In print

The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Agriculture

Edited by Jules Pretty
Published by Earthscan
Website: www.earthscan.co.uk
2005, 405pp, ISBN 978 1 844072 36 1(Pb) £24.95

The triumph of modern agriculture has been to double average cereal yields worldwide and to increase per capita food production by 25 percent. The tragedy has been the high cost in terms of economics, environment degradation and human health. Poverty and food shortages remain and industrial agriculture is neither able to provide technologies and practices to increase food production for the poor, nor is it sustainable. This is the message of the Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Agriculture, which provides a wide range of views on what is meant by agricultural sustainability - systems high in sustainability are making the best use of nature's goods and services whilst not damaging these assets. Also, how this might be achieved.

Twenty-seven chapters, each written by different authors or co-authors, provide numerous memorable and thought-provoking quotes. "We have dustbowls, and rivers washing the future into the sea" is one from US writer Aldo Leopold. "The external costs [of food production] are alarming and should call into question what we mean by efficiency," is another from the book's editor, Professor Jules Pretty. He also quotes Lord Astor's 1945 report on UK agriculture: "To farm properly you have got to maintain soil fertility; to maintain soil fertility you need a mixed farming system." Historically, of course, that is what most farmers practised, but modern industrial agriculture has offered the seductive substitutes of chemical fertility and pest control.

But is it possible to go back? The 39 authors contributing to Sustainable Agriculture believe so, and several chapters describe the proven benefits of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for weeds, insects and diseases. These include a chapter from Professor Gordon Conway's Doubly Green Revolution; currently Chief Scientific Adviser to DFID, he cites the successful biological control of cassava mealy bug in Africa, which provided benefits estimated in billions of dollars; also, the IPM of brown planthopper in Indonesia that resulted in the reduction of sprays (from four to one) and saved some $1 billion. On the hidden costs of pesticide use, Pretty writes: "The pesticide market in the UK is £500 million, yet we pay £120 million just to clean them from out of drinking water." Another well-known name, Pedro Sanchez, past director-general of the World Agroforestry Centre, (ICRAF) writes cogently on the benefits and potential of agroforestry systems. Soil recuperation in Latin America and diet and health are also covered.

With so much evidence for their benefits, why are we so slow in applying sustainable systems to agriculture? David Orr, Professor at Oberlin College, provides his answer when he calls for greater environmental literacy. "Literacy is the ability to read. Numeracy is the ability to count. Ecological literacy is the ability to ask 'What then?' And that is an appropriate question to ask before the last rainforests disappear, before the growth economy consumes itself and before we have warmed the planet intolerably," he writes. "Several factors are working against environmental literacy in industrialized countries," he continues. "This is all about seeing wholeness and connectedness."

Two disappointing aspects of this otherwise readable and important book are that virtually all the authors are either Western Hemisphere or West European; second, the very different styles of writing do not make for easy reading. Easy reading or not, however, the subject demands our urgent attention. But, in searching for solutions, we should remember Albert Einstein's caution, "You cannot use the same methods that got us into the problem to get us out of it."

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Food for the future

By José Bové and François Dufour
Published by Polity Press
Website: www.polity.co.uk
2005, 188pp, ISBN 0 7456 3205 X(Pb), £14.99

Two French farmers, passionate about growing and eating good food, make excellent spokesmen in the crusade to raise awareness of the downward spiral of food quality as industrialisation and globalisation take over. Focusing on their home country, they write with unconcealed horror at the acceptance of new products that barely resemble the natural foods they replace, and they mourn the loss of creativity and initiative that results from using such processed foodstuffs. The effects of the food industry on rural life and small-scale farmers are similarly described with Gallic passion, which makes this an engaging read despite the unavoidable clumsiness of style due to translation. Their solutions - presented as a farming charter - look beyond France to Europe and the world. They believe that agriculture needs to be reintegrated into society, and that small-scale and local are key. They advocate respectful management of resources, preservation of biodiversity, and transparency in agriculture and food production. And they hope that education and improved awareness will remind people of the important culture of food that they are in danger of losing.

