Non-sustainable farming hurts everyone
581092
THE IMAGE OF THE BOOK IS INCORRECTCORRECT IMAGE IS ATTACHED. My farm is in Morton County, Kansas in the center of the Dust Bowl.  We are making the same mistakes now as farmers did back in the thirties.  "In the thirties....Planners demanded fresh thinking about traditional property rights of the individual [when] they threatened the community's welfare.  Among the goals of this new agricultural conservation were removing excess marginal acreage from crop production, preventing soil erosion through improved agronomic practices, rural zoning and other grassroots regulatory action, solving chronic farm poverty, and bringing the science of ecology into resource management" (Worster 186).  My farm has been in the Federal Soil Bank since the late 1990s, and we planted strains of drought-resistant grass on it.  The problem is that other farmers in the area have drilled deep wells into the Ogallala aquifer and are pumping it dry even though the aquifer lies under everyone's land.  One solution could be to develop the area for  wind and solar energy but, even though Morton County gets more wind than anywhere else in the state, and high numbers of sunny days, entrenched interests prevent the development of a modern, new electric grid.  They prefer to burn dirty coal and drain the fragile aquifer (it took a million years for nature to form it---at the current rate of depletion it will probably be gone in 50 years).  Want to understand more about the Southern Plains culture--read this book.
1855296
Mr. Flanagan starts with the world turned upside down.  What would it be like if humans were raised to be eaten by animals.  Heifer, the hero of this story finds nothing "humane" about the methods her father employs on his farm.  She takes off to find an Eden where humans will not be subject to to be consumed.  However, Eden turns out to be a dystopia with all the cruelty inflicted on animals to feed humans with their insatiable hunger for meat.  Eventually, Heifer makes it back to where she started and founds Open Valley where humans and animals live in peace without eating each other!  There may be peace in Open Valley, but storm clouds are gathering.  The World Court is about to decide whether production of humans as meat for animals can be resumed.  The meat producers promise a code of humane practices if production is restarted.  Is eating children just wrong?  The Court is about to decide...
4146390
An excellent synthesis of ecological history and the art and science of ag land management -- all written from the perspective of "sustainable living" (living within the limits of our global ecosystems).  In this book, Mr. Shepherd outlines the foundation of a "new agriculture" which will necessarily be adopted by progressive (or surviving) farmers to prevent collapse of their farming systems.  As an ecologist and an anthropologist who happens to own a farm in the Midwest, I've independently come to the same conclusion as Mr. Shepherd: Our current farming methods are highly unsustainable and will result in ecological and economic collapse if not reversed.  Shepherd goes further in his book by laying out the foundations for a new agriculture for the Midwest (and elsewhere), one whose methods turn agriculture on its head by rebuilding soil, replenishing aquifers, and relying on renewable instead of non-renewable inputs.  In a nutshell: Our current methods essentially mine and sterilze the soil.  Shepherd, a trained forester, encourages farmers to focus on long term ecological health and productivity instead of corporate farm profit-driven productivity based on annual crops and petrochemicals.
1550264
These Asian farmers were accomplishing something eons ago that the new Permaculture movement is striving for now. Why did things ever change? Big Chemical Demons stepped in and turned things around for a profit and our government has allowed it to grow till we are all poisoned by the air we breathe to the water we drink, to the food we eat. It is time to step back...

When you read the simplistic yet exacting ways that the earliest of farmers in Asian countries grew food and raised their meat/milk animals it is amazing. Everyone worked together to accomplish great things. Hard work was the norm and realized as a necessity to survival. In our day and age, it is just the opposite as man strives to get out of working hard for his "daily bread". Shame! Shame! Shame!

This book is for anyone interested in Permaculture, organic gardening, and sustainable living. After you read it all will make sense and you might just get on the bandwagon and help stop the chemical onslaught we are all exposed to on a daily basis.

