Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems, Second Edition - Hardcover

Gliessman, Stephen R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0849328454 ISBN 13: 9780849328459

Publisher: CRC Press, 2006

Synopsis

Providing the theoretical and conceptual framework for this continually evolving field, Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems, Second Edition explores environmental factors and complexities affecting agricultural crops and animals. Completely revised, updated, and reworked, the second edition contains new data, new readings, new issues and case studies, and new options. It includes two completely new chapters, one on the role of livestock animals in agroecosystems and one on the cultural and community aspects of sustainable food systems.

The author clearly delineates the importance of using an ecosystem framework for determining if a particular agricultural practice, input, or management decision contributes or detracts from sustainability. He explains how the framework provides the ecological basis for the functioning of the chosen management strategy over the long-term. He also examines system level interactions, stressing the need for understanding the emergent qualities of populations, communities, and ecosystems and their roles in sustainable agriculture. Using examples of farming systems in a broad array of ecological conditions, the book demonstrates how to use an ecosystem approach to design and manage agroecosystems for sustainability.

About this title

Review:

The author has had extensive international experience in tropical and temperate agriculture, and numerous farming systems. This experience has provided him with a wealth of material that has found its way into this book. The author clearly is an authority in the field of agro-ecology and teaches on the subject. ... agronomists and biologists, as well as general scholars and people interested by sustainability as an attitude or life style will learn about how to put principles into (cropping and whole
food chain) practice. All in all: a good read!
—Patrick Van Damme, University of Gent, Belgium, in Economic Botany

About this edition

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0849328454
• ISBN 13: 9780849328459
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 408