and Canada will open your eyes to what really goes on in those pastoral scenes with Holsteins, Jerseys, and other cattle breeds. Read about a 101-year-old cowgirl, close calls with bulls, cows and cops, steer roping, cattle branding, herds escaping, and the lovely dairy princesses promoting the healthful dairy industry.
Be an armchair traveler with "Miss Lait" (Miss Milk) on her 1954 trip to France, meet a cow called "Grandma," read up on milking cows with baseball players, and see how butter magically turns into the likenesses of princesses. Meet "Patty" and "Paige" - - the Mother's Day cows, follow "Ferdy" the friendly bull, and learn about "Lulu" - - on the loose.
"True Cow Tales is a true joy to read. If you have an association with livestock agriculture you will enjoy these short stories and poems. These brought back many memories of growing up on our family farm. True Cow Tales ought to be a part of everyone's family library and should be shared over and over."
- Ken Rahjes, Farm Broadcaster for KRVN Radio, Lexington, Nebraska
"As the world is further removed from agriculture, it's increasingly important to learn more about your sources of food, fiber and fuel. True Cow Tales is a truly moo-ving tribute to the beef and dairy industries, from the joy of buying your first cow and naming her Patty - yes, Cow Patty - to the wonder of watching a cow nurse an orphaned calf to the sorrow of no longer being able to financially support your farm. This anthology vividly depicts the importance of agriculture through a collection of stories and poems about the lives of farm animals and the dedicated people who care for them."
- James Henry, AgriNews Publications Executive Editor
"This anthology is an interesting gathering of a wide variety of stories and reminiscences regarding acquaintances and encounters with cattle."
- Heather Smith Thomas, rancher and author of Storey's Guide to Raising Beef Cattle (1998); Essential Guide to Calving (2008); Cattle Health Handbook (2009); and more than 9000 stories and articles about cattle and horses.
Ever moo to a cow - - or try not to? You may love cows more than you even realized.
For a laugh, check out "Cattle Sillies." Need some adventure? Then turn to "Bovine Drama." Favorite cows are the theme of a chapter by that name. For a walk down "memory lane," flip to "Bovine Wistfulness." And for something quite different, enter the world of "Dairy Princesses" and meet the beautiful young women who love cows and spend an entire year of their lives promoting the dairy industry and handing out milk and cheese samples. Cheddar anyone?
Follow your "inner moo." Read these stories for old time's sake, or just come along for the ride. And don't forget to drink your milk! Read more
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The End of Food (Hardcover)
By Paul Roberts
Buy new: $18.20
101 used and new from $0.36
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Customer tags: food(14), sustainability(8), agriculture(7), nutrition(4), organic(4), farming(3), natural resources(3), organic food(3), health(3), eating(2), local foods(2), agriculture organic
Review & Description
Paul Roberts, the best-selling author of The End of Oil, turns his attention to the modern food economy and finds that the system entrusted to meet our most basic need is failing.
In this carefully researched, vivid narrative, Roberts lays out the stark economic realities behind modern food and shows how our system of making, marketing, and moving what we eat is growing less and less compatible with the billions of consumers that system was built to serve.
At the heart of The End of Food is a grim paradox: the rise of large-scale food production, though it generates more food more cheaply than at any time in history, has reached a point of dangerously diminishing returns. Our high-volume factory systems are creating new risks for food-borne illness, from E. coli to avian flu. Our high-yield crops and livestock generate grain, vegetables, and meat of declining nutritional quality. While nearly one billion people worldwide are overweight or obese, the same number of people—one in every seven of us—can’t get enough to eat. In some of the hardest-hit regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of a single nutrient, vitamin A, has left more than five million children permanently blind.
Meanwhile, the shift to heavily mechanized, chemically intensive farming has so compromised soil and water that it’s unclear how long such output can be maintained. And just as we’ve begun to understand the limits of our abundance, the burgeoning economies of Asia, with their rising middle classes, are adopting Western-style, meat-heavy diets, putting new demands on global food supplies.
