Only reader of its kind in this field, edited by the world’s leading expert on sustainable agriculture. Maps out the complex subject area of sustainable agriculture; introduces and explains key hard-to-find literature. Highly accessible--the essential student reference text.
Our agricultural and food systems are not meeting everyone’s needs, and despite great progress in increasing productivity over the past century, hundreds of millions of people remain hungry and malnourished. This book describes a different form of agriculture: one founded more on ecological principles and which is also more harmonious with people, their societies, and cultures. The latest in the Earthscan Reader Series, this volume brings together the most influential scholarship in the field, containing both theoretical developments and critical appraisals of evidence addressing what is not sustainable about current or past agricultural and food systems, as well as studies of transitions towards agricultural and rural sustainability at farm, community, regional, national, and international levels, and through food supply chains. Related titles: Agri-Culture * The Living Land * Regenerating Agriculture (all by Jules Pretty) * The Pesticide Detox (edited by Jules Pretty)
Jules Pretty OBE, is Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex, UK and Chief Editor of the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. He is also the author of Agri-culture.
Contents: Part I: Historical Perspectives on Sustainability in Agriculture Part II: Agrarian and Rural Perspectives Part III: Costs of Industrial Agriculture Part IV: Methods and Technologies Part V: Social Perspectives Part VI: Food Systems Part VII: The 21st Century Challenge Part VIII: Evidence from Developing Countries Part IX: Evidence from Industrialized Countries
Published by Earthscan Publications Ltd. Edited by Jules Pretty November 2005 304 pp., 6" x 9 1/4", figures, tables, index.
The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Agriculture 
Only reader of its kind in this field, edited by the world’s leading expert on sustainable agriculture. Maps out the complex subject area of sustainable agriculture; introduces and explains key hard-to-find literature. Highly accessible--the essential student reference text.