Read and learn...
2286781
We all know the food industry spends millions studying the best ways to use marketing to reel us in and entice us to buy their food, but this book is a fascinating (and scary) look at how much money and energy they put into knowingly addicting us to sugar, fat and salt by making sure their foods stimulate our "bliss point". There is no doubt that this country is addicted to sugar, fat and salt, and we need to get a handle on these addictions very quickly if we are to reverse the obesity and other chronic disease epidemics. Reminds me all too much of the tobacco industry, and as such we must all fight for stricter regulations on marketing to children, and most importantly, fight the Farm Bill that has contributed so much to the obesity epidemic. We simply cannot afford to continue to subsidize the products that become processed food at the expense of fruits and vegetables that could literally save our lives. Read this book and get angry and DO SOMETHING! Obesity, diabetes, heart disease (the list goes one) are killing us and are going to kill our kids if we don't do something right now, today. Write your congress people and encourage them to do away with the Farm Bill and also to implement stricter regulations to control marketing of unhealthy food to kids.
2499095
This book is a really really inconvenient truth. Well researched and documented, the author explains why everyone in the entire world needs to eliminate all animal products (meat, dairy and fish) from production and consumption in order for the world to be able to feed everyone sustainably and avoid debilitating global warming. He explains how the land and oceans are being depleted and the adverse affects of eating animal products on our health. He does not think we can take "baby steps" and merely change our ways of food production and eating animal products, but that we need to cut out eating all animal products completely. He explains how the land that is currently used to grow grains to feed to animals that we eat could instead be used to grow healthier grains that would feed many more people and be healthier for the people and the environment. The book is in depth, scientific and presents a frightening picture of what will happen if we continue on producing and consuming animals the way we do now. Everyone should be made aware of this! However, awareness alone will not change us. I know. I understand this book and believe it. I have heart problems and am on two medications for that and I absolutely understand that I would be healthier if I ate no animal products. I have been reading various vegan and vegetarian cookbooks for the past year trying to find healthy real food recipes that don't include gross fake meat products and processed foods. And after reading this book, when I went to the grocery store - I bought a roasted chicken and some crumbled goat cheese along with the produce that I purchased. It was really good too. I imagine that if the animal products were even more expensive and good produce and grains were less expensive - and if I can find better recipes for vegan foods - including ones that my picky kids will eat, it might be easier to just up and quit consuming animal products. Our culture, beliefs and taste buds are hard to change though. If everyone were more aware of this, and we all work together on it, I think we can do it.
523222
Nicolette Hahn Niman is an environmental advocate and cattle rancher, and is also married to Bill Niman, the founder of Niman Ranch (e.g.,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Niman-Ranch-Cookbook-From-Farm-to-Table-with-America-s-Finest-Meat/dp/B005HKPFVM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Niman Ranch Cookbook: From Farm to Table with America's Finest Meat</a>), which attempts to raise food animals in a more humane environment.

While discussing modern meat production with a Sierra Club employee, she was told that "these aren't farms. They're FACTORIES!" (Pg. 7) She concludes that the disappearance of the family farm was not inevitable, but had been "aided by public policy and stimulated by individual entrepreneurs looking to maximize profits. Much of this 'progress' had occurred at the expence of farmers and animals." (Pg. 61)

She is shocked by the fact that at egg-producing operations, male chicks are killed almost at birth, and she observes, "I was baffled that anyone could consider a system 'progress' that throws away millions of newborn animals every year---one of every two live births." (Pg. 45) She details how the hens are "debeaked," because "hens' frustration and boredom caused them to aggressively peck each other." (Pg. 52) Similarly, pigs' tails are "docked" because the pigs in their crowded captive conditions bite each others' tails. (Pg. 108) By contrast, however, she finds that "most American beef cattle are raised in a way that I find morally acceptable." (Pg. 136)

She is no vegan, however, but a vegetarian. She deplores "how lots of vegans subsist on utterly unnatural foods... highly processed, industrial creations," such as pretend-meats, fake bacon, tofu jerky, etc. (Pg. 133) Noting that "I still eat eggs and dairy, plenty. My favorite foods include cheese, butter, yogurt, and ice cream (with eggs not far behind)," she now only uses products from "good farmers who treat their animals respectfully." (Pg. 176) Although she does not eat fish, she observes that with modern fish farming and the state of wild fisheries, "there are no good choices" about eating fish." (Pg. 218) [More controversially, she criticizes "vegan extremists" who feel that all meat-eaters are "a charter member of the axis of evil." (Pg. 258)]

Opinionated, this also a lively and heartfelt book that will be of particular interest to those non-vegetarians who are interested in more humane ways of raising animals for food.
1635638
Very informative video. You will learn really what is going on with our food supply. Large industrial farming has failed. The problems are enormous and will continue to wreck havoc on the uninformed consumers health who continue to buy this food. Surprisingly most don't care about health only about the lowest price. But if you do care this is a must watch documentary.
1392759
The one straw revolution is writen by a man by the name Masanobu Fukuoka a japaneese philosopher and farmer who mainly farmed rice and grains , in this book he not only introduces us to his knowledge on natural farming and do-nothing farming methods (a predeccesor to permaculture) which can also be applied on a small scale domestic herb or veg garden , he also shares his philosphies of the natural world and gives practical input to some of the problems our food indutry is still facing today , i personally think the world could be alot happier if everybody read this book ,i would recommend this book to anybody wanting to learn about organic gardening and its tasty benefits , anybody looking to live  healthier lifestyle or the common activist .i would esspecially recommend it to anybody who owns a large farm property and wants to learn about self-sustainability
3559586
Greedy corporations have taken control of our food chain and are poisoning us because it's more profitable to do so than to maintain more traditional standards of farming and food merchandising. Our only hope seems to be in farmers markets and natural food outlets. Sadly, even with this knowledge I'm still ingesting the poison found on every shelf of the super market.
1499849
The Western supermarket today is a testament to the power and efficiency of capitalism and technology. Even the Roman emperors did not have access to the amazing variety of fresh produce available, and thanks to agribusiness, bio-engineering, and globalization this produce is cheap enough even for commoners. And that's exactly the problem, as Paul Roberts explains in his excellent book "The End of Food." Food is so cheap today because of "externalities," an economics term referring to the costs not factored into the retail price. At an individual health level the "externalities" of food are obesity and cancer. At a social level the costs are pollution, soil erosion and desertification, inequality, spiraling unsustainable population growth, and so on. Externalities may be hidden long-term abstract costs, but someone has to pay them sooner or later.