Comprehensive in scope and full of fresh insights, The End of Food presents a lucid, stark vision of the future. It is a call for us to make crucial decisions to help us survive the demise of food production as we know it.
Paul Roberts is the author of The End of Oil, which was a finalist for the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award in 2005. He has written about resource economics and politics for numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Harper’s Magazine, and Rolling Stone, and lectures frequently on business and environmental issues. Read more
The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City (Process Self-reliance Series) (Paperback)
By Kelly Coyne
21 used and new from $9.93
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Customer tags: self-sufficiency(29), homesteading(23), agriculture(12), environmentalism(11), permaculture(10), green(9), preparedness(7), green 3(7), frugal(5), gardening(3), urban homesteading(2), culture(2)
Review & Description
The Urban Homestead is the essential handbook for a fast-growing new movement: urbanites are becoming gardeners and farmers. Rejecting both end-times hand wringing and dewy-eyed faith that technology will save us from ourselves, urban homesteaders choose instead to act. By growing their own food and harnessing natural energy, they are planting seeds for the future of our cities.
If you would like to harvest your own vegetables, raise city chickens, or convert to solar energy, this practical, hands-on book is full of step-by-step projects that will get you started homesteading immediately, whether you live in an apartment or a house. It is also a guidebook to the larger movement and will point you to the best books and Internet resources on self-sufficiency topics.
Projects include:
- How to grow food on a patio or balcony
- How to clean your house without toxins
- How to preserve food
- How to cook with solar energy
- How to divert your grey water to your garden
- How to choose the best homestead for you
Written by city dwellers for city dwellers, this illustrated, smartly designed, two-color instruction book proposes a paradigm shift that will improve our lives, our community, and our planet. Authors Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen happily farm in Los Angeles and run the urban homestead blog www.homegrownrevolution.org.
Read moreThe Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability (Paperback)
By Lierre Keith
Buy new: $11.54
62 used and new from $10.95
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Customer tags: vegetarian(32), vegan(26), health(25), agriculture(23), ecology(16), food(16), diet(15), nutrition(9), collapse(9), sustainable agriculture(6), jensen(4), michael pollan(4)
Review & Description
Part memoir, nutritional primer, and political manifesto, this controversial examination exposes the destructive history of agriculture—causing the devastation of prairies and forests, driving countless species extinct, altering the climate, and destroying the topsoil—and asserts that, in order to save the planet, food must come from within living communities. In order for this to happen, the argument champions eating locally and sustainably and encourages those with the resources to grow their own food. Further examining the question of what to eat from the perspective of both human and environmental health, the account goes beyond health choices and discusses potential moral issues from eating—or not eating—animals. Through the deeply personal narrative of someone who practiced veganism for 20 years, this unique exploration also discusses alternatives to industrial farming, reveals the risks of a vegan diet, and explains why animals belong on ecologically sound farms. Read more
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (Hardcover)
By Michael Pollan
Buy new: $17.79
276 used and new from $2.87
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Customer tags: food(66), health(46), environmentalism(44), sustainability(40), diet(28), organic(20), organic food(19), agriculture(12), corn(9), foodie book(7), history(5), animal rights(4)
Review & Description
The bestselling author of The Botany of Desire explores the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the twenty-first century
"What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't-which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we're realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment. The Omnivore's Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America.
Pollan has divided The Omnivore's Dilemma into three parts, one for each of the food chains that sustain us: industrialized food, alternative or "organic" food, and food people obtain by dint of their own hunting, gathering, or gardening. Pollan follows each food chain literally from the ground up to the table, emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the species we depend on. He concludes each section by sitting down to a meal--at McDonald's, at home with his family sharing a dinner from Whole Foods, and in a revolutionary "beyond organic" farm in Virginia. For each meal he traces the provenance of everything consumed, revealing the hidden components we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods reflects our environmental and biological inheritance.
