Bet the Farm

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Publisher : Island Press
ISBN 13 : 164283159X
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (428 download)

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Book Synopsis Bet the Farm by : Beth Hoffman

Download or read book Bet the Farm written by Beth Hoffman and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Eloquent and detailed...It's hard to have hope, but the organized observations and plans of Hoffman and people like her give me some. Read her book -- and listen." -- Jane Smiley, The Washington Post In her late 40s, Beth Hoffman decided to upend her comfortable life as a professor and journalist to move to her husband's family ranch in Iowa--all for the dream of becoming a farmer. There was just one problem: money. Half of America's two million farms made less than $300 in 2019, and many struggle just to stay afloat. Bet the Farm chronicles this struggle through Beth's eyes. She must contend with her father-in-law, who is reluctant to hand over control of the land. Growing oats is good for the environment but ends up being very bad for the wallet. And finding somewhere, in the midst of COVID-19, to slaughter grass finished beef is a nightmare. If Beth can't make it, how can farmers who confront racism, lack access to land, or don't have other jobs to fall back on hack it? Bet the Farm is a first-hand account of the perils of farming today and a personal exploration of more just and sustainable ways of producing food.

An Agriculture that Makes Sense

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 52 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis An Agriculture that Makes Sense by : Charlene Chan-Muehlbauer

Download or read book An Agriculture that Makes Sense written by Charlene Chan-Muehlbauer and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains studies that were conducted by the Land Stewardship Project in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Sustainable Agriculture Program in an effort to document some of the numerous strategies being used by Minnesota farmers to produce healthy crops and livestock as well as healthy profits. Includes case studies of three farms. Photos, charts, tables and graphs.

Improving Data Collection and Measurement of Complex Farms

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Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 030948460X
Total Pages : 199 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Improving Data Collection and Measurement of Complex Farms by : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Download or read book Improving Data Collection and Measurement of Complex Farms written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's farms and farmers are integral to the U.S. economy and, more broadly, to the nation's social and cultural fabric. A healthy agricultural sector helps ensure a safe and reliable food supply, improves energy security, and contributes to employment and economic development, traditionally in small towns and rural areas where farming serves as a nexus for related sectors from farm machinery manufacturing to food processing. The agricultural sector also plays a role in the nation's overall economic growth by providing crucial raw inputs for the production of a wide range of goods and services, including many that generate substantial export value. If the agricultural sector is to be accurately understood and the policies that affect its functioning are to remain well informed, the statistical system's data collection programs must be periodically revisited to ensure they are keeping up with current realities. This report reviews current information and makes recommendations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and Economic Research Service (ERS) to help identify effective methods for collecting data and reporting information about American agriculture, given increased complexity and other changes in farm business structure in recent decades.

Farming for Us All

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Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271097914
Total Pages : 335 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Farming for Us All by : Michael Bell

Download or read book Farming for Us All written by Michael Bell and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Explores the sustainability of American Agriculture, and possibilities for social, environmental, and economic change that practical, dialogic agriculture presents"--

Tomorrow's Table

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199742421
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis Tomorrow's Table by : Pamela C. Ronald

Download or read book Tomorrow's Table written by Pamela C. Ronald and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-08 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the year 2050, Earth's population will double. If we continue with current farming practices, vast amounts of wilderness will be lost, millions of birds and billions of insects will die, and the public will lose billions of dollars as a consequence of environmental degradation. Clearly, there must be a better way to meet the need for increased food production. Written as part memoir, part instruction, and part contemplation, Tomorrow's Table argues that a judicious blend of two important strands of agriculture--genetic engineering and organic farming--is key to helping feed the world's growing population in an ecologically balanced manner. Pamela Ronald, a geneticist, and her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer, take the reader inside their lives for roughly a year, allowing us to look over their shoulders so that we can see what geneticists and organic farmers actually do. The reader sees the problems that farmers face, trying to provide larger yields without resorting to expensive or environmentally hazardous chemicals, a problem that will loom larger and larger as the century progresses. They learn how organic farmers and geneticists address these problems. This book is for consumers, farmers, and policy decision makers who want to make food choices and policy that will support ecologically responsible farming practices. It is also for anyone who wants accurate information about organic farming, genetic engineering, and their potential impacts on human health and the environment.