Mr. Roberts' writing is academic and clunky at times, and his anecdotes -- which are meant to burnish his journalism credentials -- are unnecessary. But his explanations and analysis are superb, and paint a horrifying and all too accurate picture of our food past, present, and future.

In Mr. Roberts' story, evolution has designed our bodies to calibrate perfectly the amount and the type of food we need in our bodies. Our bodies mainly subsist on fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds because those were readily available throughout most of our evolutionary history. But meat has made us human: it was the proteins that permitted our brains to grow, and the fat that gave us time to pursue other activities than just hunting and gathering. No wonder then that we humans crave fat, sugar, and salt. Or, in Mr. Roberts' words, we humans were designed to seek the most calories for the least work. That was fine in a world of scarcity but fast forward to the twentieth century, and these cravings become a fundamental weakness and grave threat.

Many factors made meat and food plentiful. There was globalization so that countries who had a protein surplus (America) could export to countries with a protein deficit (Europe). The discovery of growth hormones and antibiotics made animals much bigger. The Green Revolution and the discovery of fertilizer were important breakthroughs. And then there was the consolidation of the farming into agribusiness, which could leverage economies of scale to bring the most meat at the cheapest price to the consumers. Finally, there was the demand from busy consumers in an industrial economy for fast cheap filling food.

Mr. Roberts certainly is not diplomatic about the consequences of these trends. Consumers are fatter and unhealthier than ever, prone to cancer and heart disease. And the world has become unsustainable. Arable land is over-used yet the human population continues to grow. More alarmingly, this food economy is fragile, monolithic, and all inter-connected. That means viruses can easily and quickly spread through this food economy, and investigators would have tremendous difficulty locating the source and thus halting the spread.

Our food future is either a famine or a pandemic that will kill tens of millions, according to Mr. Roberts. And right now nothing can be done because agribusiness has co-opted our political system to the point where transgenic food doesn't have to be labeled as such. But more important consumers are too much addicted to the additives and preservatives that make food so tasty and so cheap yet so poisonous (organic food is for high-end consumers). When it comes to food and eating, our legacy is now our curse.
3924032
Unless you live in Japan, you're probably not going to be able to take too many of the farming techniques mentioned in this book and apply them to your own agricultural endeavors. However, despite the name of the book, this is not a book on farming, gardening, or agriculture. It's a book of philosophy, in the context of farming.

Though it strays through topics of science, economics, social reform, reductionism, and many others, the core philosophy presented in this book is that the farther we get from nature, the more harm we do to ourselves, to our society, to the planet. Each incremental scientific 'improvement' in farming came with great costs, either immediate or long-term.

Thus, Mr. Fukuoka began his own farming experiment not with the idea of what more he could do to improve his farm, but what he could stop doing. Some of his advances are now somewhat common knowledge - tilling is now known to do more harm than good, but in his time, Mr Fukuoka was considered at best misguided, and at worst outright crazy, for suggesting such a thing.

At times, Mr. Fukuoka tries to explain his 'do-nothing' farming technique with specific scientific explanations. For example, pesticides may kill the bugs eating your plants, but they also kill the natural predators, and prey species rebound and adapt much more quickly than predator species. As soon as you spray once, you've got to keep spraying. You're better off fostering an ecosystem full of predators than trying to kill off the pests.

Other times, he goes to a much more holistic, philosophical level. The farmer should do less on his farm because that brings him closer to nature, which is an intrinsic good.

Mr. Fukuoka's anti-reductionism stance can easily be read as an anti-science stance, so any reader who believes science to be the pinnacle of human endeavors may be turned off by this point of view. However, he does make an awfully compelling case that scientific study is inherently narrow in scope, and nature is inherently broad, so science may never be able to satisfactorily explain nature. The step to 'Then why bother?' will, and should, be the basis for debate and discussion.