We are indeed what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the profound consequences of the simplest everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world. The Omnivore's Dilemma is a long-overdue book and one that will become known for bringing a completely fresh perspective to a question as ordinary and yet momentous as What shall we have for dinner? Read more
The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture (Paperback)
By Wendell Berry
Buy new: $8.52
65 used and new from $7.92
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Customer tags: agriculture(8), wendell berry(5), farming(2), traditional(2), self-reliant, fascinating read, berry, anthropology, wendell, food, agrarian
Review & Description
Since its publication by Sierra Club Books in 1977, The Unsettling of America has been recognized as a classic of American letters. In it, Wendell Berry argues that good farming is a cultural development and spiritual discipline. Today’s agribusiness, however, takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families. As a result, we as a nation are more estranged from the land—from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it.
Sadly, as Berry notes in his Afterword to this third edition, his arguments and observations are more relevant than ever. We continue to suffer loss of community, the devaluation of human work, and the destruction of nature under an economic system dedicated to the mechanistic pursuit of products and profits. Although “this book has not had the happy fate of being proved wrong,” Berry writes, there are good people working “to make something comely and enduring of our life on this earth.” Wendell Berry is one of those people, writing and working, as ever, with passion, eloquence, and conviction.The mid-20th-century environmental crisis that led to important protective legislation in the 1970s, is, to poet/farmer Wendell Berry's mind, also a crisis of character, agriculture, and culture. Because Americans are divorced from the land, they mistreat it; because they are divorced from each other, they mistreat those around them. Berry, writing in a prophetic mode, argues that if Americans are to heal the environmental wounds their land has suffered, they will also need to create more meaningful work, sustain happier and healthier lives, and return to what conservatives call "family values." The Unsettling of America is a quarter century old now, but most of its arguments remain current. Read more
The Gmo Trilogy And Seeds of Deception Set (Paperback)
By Jeffrey M. Smith
Buy new: $18.45
30 used and new from $17.51
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Customer tags: gmo(12), corporate corruption(11), agriculture(8), food(8), genetics(8), botany(3), government(2), corruption(2), biology(2), food science(2), farming, documentary
Review & Description
Now Jeffrey M. Smith’s best-selling book is paired with a new DVD and CD set that shows how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) put our health and environment at risk. This set will impact consumer perceptions and buying habits. DVD 1: Unnatural Selection
This stunning, award-winning documentary by Bertram Verhaag and Gabriele Kröber reveals harsh consequences of genetic engineering on three continents. Vandana Shiva, Andrew Kimbrell, Percy Schmeiser and others, describe uncontrollable, self-replicating GM contamination, failed crops, farmer suicides, and new GM animals that threaten natural populations.
"Best Film," (CineEco, Portugal), "Best Long Production," (IEFF, Brazil), and "Best Journalistic Achievement," (IEFF, Germany).
"Meticulously researched, excellently photographed" –Ökomedia
DVD 2: Hidden Dangers in Kids’ Meals: Genetically Engineered Foods
Shocking research results, inadequate regulations and warnings from eminent scientists explain why GM foods are dangerous and should be removed from kids’ meals. The dramatic story of how student behavior in a Wisconsin school was transformed with a healthy diet provides added motivation to make a change. It features Jeffrey Smith and more than a dozen scientists and experts.
"Hidden Dangers pierces the myth that our government is protecting our food supply."
–John Robbins, Diet for a New America
"It will change the way you look at food forever."
–Howard Lyman, Mad Cowboy
Audio CD: You’re Eating WHAT?
Jeffrey Smith’s riveting one-hour talk.
"The most powerful presentation I have ever heard on the issue of genetically engineered foods.