The Lean Farm

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Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1603585923
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis The Lean Farm by : Ben Hartman

Download or read book The Lean Farm written by Ben Hartman and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2015 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical, systems-based approach for a more sustainable farming operation To many people today, using the words "factory" and "farm" in the same sentence is nothing short of sacrilege. In many cases, though, the same sound business practices apply whether you are producing cars or carrots. Author Ben Hartman and other young farmers are increasingly finding that incorporating the best new ideas from business into their farming can drastically cut their wastes and increase their profits, making their farms more environmentally and economically sustainable. 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 on progressive farms around the world. Using examples from his own family's one-acre community-supported farm in Indiana, Hartman clearly instructs other small farmers in how to incorporate lean practices in each step of their production chain, from starting a farm and harvesting crops to training employees and selling goods. While the intended audience for this book is small-scale farmers who are part of the growing local food movement, Hartman's prescriptions for high-value, low-cost production apply to farms and businesses of almost any size or scale that hope to harness the power of lean in their production processes.

Farming for Our Future

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781585762378
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (623 download)

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Book Synopsis Farming for Our Future by : PETER H.. ROSENBERG LEHNER (NATHAN A.)

Download or read book Farming for Our Future written by PETER H.. ROSENBERG LEHNER (NATHAN A.) and published by . This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farming for Our Future examines the policies and legal reforms necessary to accelerate the adoption of practices that can make agriculture in the United States climate-neutral or better. These proven practices will also make our food system more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Agriculture's contribution to climate change is substantial--much more so than official figures suggest--and we will not be able to achieve our overall mitigation goals unless agricultural emissions sharply decline. Fortunately, farms and ranches can be a major part of the climate solution, while protecting biodiversity, strengthening rural communities, and improving the lives of the workers who cultivate our crops and rear our animals. The importance of agricultural climate solutions can not be underestimated; it is a critical element both in ensuring our food security and limiting climate change. This book provides essential solutions to address the greatest crises of our time.

Cultivating Knowledge

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Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 0816539634
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Cultivating Knowledge by : Andrew Flachs

Download or read book Cultivating Knowledge written by Andrew Flachs and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A single seed is more than just the promise of a plant. In rural south India, seeds represent diverging paths toward a sustainable livelihood. Development programs and global agribusiness promote genetically modified seeds and organic certification as a path toward more sustainable cotton production, but these solutions mask a complex web of economic, social, political, and ecological issues that may have consequences as dire as death. In Cultivating Knowledge anthropologist Andrew Flachs shows how rural farmers come to plant genetically modified or certified organic cotton, sometimes during moments of agrarian crisis. Interweaving ethnographic detail, discussions of ecological knowledge, and deep history, Flachs uncovers the unintended consequences of new technologies, which offer great benefits to some—but at others’ expense. Flachs shows that farmers do not make simple cost-benefit analyses when evaluating new technologies and options. Their evaluation of development is a complex and shifting calculation of social meaning, performance, economics, and personal aspiration. Only by understanding this complicated nexus can we begin to understand sustainable agriculture. By comparing the experiences of farmers engaged with these mutually exclusive visions for the future of agriculture, Cultivating Knowledge investigates the human responses to global agrarian change. It illuminates the local impact of global changes: the slow, persistent dangers of pesticides, inequalities in rural life, the aspirations of people who grow fibers sent around the world, the place of ecological knowledge in modern agriculture, and even the complex threat of suicide. It all begins with a seed.

Rethinking Food and Agriculture

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Publisher : Woodhead Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0128164115
Total Pages : 478 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (281 download)

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Book Synopsis Rethinking Food and Agriculture by : Amir Kassam

Download or read book Rethinking Food and Agriculture written by Amir Kassam and published by Woodhead Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-18 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given the central role of the food and agriculture system in driving so many of the connected ecological, social and economic threats and challenges we currently face, Rethinking Food and Agriculture reviews, reassesses and reimagines the current food and agriculture system and the narrow paradigm in which it operates. Rethinking Food and Agriculture explores and uncovers some of the key historical, ethical, economic, social, cultural, political, and structural drivers and root causes of unsustainability, degradation of the agricultural environment, destruction of nature, short-comings in science and knowledge systems, inequality, hunger and food insecurity, and disharmony. It reviews efforts towards ‘sustainable development’, and reassesses whether these efforts have been implemented with adequate responsibility, acceptable societal and environmental costs and optimal engagement to secure sustainability, equity and justice. The book highlights the many ways that farmers and their communities, civil society groups, social movements, development experts, scientists and others have been raising awareness of these issues, implementing solutions and forging ‘new ways forward’, for example towards paradigms of agriculture, natural resource management and human nutrition which are more sustainable and just. Rethinking Food and Agriculture proposes ways to move beyond the current limited view of agro-ecological sustainability towards overall sustainability of the food and agriculture system based on the principle of ‘inclusive responsibility’. Inclusive responsibility encourages ecosystem sustainability based on agro-ecological and planetary limits to sustainable resource use for production and livelihoods. Inclusive responsibility also places importance on quality of life, pluralism, equity and justice for all and emphasises the health, well-being, sovereignty, dignity and rights of producers, consumers and other stakeholders, as well as of nonhuman animals and the natural world. Explores some of the key drivers and root causes of unsustainability , degradation of the agricultural environment and destruction of nature Highlights the many ways that different stakeholders have been forging 'new ways forward' towards alternative paradigms of agriculture, human nutrition and political economy, which are more sustainable and just Proposes ways to move beyong the current unsustainable exploitation of natural resources towards agroecological sustainability and overall sustainability of the food and agriculture system based on 'inclusive responsibility'

