The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Agriculture

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.

Edited by the world’s leading expert on sustainable agriculture, this volume brings together the most influential scholarship in the field. The book maps out the complex subject area of sustainable agriculture and introduces and explains key and hard-to-find literature. It covers 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. This highly accessible one-of-a-kind collection is the essential student and practitioner reference text in sustainable agriculture.

Author Biography

Professor Jules Pretty is Head of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex. His books include The Pesticide Detox (2004), Agri-Culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature (2002), The Living Land (1998), Regenerating Agriculture (1995), The Hidden Harvest (1992, co-authored) and Unwelcome Harvest (1991, co-authored).