–Craig Winters, The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods
Seeds of Deception
This is the top-rated, best selling book in the world on GM foods. Smith exposes the serious health dangers of genetically modified foods and the corporate cover-up. A fast-paced thriller of industry manipulation and political collusion, combined with lucid descriptions of genetic engineering and guidance on how to protect yourself and your family. Read more
The End of Abundance: economic solutions to water scarcity (Paperback)
By David Zetland
Buy new: $20.00
First tagged by David Zetland
Customer tags: corruption, public policy, political economy, environmental policy, economics, economic policy, irrigation, water, bottled water, agriculture
Review & Description
In a past of abundance, we had clean water to meet our demands for showers, pools, farms and rivers. Our laws and customs did not need to regulate or ration demand. Over time, our demand has grown, and scarcity has replaced abundance. We don't have as much clean water as we want. We can respond to the end of abundance with old ideas or adopt new tools specifically designed to address water scarcity. In this book, David Zetland describes the impact of scarcity on our many water uses, how the institutions of abundance fail in scarcity, and how economic ideas and tools can help us direct water to its highest and best use. Written for non academic readers, The End of Abundance provides examples, insights and ideas to anyone interested in the management of our most precious resource. Read more
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Bio-Dynamic Agriculture: An Introduction (Paperback)
By Herbert H. Koepf
11 used and new from $5.94
First tagged by Book Lady "Book Lady"
Customer tags: organic farming, farming, soil erosion, livestock, compost, gardening reference, agriculture, farm organization, bio diversity, companion plants, crop rotation
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (Hardcover)
By Barbara Kingsolver
Buy new: $17.79
313 used and new from $1.19
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Customer tags: local food(126), sustainability(106), gardening(78), organic(66), living green(58), organic gardening(51), food(44), agriculture(26), worldchanging(20), cooking(12), healthy eating(11), best books of 2007 so far(8)
Review & Description
Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.
"As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain.
"Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . ."
Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.
"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."
Read moreDiet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It (Hardcover)
By Anna Lappé
Buy new: $15.99
75 used and new from $3.28
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Customer tags: sustainability(15), food(13), global warming(13), agriculture(12), environmentalism(9), sustainable agriculture(9), politics(5), climate change(5), sustainability and nutrition(4), nutrition(3), cooking(2), agribusiness
Review & Description
Beyond what we already know about "food miles" and eating locally, the global food system is a major contributor to climate change, producing as much as one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. How we farm, what we eat, and how our food gets to the table all have an impact. And our government and the food industry are willfully ignoring the issue rather than addressing it. In Anna Lappé's controversial new book, she predicts that unless we radically shift the trends of what food we're eating and how we're producing it, food system-related greenhouse gas emissions will go up and up and up. She exposes the interests that will resist the change, and the spin food companies will generate to avoid system-wide reform. And she offers a vision of a future in which our food system does more good than harm, with six principles for a climate friendly diet as well as visits to farmers who are demonstrating the potential of sustainable farming. In this measured and intelligent call to action, Lappé helps readers understand that food can be a powerful starting point for solutions to global environmental problems. Read more
Off the Air: Thoughts About Our Quality of Life (Kindle Edition)
By Terry Phillips
Buy new: $4.99
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First tagged by Terence G. Phillips
Customer tags: politics(2), npr, juan williams, entertainment, free speech, agriculture, bakersfield, commentary, fresno, central california, news, health care
Review & Description
For more than five years, journalist Terry Phillips served as moderator for QUALITY OF LIFE, the popular interview/call-in program on Central California's NPR station. He ended most broadcasts with some personal reflections ("CommenTerry"). Here is an oft-requested collection of his radio essays.
A few excerpts:
The marketplace alone should not determine the fate of our food.
Some people are born with a condition that limits their cognitive abilities. Others choose not to think.
The only certain outcome of war is death, disability, dismemberment and destruction.
There is no justification for people in this country to die simply because they were too poor to get basic medical attention.
