The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming

The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming

The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming

Author: Masanobu Fukuoka

Paperback: 200 pages

Publisher: NYRB Classics (June 2, 2009)

ISBN-10: 1590173139

ISBN-13: 978-1590173138

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The One-Straw Revolution is one of the founding documents of the alternative food movement, and indispensable to anyone hoping to understand the future of food and agriculture.”—Michael Pollan
“Only the ignorant could write off Fukuoka, who died two years ago at the age of 95, as a deluded or nostalgic dreamer…Fukuoka developed ideas that went against the conventional grain….Long before the American Michael Pollan, he was making the connections between intensive agriculture, unhealthy eating habits and a whole destructive economy based on oil.” –Harry Eyres, The Financial Times

“Fukuoka’s do-nothing approach to farming is not only revolutionary in terms of growing food, but it is also applicable to other aspects of living, (creativity, child-rearing, activism, career, etc.) His holistic message is needed now more than ever as we search for new ways of approaching the environment, our community and life. It is time for us all to join his ‘non-movement.'”—Keri Smith author of How to be an Explorer of the World

 

“Japan’s most celebrated alternative farmer…Fukuoka’s vision offers a beacon, a goal, an ideal to strive for.” —Tom Philpott, Grist

 

The One-Straw Revolution shows the critical role of locally based agroecological knowledge in developing sustainable farming systems.” —Sustainable Architecture

 

“With no ploughing, weeding, fertilizers, external compost, pruning or chemicals, his minimalist approach reduces labour time to a fifth of more conventional practices. Yet his success in yields is comparable to more resource-intensive methods…The method is now being widely adopted to vegetate arid areas. His books, such as The One-Straw Revolution, have been inspirational to cultivators the world over.” —New Internationalist

Product Description

Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book,” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.”

Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort.

Whether you’re a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here—you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.

Toxic Free Neighborhoods Community Planning Guide

Order From: Environmental Health Coalition
Attn: Publications
1717 Kettner Blvd., Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92101
FAX: (619) 232-3670

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Urban low-income communities of color often endure a disproportionate share of the health and economic burdens created by toxic chemicals. The Toxic Free Neighborhoods Community Planning Guide provides an opportunity to reverse this trend and create healthier neighborhoods through citizen participation, effective public policy advocacy, well-directed public education efforts, and pollution prevention approaches. Grassroots and environmental justice groups along with elected officials, academic institutions, city planning and zoning departments will find this guide vital to effective environmental planning and redevelopment in urban areas.

Hope, Human and Wild: True Stories of Living Lightly on the Earth

Cover, Hope, Human and Wild: True Stories of Living Lightly on the Earth (Hardcover)Author(s): Bill McKibben

Publisher: Little Brown & Company

ISBN: 0316560642

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Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature brought home the harm our society has done to the planet and became a major bestseller. Now, in this book, McKibben embarks on a journey–in the Adirondack Mountains, a Brazilian city, and a state in India–that convinces him that the world and nature can recover some of its glory.

In lyrical, penetrating essays, Bill McKibben offers an optimistic response to his bestselling The End of Nature, focusing on successful community ventures to preserve the wilderness and reverse environmental damage. From his home in the Adirondack Mountains to a city in Brazil and a state in India, McKibben searches for realistic models for the future of the planet.

Community Energy Workbook : A Guide to Building a Sustainable Economy

Community Energy Workbook: A Guide to Building a Sustainable Economy

Community Energy Workbook : A Guide to Building a Sustainable EconomyAuthor(s): Alice Hubbard

Publisher: Rocky Mountain Institute

ISBN: 1881071049

ISBN-13: 978-1881071044

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Publication date: March 1995
Community Energy Workbook : A Guide to Building a Sustainable Economy
Reduce your community’s energy consumption and improve the local economy. Drawing on the experiences of citizens around the country, The Community Energy Workbook outlines a comprehensive, step-by-step process for achieving sustainable, community-wide energy savings. This companion to The Economic Renewal Guide will help you calculate your community’s total energy bill, examine its economic and environmental implications, organize an energy town meeting, and involve the entire community in creating and implementing an energy action plan. We could forge no better energy policy than to put copies of The Community Energy Workbook on the desk of every local official and active citizen in the country.
–David Orr, author of Ecological Literacy.

