The Farm as Natural Habitat: Reconnecting Food Systems With Ecosystems

by Nina Leopold Bradley (Foreword), Dana L. Jackson, Nina Leopold Bradley (Foreword)

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.

Genres: Agriculture, Nonfiction, Food, Ecology

312 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agriculture and the environment share an uneasy co-existence. Ecosystems can get along fine without humans, but humans depend on resilient ecosystems to sustain food production. These essays edited by Dana and Laura Jackson are accessible and provide the foundation of the connections between food systems and ecosystems. With only a few exceptions—one in the UK and another in California—the essays focus on the Midwest and often display a parochial view of agriculture. Some of the essays are out of date as well. Nonetheless, anyone who is interested in agroecology can benefit from reading it.

[Ihsan Zahoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The modern mono culture crops have devastating effects on the agricultural lands, animal biodiversity. Soil quality has deteriorated due to excessive use of pesticides and water is being continuously contaminated from industrial dumping of animal waste. The book explores the ways through which modern food systems could be reconnected with natural ecosystems, for example by reestablishing the prairies and reintroducing of the permaculture farming practices

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looks at farming with nature in a relatively shallow way, seeing only the straightforward organic practices like crop rotation and hedgerows that give wildlife a marginal part of the farm; doesn't even consider more interesting things like Mark Shepard's Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers, which just builds the habitat into the farm. The problem with this approach is that it just works back to farming around the 1900s, which was diverse out of necessity but still perpetuated the already well-advanced destruction of North American biota brought by the European colonists. Otherwise, seems like a nice introduction to farm issues that destroy habitat, and harm the world, along with fairly simple modest ways to combat that, and a lot of practical experience dealing with community members, discussions of how to create the impetus in communities to support these practices. Awesome deep ties to Aldo Leopold and the Foundation.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read if you happen to be looking for something a bit more academic than Michael Pollan and have a devout interest in learning ways that could make our food system more sustainable. A collection of short pieces that is good to just pick up and a read a few.