At some point, someone needs to stand up and say, “Wait a minute. Unlimited freedom is not good for us.” Read more
Monday, June 13, 2011
A Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening - Sustainable Living Basics (Kindle Edition)
By Joy Adams
Buy new: $8.97
First tagged by Marion "Walters"
Customer tags: organic farming(2), farming, factory farming, agricultural, organic food, dairy, farm, farming and agriculture, agriculture, agribusiness, farming for self sufficiency, organic
Review & Description
Contents Include:
Organic Vegetable Garden Basics
Different Vegetable Gardening Styles
Helping Nature Through Organic Gardening
Why Is Organic Vegetable Gardening So Important These Days
No Backyard? Try Planting Vegetable Gardens Indoors!
Organic Vegetable Gardening Can Be Done Using Containers
Building And Planting Vegetable Gardens
Organic Vegetable Gardening Information
Organic Vegetable Gardening Is The Way To Go
Organic Vegetable Gardening Supplies
Safe Pest Control Tips
Organic Garden Guide To Controlling Pests For Your Vegetables
Steps To Composting
Sustainable Organic Vegetable Gardening With Organic Matter
Watering Of Your Vegetable Organic Garden
Vegetable Gardening Tips
Tips For Organic Vegetable Gardening
To Compost Or Not To Compost
Vegetable Culture.
Discover A Little Secret About Organic Gardening
You Can Do Organic Vegetable Gardening At Home
The Principles Of Organic Vegetable Gardening
Looking For A Few Choice Gardening Magazines?
Read more
HM Digital Waterproof pH Meter
By HM Digital, Inc.
Buy new: $79.95
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Customer tags: ph meter(6), agriculture(2), hm digital, aquaculture, horticulture, aquariums, fish hatcheries, environmental testing, coffee, drinking water, colloidal silver, hydroponics
Review & Description
Professional Waterproof pH/Temp MeterVery reliable waterproof pH meter measures with an accuracy: of +/- 0.02 pH. Measures pH and Temperature Auto-ranging three point calibration with digital fine tuning Includes 4 pH buffer solution in a sponge embedded in a clear cap, so you can see if it's dried up Waterproof housing Simultaneous temperature display Measurement Range: 0-14 pH Digital Calibration (push button) Auto-off function, data-hold function and low-battery indicator. Display: large and easy-to-read LCD screen includes simultaneous temperature reading. Factory Calibrated: The PH-200 meter is three-point factory calibrated to 4, 7, and 10 pH. The meter can be recalibrated with digital calibration using the push buttons, rather than a screwdriver. Includes a cap, batteries, and lanyard Read more
Blue Valley (A World War 2 Fantasy) (The Elementals) (Kindle Edition)
By Christine Rice
Buy new: $0.99
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Customer tags: world war ii(71), salinas(66), farming(65), agriculture(65), historical(64), soledad(63), science fiction(63), japanese internment(62), usda(59), elemental magic(43), romance(41), ecology(11)
Review & Description
At the outset of World War 2, with the government terrified of Japanese sabotage,
Will Leary is sent to California to investigate a spreading, deadly blue soil. When he falls in love with the magical woman who is unwittingly causing the destruction, he must decide between science and his soul. Read more
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Hartmann's Plant Science: Growth, Development, and Utilization of Cultivated Plants (4th Edition) (Hardcover)
By Hudson T. Hartmann
Buy new: $96.55
84 used and new from $3.99
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Customer tags: agriculture(2), crop science
Review & Description
Written by some of the most respected innovators in the field, this comprehensive text takes an in-depth look at the environmental, cultural and social factors that influence how plants are grown and used worldwide. The newest edition cites the most recent statistics, production methods and issues concerning the production and utilization of plants. It offers several web-based resources including a free companion website with practice questions andonline crop fact sheets that give information at a local level. Along with information on climate and environment, it also explores plants’ tremendous economic impact in both developed and developing nations. Introduces the basics of plant science including the ecosystem; climate; managing soil, water and fertility; and pest management. Examines plant structure, chemistry, growth and development; genetics and biodiversity and their relationship to crop growing and utilization systems. Covers multiple crop types and growth settings including nursery, landscape and greenhouse. Also discusses how crops are preserved, transported and marketed. For anyone interested in how plants are cultivated and utilized.