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Natural disasters and extreme events in agriculture: Impacts and mitigation

Edited by M.V.K. Sivakumar, R.P. Motha and H.P. Das
Published by Springer
Website: www.springeronline.com
2005, 389pp, ISBN 3 540 22490 4(Hb), £100

At the end of a year that seems to have had more than its fair share of natural disasters, this is a timely publication. Indeed, there is no question that "natural disasters are on the rise", and "they continue to target the world's poorest and least developed." While impacts of such events are widely felt, agriculture is perhaps the most affected sector, both because it relies heavily on the weather and natural resources, and because it provides for the livelihoods of so many people.

Agrometeorologists met in Beijing in 2004 to discuss ways to mitigate the effects of natural disasters on agriculture, and this book is an output from the meeting. A move away from crisis-driven response to preparedness is advocated. Planning and well-prepared response strategies, with early warning linked to rapid dissemination of user-oriented information, are the key messages. But the editors are also clear about the role of environmental degradation in increasing the vulnerability of poor people to natural disasters; they point out, for example, that "the degree and extent of damage caused by Hurricane Mitch is attributed to the drastic alteration over the years of natural systems that would have provided a buffer effect." Yet another reason, if one were needed, to work towards better management of natural resources.

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Smart Water Solutions

Published by Netherlands Water Partnership et al.
Website: www.practicafoundation.nl
Email: info@nwp.nl
2004, 48pp, (Hb), free

Water is the ultimate essential - for drinking, cooking, washing and for watering crops and animals. Yet millions still struggle to access water, sometimes walking long distances when there is water close beneath their feet, and, if they get water, it can be wasted by inappropriate use. "Smart Water Solutions", is concisely written and attractively illustrated, its 48 12x17 cm pages packing an impressive range of practical information on wells and well drilling, pumps, storage, irrigation and water treatment. Published by NWP, Netherlands Water Partnership, it is aimed at bridging the gap between what should be done and what can be done. It demonstrates that implementing low-cost technologies on a wide scale can be a cost-effective alternative to costly major water infrastructure projects with all their complicated management problems. Illustrating how to purify water by using sunlight, drilling low-cost wells by the manual rota-sludge technique, making drip irrigation using plastic waste, and harvesting and storing water at virtually no cost, this second edition of "Smart Water Solutions" is a book full of ideas worth their weight in gold - let alone water - yet it can be downloaded free of charge from: www.practicafoundation.nl. Organisations working in rural water supply and rural development can request a copy from: info@nwp.nl This second revised edition is being published in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

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Happier meals: Rethinking the global meat industry (Worldwatch Paper 171)

By Danielle Nierenberg
Published by the Worldwatch Institute
Website: www.worldwatch.org
2005, 91pp, ISBN 1 878071 77 7(Pb), US$7

Factory farming, or "confined animal feeding operations", is on the rise: today it accounts for more than 40 per cent of world meat production, compared with 30 per cent in 1990. As demand for meat and other animal products soars in both industrial and developing countries, this method gets them to the market as cheaply as possible. But these simple economics hide the true costs, which Nierenberg's succinct text exposes. "[The spread of factory farming] is creating ecological and public health disasters, from emerging animal diseases, to air and water pollution, to the loss of genetic resources." And, she says, we are ignoring the warning signs. Avian flu, BSE, and foot-and-mouth may be just the tip of the iceberg: massive outbreaks of diseases newly transmitted from animals to humans are predicted by some experts, in particular in congested areas near these operations.

The way to happier meals probably holds no surprises to readers of New Agriculturist. Promoting small-scale farming and traditional methods of livestock production, and educating consumers about organic and grass-fed animals, and the benefits of eating less meat, are all recommended.

As in other areas of agriculture where industrialisation is escalating, slowing and reversing the trend seems a daunting task. But, according to the author, some in the international policy-making arena are starting to move in this direction. The World Bank, for example, has adopted a "people-centred approach" in its new livestock strategy, promising to fund projects with an animal welfare component. Hopefully others will follow suit.

