Showing titles in Agricultural & Food Sciences

Farmers in some of the world's oldest agricultural areas were toiling year after year, only to find that modern industrial agriculture was turning on itself. Industrial agriculture's effects on our climate and environment were multiplying and worsening, until the very families growing the world's food were starving.

Beware! The sordid lives of plants behaving badly. A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. Amy Stewart, best-selling author of Flower Confidential, takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations in an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.

This practical guide gives you easy-to-follow and customizable plans for building the backyard chicken coop that works best for you. You'll get the basic construction know-how and key information you need to design and build a coop tailored to your flock, whether you live in a small city loft, a suburban backyard, or a small rural farm.  

Want fresh eggs but feel overwhelmed about where to start? You don’t need a farm, fancy tools, or past experience. This beginner-friendly guide makes raising chickens simple, affordable, and rewarding. Think chicken keeping is too hard? Let’s clear that up: You don’t need lots of land—small yards and patios can work. Chickens aren’t noisy or messy if you choose the right breeds and daily habits. Starting doesn’t have to cost a fortune—you’ll learn what matters most. Winter eggs are possible with the right lighting, feed, and coop setup.

From Josh Tickell, one of America’s most celebrated documentary filmmakers, comes a “fascinating, easy-to-follow blueprint for how eating in ways that nourish and regenerate the soil can not only help reverse global warming, but also bring greater vitality to our lives” (Wolfgang Puck)...

 Humans versus Nature tells a history of the global environment from the Stone Age to the present, emphasizing the adversarial relationship between the human and natural worlds. Nature is cast as an active protagonist rather than a mere backdrop or victim of human malfeasance. Daniel R. Headrick shows how environmental changes - epidemics, climate shocks, and volcanic eruptions - have molded human societies and cultures, sometimes overwhelming them.  

The organic grower's guide to planting, propagation, culture, and ecology. Trees are our allies in healing the world. Partnering with trees allows us to build soil, enhance biodiversity, increase wildlife populations, grow food and medicine, and pull carbon out of the atmosphere, sequestering it in the soil. Author Akiva Silver is an enthusiastic tree grower with years of experience running his own commercial nursery. In this audiobook, he clearly explains the most important concepts necessary for success with perennial woody plants.

Just diving into the world of bees? Have you wanted to start your own hive, but have been confused by the conflicting information on the Internet? Looking for an authoritative source on how to go about the business of bees and make money while you’re at it? Then this audiobook is what you need. With this guide, you can start your beekeeping hobby or business, knowing that you’ve got all the info you need so you won’t miss a beat!

By explaining the lean system for identifying and eliminating waste and introducing efficiency in every aspect of the farm operation, The Lean Farm makes the case that small-scale farming can be an attractive career option for young people who are interested in growing food for their community. Working smarter, not harder, also prevents the kind of burnout that start-up farmers often encounter in the face of long, hard, backbreaking labor. Lean principles grew out of the Japanese automotive industry, but they are now being followed by progressive farms around the world....

Acclaimed health journalist and National Geographic contributor Maryn McKenna documents how antibiotics transformed chicken from local delicacy to industrial commodity. Consumed more than any other meat in the United States, chicken is emblematic of today's mass food-processing practices and their profound influence on our lives and health. Tracing its meteoric rise from scarce treat to ubiquitous global commodity, McKenna reveals the astounding role of antibiotics in industrial farming, documenting how and why "wonder drugs" revolutionized the way the world eats.

Did you know that in the United States alone, an estimated 345 billion gallons of water are used daily? This shouldn’t be surprising–we live in a world of consumerism, and unfortunately, this even correlates to how we use natural resources like electricity and water. But what are you supposed to do? It’s not like you can just go without water.

Vor der Morgendämmerung genießt Helen Rebanks die wenigen Minuten der Ruhe bei einer Tasse Tee, bevor ihr Mann und ihre vier Kinder im Haus herumwirbeln. Es gibt auch sechs Schäferhunde, zwei Ponys, 20 Hühner, 50 Rinder und 500 Schafe zu versorgen. Helen Rebanks ist Bäuerin. In einzigartiger Weise erzählt Die Frau des Farmers vom Leben einer Frau auf einem modernen Bauernhof im malerischen Lake District Englands. Als junges Mädchen träumte Helen Rebanks von einem Leben als Künstlerin. Auf keinen Fall wollte sie wie ihre Mutter und Großmutter das Leben einer Bäuerin führen.

We need to produce more food. With water and food shortages already being felt in some parts of the world, this might sound like an insurmountable challenge, but all is far from lost. You may not have heard about it, but the sustainable food revolution is already underway. Amanda Little unveils startling innovations from the front lines around the world: farmscrapers, cloned cattle, meatless burgers, edible insects, super-bananas and microchipped cows.

If you're looking for a way to become self-sufficient in terms of your food supply, then pay attention...Establishing a mini-farm in your backyard is an immensely beneficial and lucrative initiative. It will help you to become self-sufficient in terms of your food supply and also allow you to live a much more sustainable life. Regardless of how large or small your yard is, you can build a farm on it. You will learn how to get started with backyard farming; in addition to the mini-farm, you can raise bees and create a profitable honey business!

Since first domesticating the chicken thousands of years ago, humans have become exceptionally adept at raising them for food. Yet most people rarely interact with chickens or know much about them. In Under the Henfluence, culture reporter Tove Danovich explores the lives of these quirky, mysterious birds who stole her heart the moment her first box of chicks arrived at the post office.

Marine algae are the supreme eco-engineers of life: they oxygenate the waters, create habitat for countless other organisms, and form the base of a food chain that keeps our planet unique in the universe as we know it. In this audiobook Josie Iselin explores both the artistic and the biological presence of 16 seaweeds and kelps that live in the thin region where the Pacific Ocean converges with the North American continent - a place of incomparable richness.

Albert Bandura’s ideas about the methods people use to avoid feeling guilty about harming others have led to valuable insights about many forms of mass violence, from wartime atrocities to terrorism and genocide. Happy Meat, Humane Animal Research, and Other Myths applies these insights to another form of mass violence: the many ways people harm animals. Each of the first eight chapters discusses how people use a particular method of moral disengagement to feel better about harming animals.

Have you been looking for a resource that will take you through the ins and outs of raising cattle from start to finish? Have you been wondering how you can handle something as daunting as a cattle rearing facility? If so, then you’ve come to the right place. This audiobook, Raising Beef Cattle: An Essential Guide to Raising Cows, Calves, Bulls, Steers, and Heifers in Your Backyard or on a Small Farm is exactly what you need.

Looking for a profitable, low-space livestock business? Frog farming is one of the fastest-growing niche agricultural opportunities—and this book shows you exactly how to do it. How to Farm Frogs is a complete beginner-to-advanced guide to frog farming for frog legs meat production. Written in clear, practical language, this book walks you step by step through breeding, rearing, feeding, harvesting, processing, storage, and selling frog legs legally and profitably.

Bloomsbury presents Chicken & Eggs by Mark Diacono, read by Gabrielle Glaister and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Chickens are a fantastic addition to a garden or outdoors space – you don't have to live in the back of beyond to have a few clucking around and giving you fresh eggs. They come in...