Would we be better off if we all gave up on technology, science, and academic pursuits and returned to the land? In some ways, definitely. In all ways? Mr. Fukuoka thinks so, and will do his best to convince you. (For example, he believes disease comes from being out of sync with nature. We wouldn't need all that fancy medical science if we'd all go back to eating natural foods and living natural lives, so the loss of medical research and doctors wouldn't be a problem.)

Whether or not you believe in his deeper philosophies, the rather scathing take on modern (even back then) agriculture is worth the read. Most of his claims are known to be true now, but the industry just keeps doing the same thing it has always done. Unfortunately, most people who read this book probably already know about super-weeds and nutrient depletion, so Mr. Fukuoka's words and experience may not get to the people who could most benefit from hearing them.
4405821
It seems that we have created a very hostile environment for ourselves. The house that we live in is filled with materials - carpet, paint, wood finishes - that fill the air with mutagenic materials and toxic gases. The cars that we drive emit noxious fumes and require non-renewable resources for their operation, and even the computer you are reading this on is made with materials that are harmful to the people who manufacture them and use them - not to mention the harm that is done to the environment once it is disposed of.

Many of the things that we take for granted are really quite silly when you look at them closely. We plop down houses, designed and built with no regard for their orientation to the sun, on land that has been stripped of trees that may have shaded the houses, or bodies of water that could be used to guide water runoff. Those houses are then surrounded by a foreign grass species that is forced to grow with dangerous chemicals, and then cut down with polluting machinery.

Many of the ways we impact the environment are more apparent, and attempts to alleviate them have gained in acceptance, but "Cradle to Cradle" argues that many of our "solutions" are simply patches for poorly-designed systems. They argue that recycling is actually "downcycling" - a process that results in a lower quality product with each cycle, that sometimes requires just as many resources as manufacturing a new product. The fact that soda cans are made with two different grades of aluminum, and are coated with paint, are a good example of unconsidered life-cycle.

William McDonough and Michael Braungart uncover many frightening side-effects of the way we live our lives and design our products. Most of the solutions they present for these problems are not currently feasible, but they present steps to take to work towards environmental utopia. The book itself is an example - its not quite the dream book they describe, with inks that wash off in a hot water bath and glues made of materials that can be recycled with the pages of the book, but "Cradle to Cradle" is printed on a very durable, heavy, and waterproof polymer-based paper that can be "upcycled."

There do appear to be some conflicts of interest in this book, however. McDonough and Braungart speak of clients of theirs - companies such as Monsanto, Dow, and Ford - as if they were environmental saints even though these companies have committed atrocious harm to the environment. But, where else do we expect them to provide anecdotes from? Also, it is true that the very power that enables those companies to do harm can enable them to do good.

"Cradle to Cradle" is a thorough survey of the environmental dynamics of the things and practices that make up our everyday lives. It is wrapped around a the framework of a fresh pattern of thinking that will hopefully bring us closer to living in harmony with our environment without abandoning our lives as we know them.
219798
Our current socio-economic system, with its perpetual consumption and waste, is outdated, obsolete, and unsustainable.  We need a system that is aligned with the natural world, where our policies are determined by the scientific method and natural law, that benefits humanity and our environment, and not just a fraction of the population.  This book explains the logic behind a new system that's built around these objectives.  I wish everyone would read this book!!
3099428
A sad but important account of how humans have come to "tend the garden" in a perverse manner, leaving our sense of humanity behind when it comes to our treatment of the animals we share this world with.  From hog farming, to whaling, to trophy hunting in Africa, (where animals are sedated and herded to the shooter who has paid plenty for this kill), Sculley opens our eyes to the value of the animal kingdom and how that kingdom is at one species' mercy, but acting without much mercy.
4321537
Yep, it's time the world realized the price of our appetite for breeding like animals. We need to analyze and debate this issue, before it's too late. The world is changing to desert quickly. How many humans can this planet withstand? We are the most destructive, self-centered, arrogant slobs in charge of a world! Nature will take it's course with the parasites on it's back, if we don't. Population control is the only answer... Death is not a question, it's an answer!
1484208
What goes on behind the scenes in the industry that puts meat on our dining tables is almost too horrendous to describe.  This documentary not only lets us peek inside these factory-farms (in reality, house of horrors), but shows how difficult it is to do anything about it.  Only an outraged public, en masse, will put a stop to these dreadful practices.

If I were seen by a neighbor treating a pet dog, cat or horse the way millions upon millions of pigs and chickens are treated every day in America, I'd have gone to jail alongside footballer Michael Vick.