Industrial agriculture looks like it’s alive, but often the soil is dead, animals are living in excruciating conditions, and the food looks good but is not as nutritious as food grown from living soils in humane circumstances. Is it eating our brains?
That’s the name of Leah Penniman‘s new book, and it’s a profound and wide-ranging exploration of everything from the practical details of how to start a farm, to the rich history of African-heritage farming.
Is our weed killer killer killing us? Author Carey Gillam talks about her book Whitewash, the efforts to hold Monsanto accountable, and a vision for an agriculture that doesn’t rely on heavy chemical use.
Ben Goldfarb is a “beaver believer.” In his new book, Eager, he writes about the historical role of beavers in North American ecosystems, how they were nearly wiped out, and why communities are brining them back—and with them lusher wetlands and healthier rivers.
Glenn Elzinga is a forester turned rancher in Idaho, and he has developed a system called “inherding” — which means basically living with cattle on the range, training them to eat a varied and healthy diet, and managing them so that land, water, and wildlife are restored.
If we were left to our own devices with a large selection of healthy food choices, how would we choose? Would we make healthy choices? What about livestock, and wildlife? Scientists and author Fred Provenza has studied this question for many decades, and shares his insights in his new book, Nourishment.
The science of farm and rangeland is often incomprehensible to the people on the land. We talk to On Pasture magazine founder Kathy Voth, whose mission is to make science accessible to people who need it–and to help keep them from being bamboozled by the latest agriculture fads.
Research scientist David Johnson from New Mexico State University tells us. He’s a leading soil scientist, and he knows what we need to do to reverse soil loss patterns–and what the many benefits are to restoring healthy soil on farms and rangelands.
Gavin Van Horn‘s new book, The Way of Coyote: Shared Journeys of the Urban Wild, reflects on the relationship between the city and the land surrounding it.
Reginaldo Haslett Marroquín‘s team observed chickens for a year before engineering a prototype for an efficient and humane poultry farm. Equal parts indigenous wisdom and industrial design, they’ve created a scalable model that can be adapted to virtually any place on earth.