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Agricultural trade liberalization in the WTO and its poverty implications: A study of rural households in Northern Vietnam (Development Economics and Policy Vol. 48)

By Sabine Daude
Published by Peter Lang
Website: www.peterlang.de
2005, 221pp, ISSN 0948 1338, ISBN 3 631 53892 8(Pb), £25.50, US$43.95, €36.40

Will agricultural trade liberalisation make poor people poorer, or better off? And will this change according to whether they are in a WTO member country? Using Vietnam as a case study, the author carries out in-depth analyses to better understand the link between such policies and their impact at household level. Her approach aims to fill a gap in current research on the effects of such policies, which normally look at their impact on countries as a whole.

In brief, the conclusions from this study are that poor households will become poorer because of agricultural trade liberalisation if Vietnam stays outside the WTO, while the reverse is true if Vietnam joins the WTO. The author believes that this would also be the case for other developing countries, where populations are largely rural and agriculture is their most important economic activity. She urges governments of such countries to analyse such policies and their effects when developing national policy, as well as for negotiating in the international arena.

Drawing water: A resource book of illustrations on water and sanitation in low-income countries

By Rod Shaw
Published by WEDC, Loughborough University, UK
Email: wedc@lboro.ac.uk
Website: www.lboro.ac.uk/wedc/
2005, 205pp, ISBN 1 84380 085 3(Pb), £24.95

From handpumps and community wells to pit latrines and solid waste disposal, Drawing water contains over 200 black and white line illustrations concerning water supply and sanitation in low-income countries. Electronic versions of the illustrations are included on an accompanying CD, and all the images can be copied and adapted to meet local needs, without permission, provided distribution is not-for-profit and the source is acknowledged. As such, both book and CD will be a valuable resource, whether for health education teams, community development workers, teachers or project staff.

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Politics in land and water management: Study in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

By Fred Simon Lerise
Published by Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, distributed by African Books Collective
Websites: www.mkukinanyota.com, www.africanbookscollective.com
2005, 211pp, ISBN 9987 417 29 9(Pb), £24.95

More intensive land use has been a goal of the Tanzanian government for more than three decades, and policy, legislation, and land use plans have aimed to promote this. But the reality has been very different to the plan, and this study attempts to explain how plan and reality came to diverge so much. To do this Lerise focused his study on just one village, in order to examine in detail the decisions and actions of individuals and groups in relation to the specific land use changes. As well as interviewing farmers, community leaders, government officials, and politicians, he gathered a wealth of background information going back 35 years to put the stories in perspective.

The resulting narrative interwoven with case study analysis provides a very detailed story, and the final two chapters, which are more general and draw useful lessons, are valuable. The importance of stakeholder involvement is the main lesson, along with transparency and openness in the planning system. This will be a useful book for many involved with land use planning in rural areas of developing countries.

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Ethics in agriculture: An African perspective

Edited by Alvin van Niekerk
Published by Springer
Website: www.springeronline.com
2005, 175pp, ISBN 1 4020 2988 8(Hb), £52

How important are ethics in African agriculture? As van Niekerk observes, "Ethical issues often do not command the same discussion priority as production issues... and yet, in many instances, they lie at the very heart of the problems." This volume, therefore, attempts to begin to redress the balance.

The ethical issues selected are perhaps the obvious ones. Agricultural biotechnology comprises the largest chapter, with a focus on genetically modified plants and animals. The chapter on HIV/AIDS is shorter but poignant: the author posits that "no sentient human being on this planet can escape engagement, either peripheral or in serious commitment, with this epidemic." Land reform in South Africa, biodiversity conservation, medicinal plants, and animal rights and animal welfare are also treated to degrees of analysis.

A stated aim of the book is to remove myths and misconceptions around the topics discussed, to present the issues in simple terms, and to provide logical explanations. It largely succeeds, and is broadly recommended.

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