1st edition (1995).
Softcover, 270 pages

Silent Spring

Silent Spring

Silent SpringAuthor(s): Rachel L. Carson , Al Gore (Introduction)

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co

Paperback: 368 pages
ISBN: 0395683297
ISBN-13: 978-0395683293
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Hardcover: 437 pages
ISBN:
0783880537
ISBN-13: 978-0783880532
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Audio Cassette
Publisher:
Dh Audio (November 1986)
ISBN-10: 0886461839
ISBN-13: 978-0886461836
Order From: Amazon.com

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Amazon.com
Silent Spring, released in 1962, offered the first shattering look at widespread ecological degradation and touched off an environmental awareness that still exists. Rachel Carson’s book focused on the poisons from insecticides, weed killers, and other common products as well as the use of sprays in agriculture, a practice that led to dangerous chemicals to the food source. Carson argued that those chemicals were more dangerous than radiation and that for the first time in history, humans were exposed to chemicals that stayed in their systems from birth to death. Presented with thorough documentation, the book opened more than a few eyes about the dangers of the modern world and stands today as a landmark work. —

Nature and Ecology Editor’s Recommended Book
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is now 35 years old. Written over the years 1958 to 1962, it took a hard look at the effects of insecticides and pesticides on songbird populations throughout the United States, whose declining numbers yielded the silence to which her title attests. What happens in nature is not allowed to happen in the modern, chemical-drenched world, she writes, where spraying destroys not only the insects but also their principal enemy, the birds. When later there is a resurgence of the insect population, as almost always happens, the birds are not there to keep their numbers in check. The publication of her impeccably reported text helped change that trend by setting off a wave of environmental legislation and galvanizing the nascent ecological movement. It is justly considered a classic, and it is well worth rereading today.

The New York Times Book Review, Lorus Milne and Margery Milne
Her book is a cry to the reading public to help curb private and public programs which by use of poisons will end by destroying life on earth. … Miss Carson, with the fervor of an Ezekiel, is trying to save nature and mankind …

Collaborative Spunk: The Feisty Guide for Reviving People and Our Planet

Collaborative Spunk: The Feisty Guide for Reviving People and Our Planet

Collaborative Spunk: The Feisty Guide for Reviving People and Our PlanetAuthor(s): A. Gayle Hudgens, Ph.D., MCC

Publisher: SOS Press

Paperback: 312 pages

ISBN: 0972308407

ISBN-13: 978-0972308403

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An exciting, powerful, and sound alternative to the personal, social, ecological, and economic violence plaguing our world, COLLABORATIVE SPUNK empowers ordinary people to become “leaderful” and co-create joyful, just, and viable communities wherever they are “planeted.” Readers will discover they can have fun and find meaning in the process.

Midwest Book Review:
Collaborative Spunk: The Feisty Guide For Reviving People And Our Planet by Cultural Creative Coach A. Gayle Hudgens is an impressive and “reader friendly” guide to harnessing personal energy as well as the energy of co-workers or collaborators for maximum drive and efficiency. A variety of invaluable tips, tricks, and techniques for improving personal coaching skills, getting into synch with the framework surrounding personal life situations, revitalizing personal energy for mental and emotional growth, and much, much more are deftly covered in this zesty, go-getting and highly recommended self-help, self-improvement guide.

Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit

Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit

Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human SpiritAuthor(s): Al Gore

Publisher: Plume (January 1, 1993)

Paperback: 432 pages

ISBN: 0452269350

ISBN-13: 978-0452269354

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Global warming. The deteriorating ozone layer. The rapid destruction of the world’s rain forests. Rising carbon dioxide levels. This bestselling work on our planet’s environmental crisis gives a shocking account of just how serious all of these problems have become. New foreword by the author. Illustrations and photos. (Environmental Issues) Synopsis A passionate defender of the environment for more than 20 years, Senator Al Gore from Tennessee is now convinced that the engines of human civilization have brought us to the brink of catastrophe. In this brave work, he argues that only a radical rethinking of our relationship with nature can save the earth for future generations.