Read more
The Blossom Festival (Paperback)
By Lawrence Coates
Buy new: $20.00
43 used and new from $0.01
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First tagged by Lawrence Coates
Customer tags: rural life, historical fiction, california, coming of age, california fiction, agriculture
Review & Description
The Blossom Festival is a richly panoramic chronicle of rural life in the Santa Clara Valley during the decades before World War II. Against the lush backdrop of literally millions of fruit trees unfold the personal dramas of a fascinating cast of characters. This wonderful and leisurely read is an honest rendering of the complex relationships between parents and children in the changing context of a rich region of California that is leaving behind its agricultural past to become Silicon Valley. Read more
The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them (Hardcover)
By Wayne Pacelle
Buy new: $16.25
52 used and new from $9.95
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First tagged by John F. Schiff "aka JohnDopp, Doppler, Dopp"
Customer tags: animal stories(4), dog lovers(2), dogs(2), bear baiting, animal rescue, cats, animal welfare, agriculture, cat behavior, animal behavior, animal protection, animal shelter
Review & Description
A fascinating exploration of humanity's eternal bond with animals, and an urgent call to answer the needs of millions of at-risk creatures
A landmark work, The Bond is the passionate, insightful, and comprehensive examination of our special connection to all creatures, written by one of America's most important champions of animal welfare. Wayne Pacelle, the president of the Humane Society of the United States, unveils the deep links of the human-animal bond, as well as the conflicting impulses that have led us to betray this bond through widespread and systemic cruelty to animals.
Pacelle begins by exploring the biological and historical underpinnings of the human-animal bond and reveals our newfound understanding of animals, including their remarkable emotional and cognitive capacities. In the book's second section, Pacelle shows how the bond has been disastrously broken. He takes readers to a slaughter plant shuttered for inhumane practices, as well as the enormous egg factory farms of California. We visit Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas to speak with NFL star Michael Vick, then serving his sentence for dogfighting. Pacelle paints a portrait of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and highlights the heroic actions of residents and volunteers to reunite pets with their owners. Pacelle's narrative also leads the reader to remote locations in which conflicts over the killing of wildlife continue to play out—from the fields outside of Yellowstone National Park where bison are slaughtered with the encouragement of federal authorities, to the ice floes of Atlantic Canada where seal nurseries turn into killing fields.
In its final section, The Bond takes on the arguments of opponents and critics of animal protection and spotlights the groups and industries standing in the way of progress—from the National Rifle Association and agribusiness organizations like the American Farm Bureau, to surprising adversaries like the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Kennel Club. Ultimately, Pacelle points the way to a new, humane economy—one not built on extraction, suffering, and killing, but on the celebration, stewardship, and care of animals.
An eye-opening must-read, The Bond reminds us that animals are at the center of our lives, they are not just a backdrop. How we treat them is one of the great themes of the human story.
Read moreSell What You Sow: The Grower's Guide to Successful Produce Marketing (Paperback)
By Eric L. Gibson
Buy new: $20.70
41 used and new from $6.99
Customer Rating:
First tagged by Mark Jackson
Customer tags: homesteading(5), market gardening(4), farming(4), farmers market(4), farm(2), back to the land(2), produce marketing(2), pick your own(2), gardening(2), agropreneur(2), backyard garden, agriculture
Review & Description
The definitive book on high-value produce marketing for farmers and market gardeners, this book delivers hands-on information for becoming a master marketer. Topics covered include marketing plans; promotion and advertising; processed products; customer service; merchandising; pricing strategies; rules, regulations, and insurance; selecting crops for maximum return; and selling through venues such as farmers' markets, restaurants, roadside markets, pick-your-own operations, rural recreation farms, subscription farming, mail-order and retail outlets, and speciality wholesale channels. Read more
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The Biodynamic Agriculture Movement - by Dr.Tazo - A DVD About Waste, Nuclear Waste and the Biodynamic Movement. (DVD-ROM)
By Tazo
1 used and new from $17.95
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First tagged by Dr.Tazo "Dr.Tazo"
Customer tags: nuclear waste, farming, philosophy, biodynamic, rudolf steiner, nuclear question, nuclear energy, fukushima, agriculture, dvd, dr tazo, nuclear power
Review & Description
Learn about the importance of Biodynamic Agriculture in modern times.
