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While some cities owe their existence to lumber or oil, turpentine or steel, Kansas City owes its existence to food. From its earliest days, Kansas City was in the business of provisioning pioneers and traders headed west, and later with provisioning the nation with meat and wheat. Throughout its history, thousands of Kansas Citians have also made their living providing meals and hospitality to travelers passing through on their way elsewhere, be it by way of a steamboat, Conestoga wagon, train,...

Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale's Organic Manifesto irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment. She traces the genesis of chemical farming and the rise of the immense companies that profit from it, bringing to light the government's role in allowing such practices to flourish. She further explains that modern organic farm...

How do rural Chinese households deal with the conflicting pressures of migrating into cities to work as well as staying at home to preserve their fields? This is particularly challenging for rice farmers, because paddy fields have to be cultivated continuously to retain their soil quality and value. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and written sources, Rural-Urban Migration and Agro-Technological Change in Post-Reform China describes farming households' strategic solutions to this predicament....

Anthropocentric thinking produces fractured ecological perspectives that can perpetuate destructive, wasteful behaviours. Learning to recognise the entangled nature of our everyday relationships with food can encourage ethical ecological thinking and lay the foundations for more sustainable lifestyles. This book analyses ethnographic data gathered from participants in Alternative Food Networks from farmers’ markets to community gardens, agricultural shows and food redistribution services. D...

Life on earth is facing unprecedented challenges from global warming, war, and mass extinctions. The plight of seeds is a less visible but no less fundamental threat to our survival. Seeds are at the heart of the planet's life-support systems. Their power to regenerate and adapt are essential to maintaining our food supply and our ability to cope with a changing climate. In Uncertain Peril, environmental journalist Claire Hope Cummings exposes the stories behind the rise of industrial agricultu...

This journey through the changing seasons at Rowfoot Farm - tupping time in the autumn, winters as wet, bleak and cold here in Cumbria as elsewhere, lambing and the glories of spring, a bucolic, bee-filled Eden Valley summer with its many shows and fairs - will reveal much that you need to know about the countryside, its quirky customs and ways, and most likely a great deal that you don't. They no longer burn witches (not because they're lily-livered, it's just that getting the necessary timber...

This volume identifies the interactions that must take place for the system to regularly adjust to national and international stakeholders' evolving needs, to inspire stakeholders' confidence and to keep them well informed about their responsibilities. It focuses on the transparency of communication to consumers and food business operators and their integration into the food control system. The FAO/WHO Food Control System Assessment Tool provides a harmonized, objective and consensual basis for...

With its seamless integration of biology, physical science, technology, and agriculture, this up-to-date edition presents the latest agriscience concepts while giving students a comprehensive introduction to the field. Divided into five sections (biotechnology, food and fiber technology, energy and power technology, computer-aided management, and environmental technology), the text covers a wide range of current topics, from genetic engineering to low-input sustainable agriculture. Through the c...

Water scarcity is on everyone's mind. Long taken for granted, water availability has entered the realm of economics, politics, and people's food and lifestyle choices. But as anxiety mounts - even as a swath of California farmland has been left fallow and extremist groups worldwide exploit the desperation of people losing livelihoods to desertification - many are finding new routes to water security with key implications for food access, economic resilience, and climate change. Water does not pe...

In this book poultry diseases that are directly related to the gastrointestinal tract, as well as diseases that are not directly, but that could be influenced by, the intestinal health are covered. In addition, the impact of human pathogens harboured by poultry is also discussed. As a background to understanding the covered topics, basic insights in poultry anatomy, physiology and immunology are given. The book also contains pictures that aid in the description of poultry anatomy, digestive p...

America has never felt more divided. But in the midst of all the acrimony comes one of the most promising movements in our country's history. People of all races, faiths, and political persuasions are coming together to restore America's natural wealth: its ability to produce healthy foods. In Food from the Radical Center, Gary Nabhan tells the stories of diverse communities who are getting their hands dirty and bringing back North America's unique fare: bison, sturgeon, camas lilies, ancient...

This comprehensive book is essential reading for all those responsible for the achievement of high levels of output from pig units. Focusing on the complexity of accurately identifying the real causes of performance problems, the book emphasizes the importance of realistically appraising all the available evidence, including pig unit data and observation, before reaching firm conclusions.