A Better Planet

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 030024889X
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis A Better Planet by : Daniel C. Esty

Download or read book A Better Planet written by Daniel C. Esty and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical, bipartisan call to action from the world’s leading thinkers on the environment and sustainability Sustainability has emerged as a global priority over the past several years. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the adoption of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals through the United Nations have highlighted the need to address critical challenges such as the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, water shortages, and air pollution. But in the United States, partisan divides, regional disputes, and deep disagreements over core principles have made it nearly impossible to chart a course toward a sustainable future. This timely new book, edited by celebrated scholar Daniel C. Esty, offers fresh thinking and forward-looking solutions from environmental thought leaders across the political spectrum. The book’s forty essays cover such subjects as ecology, environmental justice, Big Data, public health, and climate change, all with an emphasis on sustainability. The book focuses on moving toward sustainability through actionable, bipartisan approaches based on rigorous analytical research.

The Good Farmer

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351749749
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (517 download)

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Book Synopsis The Good Farmer by : Rob J.F. Burton

Download or read book The Good Farmer written by Rob J.F. Burton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-13 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Developed by leading authors in the field, this book offers a cohesive and definitive theorisation of the concept of the 'good farmer', integrating historical analysis, critique of contemporary applications of good farming concepts, and new case studies, providing a springboard for future research. The concept of the good farmer has emerged in recent years as part of a move away from attitude and economic-based understandings of farm decision-making towards a deeper understanding of culture and symbolism in agriculture. The Good Farmer shows why agricultural production is socially and culturally, as well as economically, important. It explores the history of the concept and its position in contemporary theory, as well as its use and meaning in a variety of different contexts, including landscape, environment, gender, society, and as a tool for resistance. By exploring the idea of the good farmer, it reveals the often-unforeseen assumptions implicit in food and agricultural policy that draw on culture, identity, and presumed notions of what is 'good'. The book concludes by considering the potential of the good farmer concept for addressing future, emerging issues in agriculture. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of food and agriculture and rural development, as well as professionals and policymakers involved in the food and agricultural industry.

Together at the Table

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Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 027102268X
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Together at the Table by : Patricia Allen

Download or read book Together at the Table written by Patricia Allen and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-08-26 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everywhere you look people are more aware of what they eat and where their food comes from. In a cafeteria in Los Angeles, children make their lunchtime food choices at fresh-fruit and salad bars stocked with local foods. In a community garden in New York, low-income residents are producing organically grown fruits and vegetables for their own use and to sell at market. In Madison, Wisconsin, shoppers select their food from a bounty of choices at a vibrant farmers’ market. Together at the Table is about people throughout the United States who are building successful alternatives to the contemporary agrifood system and their prospects for the future. At the heart of these efforts are the movements for sustainable agriculture and community food security. Both movements seek to reconstruct the agrifood system—the food production chain, from the growing of crops to food production and distribution—to become more ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just. Allen describes the ways in which people working in these movements view the world and how they see their place in challenging and reshaping the agrifood system. She also shows how ideas and practices of sustainable agriculture and community food security have already woven their way into the dominant agrifood institutions. Allen explores the possibilities this process may hold for improving social and environmental justice in the American agrifood system. Together at the Table is an important reminder that much work still remains to be done. Now that the ideas and priorities of alternative food movements have taken hold, it is time for the next—even more challenging—step. Alternative agrifood movements must acknowledge and address the deeper structural and cultural patterns that constrain the long-term resolution of social and environmental problems in the agrifood system.

