Betta Pumps Online
Recent concerns about energy security in the developed world have drawn greater attention to agriculture's role as a producer and consumer of energy. Agriculturally derived energy sources such as ethanol, biodiesel, biomass, and windpower presently supply between 0.3% and 0.5% of the energy consumed in the U.S. While modest, the production of these energy sources has been increasing rapidly. Likewise, the agricultural sector is a modest consumer of energy (less than 2% of U.S. consumption), but comprises approximately 13% of farm expenditures.
This book critically examines the idea that the sustainability of agriculture could be improved by mimicking the structure and processes occurring in natural ecosystems. Researchers from around the world present comparative studies of multi-species farming systems, natural ecosystems and conventional agriculture. Case studies from Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and North and South America examine the implications of increasing the complexity of farming systems on water and nutrient cycling, productivity and resilience. Theoretical issues discussed include the role of biodiversity in agriculture, the trade-off between perenniality and productivity, the choice to integrate or segregate production and conservation in an agricultural landscape, and the social and economic challenges to adopting complex farming systems. One section is devoted to the application of this concept in southern Australia, where 15 million hectares of land are expected to be affected by salinity by the middle of the next century unless there is a significant change in agricultural practice.
In a time of great agricultural and rural change, the notion of 'multifunctionality' has remained under-theorized and poorly linked to wider debates in the social sciences. This book analyses the extent to which the proposed transition towards post-productivist agriculture holds up to scientific scrutiny, and proposes a modified productivist/non-productivist model that better encapsulates the complexity of agricultural and rural change. By combining existing notions and concepts, this book (re)conceptualizes agricultural change, creating a new transition theory, and a new way of looking at the future of agriculture.
Betta Pumps Online Articles
Betta Pumps Online Books
Betta Pumps Online