The Biodynmic farms in Europe around nuclear power plants have no levels of nuclear contamination...what does that mean for modern mankind? This DVD explains why, and how people can help support this most important of impulses - the Biodynamic Agriculture Movement. Read more
Edible Gardening for California: Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits & Seeds (Paperback)
By Jennifer Beaver
Buy new: $17.21
20 used and new from $14.47
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Customer tags: vegetable gardening(3), organic gardening(2), urban gardening(2), agriculture(2), gardening(2), california gardening, ca gardening, fruit, gardening reference, edible landscaping, vegetables, herbs
Review & Description
Food plants have their own ornamental value, adding harmony to existing landscapes without creating a separate vegetable garden. They also provide a fresh, healthy alternative to the tasteless and woody fruits and vegetables bred for long-distance transportation and shipped to our grocery stores from all over the world. In this book, we show how, with just a little effort, you can augment your landscape with edibles of every description in an environmentally sustainable manner:
* Veggie favorites: tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, beans and onions
* Berries: blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries
* The superhealthy: flax, broccoli, kale and garlic
* The oddly beautiful: Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, asparagus and artichokes
* The ancient and exotic: quinoa, amaranth and fennel
* Plus starting, maintaining and harvesting an edible garden, propagation and winter care, and solutions to common garden problems. Read more
The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love (Hardcover)
By Kristin Kimball
Buy new: $16.26
77 used and new from $9.47
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Customer tags: farming(20), love story(17), local food(17), adirondacks(16), community(13), cooking(11), food(9), agriculture(8), memoir(3), organic(3), csa(3), homesteading(2)
Review & Description
"This book is the story of the two love affairs that interrupted the trajectory of my life: one with farming—that dirty, concupiscent art—and the other with a complicated and exasperating farmer."
Single, thirtysomething, working as a writer in New York City, Kristin Kimball was living life as an adventure. But she was beginning to feel a sense of longing for a family and for home. When she interviewed a dynamic young farmer, her world changed. Kristin knew nothing about growing vegetables, let alone raising pigs and cattle and driving horses. But on an impulse, smitten, if not yet in love, she shed her city self and moved to five hundred acres near Lake Champlain to start a new farm with him. The Dirty Life is the captivating chronicle of their first year on Essex Farm, from the cold North Country winter through the following harvest season—complete with their wedding in the loft of the barn.
Kimball and her husband had a plan: to grow everything needed to feed a community. It was an ambitious idea, a bit romantic, and it worked. Every Friday evening, all year round, a hundred people travel to Essex Farm to pick up their weekly share of the "whole diet"—beef, pork, chicken, milk, eggs, maple syrup, grains, flours, dried beans, herbs, fruits, and forty different vegetables—produced by the farm. The work is done by draft horses instead of tractors, and the fertility comes from compost. Kimball’s vivid descriptions of landscape, food, cooking—and marriage—are irresistible.
"As much as you transform the land by farming," she writes, "farming transforms you." In her old life, Kimball would stay out until four a.m., wear heels, and carry a handbag. Now she wakes up at four, wears Carhartts, and carries a pocket knife. At Essex Farm, she discovers the wrenching pleasures of physical work, learns that good food is at the center of a good life, falls deeply in love, and finally finds the engagement and commitment she craved in the form of a man, a small town, and a beautiful piece of land
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