Source Book of Sustainable Agriculture for Educators, Producers and Other Agricultural Professionals

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Author :
Publisher : DIANE Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0788148281
Total Pages : 137 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (881 download)

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Book Synopsis Source Book of Sustainable Agriculture for Educators, Producers and Other Agricultural Professionals by : Valerie Berton

Download or read book Source Book of Sustainable Agriculture for Educators, Producers and Other Agricultural Professionals written by Valerie Berton and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1998-05 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains more than 500 entries on various informational products -- reports, newsletters,videos, World Wide Web sites, & conference proceedings -- & how to obtain them. Each entry in designed for ease of use, displaying all the information needed to research a topic. A set of ten icons tells at a glance the subject of each entry: agroforestry, animal production, cover crops, horticulture, grain production, marketing & farm profitability, nutrient management, soil quality & conservation, education & networking, & water quality & conservation. Indexed by subject, author, video, & organization. Comprehensive!

Building Soils for Better Crops

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Publisher : Sare
ISBN 13 : 9781888626131
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis Building Soils for Better Crops by : Fred Magdoff

Download or read book Building Soils for Better Crops written by Fred Magdoff and published by Sare. This book was released on 2009 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "'Published by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, with funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture."

The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables

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Author :
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1603586997
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables by : Ben Hartman

Download or read book The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables written by Ben Hartman and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2017 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At Clay Bottom Farm, author Ben Hartman and staff practice kaizen, or continuous improvement, cutting out more waste--of time, labor, space, money, and more--every year and aligning their organic production more tightly with customer demand. Applied alongside other lean principles originally developed by the Japanese auto industry, the end result has been increased profits and less work. In this field-guide companion to his award-winning first book, The Lean Farm, Hartman shows market vegetable growers in even more detail how Clay Bottom Farm implements lean thinking in every area of their work, including using kanbans, or replacement signals, to maximize land use; germination chambers to reduce defect waste; and right-sized machinery to save money and labor and increase efficiency. From finding land and assessing infrastructure needs to selling perfect produce at the farmers market, The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables digs deeper into specific, tested methods for waste-free farming that not only help farmers become more successful but make the work more enjoyable. These methods include: Using Japanese paper pot transplanters Building your own germinating chambers Leaning up your greenhouse Making and applying simple composts Using lean techniques for pest and weed control Creating Heijunka, or load-leveling calendars for efficient planning Farming is not static, and improvement requires constant change. The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables offers strategies for farmers to stay flexible and profitable even in the face of changing weather and markets. Much more than a simple exercise in cost-cutting, lean farming is about growing better, not cheaper, food--the food your customers want.

Climate Change and Agriculture

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Author :
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1849802238
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (498 download)

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Book Synopsis Climate Change and Agriculture by : Robert O. Mendelsohn

Download or read book Climate Change and Agriculture written by Robert O. Mendelsohn and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The specific focus of this seminal work is on the economic impact of climate change on agriculture world wide, and how faced with the resultant environmental alterations, agriculture might adapt under varied and varying conditions. Enhanced with a detailed and comprehensive index, Climate Change and Agriculture is highly recommended for academic library environmental studies and economic studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists. The Midwest Book Review Despite its great importance, there are surprisingly few economic studies of the impact of climate on agriculture and how agriculture can adapt under a variety of conditions. This book examines 22 countries across four continents, including both developed and developing economies. It provides both a good analytical basis for additional work and solid results for policy debate concerning income distributional effects such as abatement, adaptation, and equity. Agriculture and grazing are a central sector in the livelihood of many people, particularly in developing countries. This book uses the Ricardian method to examine the impact of climate change on agriculture. It also quantifies how farmers adapt to climate. The findings suggest that agriculture in developing countries is more sensitive to climate than agriculture in developed countries. Rain-fed cropland is generally more sensitive to warming than irrigated cropland and cropland is more sensitive than livestock. The adaptation to climate change results reveal that farmers make many adjustments including switching crops and livestock species, adopting irrigation, and moving between livestock and crops. The results also reveal that impacts and adaptations vary a great deal across landscapes, suggesting that adaptation policies must be location specific. Finally, the book suggests a research agenda for the future. Economists in academia and the public sector, policy analysts and development agencies will find this broad study illuminating.

Review of Energy Situation Pertaining to Agriculture

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (319 download)

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Book Synopsis Review of Energy Situation Pertaining to Agriculture by : United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture. Subcommittee on Department Investigations, Oversight, and Research

Download or read book Review of Energy Situation Pertaining to Agriculture written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture. Subcommittee on Department Investigations, Oversight, and Research and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: