Future Agriculture

Imagine growing any plant without the need for soil. Imagine being able to better manage the spaces of your garden by increasing the number of plants that grow there. Imagine breeding vegetables and fish at the same time. All this is not only possible, but it is also elementary, thanks to this step-by-step guide, consisting of three books.

Are you frustrated by the diminishing returns of conventional farming methods? Do you worry about the long-term health of your soil, water, and crops? The drive to increase yields at any cost has led to soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and a decline in environmental health. Cultivating Tomorrow is your gateway to understanding and implementing regenerative agriculture practices that can transform not only your farm but also contribute to a more sustainable planet.

Raised as a fourth-generation farmer, when Will Harris inherited White Oak Pastures he was a full-time commodity cowboy who played hard and fast with every tool the system offered–chemicals, antibiotics, steroids, and more. His ancestors had built a highly profitable, conventionally run machine, but over time he found himself disgusted with the excess, cruelty, and smalltown devastation this system entailed. So he bet the farm on forging a different way of doing things. One that works with nature not against it, and bridges the quickly widening delta between consumers and their food.

It’s all but certain that the next 50 years will bring enormous, not to say cataclysmic, disruptions to our present way of life. World oil reserves will be exhausted within that time frame, as will the lithium that powers today’s most sophisticated batteries, suggesting that transportation is equally imperiled. Farming for the Long Haul is about building a viable small-farm economy that can withstand the economic, political, and climatic shock waves that the 21st century portends.

Taking its title from a chilling warning made by the United Nations that the world’s soils could be lost within a lifetime, Sixty Harvests Left uncovers how the food industry is threatening the planet. Put simply, without soils there will be no food: game over. And time is running out.

Weird, wonderful, and sometimes disgusting, figuring out "what's for dinner on Mars" is far from trivial. If we can figure out how to sustain ourselves on Mars, we will know how to do it on Earth too. In Dinner on Mars, authors Fraser and Newman show how setting the table off-planet will supercharge efforts to produce food sustainably here at home. For futurists, sci-fi geeks, tech nuts, business leaders, and anyone interested in the future of food, Dinner on Mars puts sustainability and adaptability on the menu in the face of our climate crisis.

When we humans love foods, we love them a lot. In fact, we have often eaten them into extinction, whether it is the megafauna of the Paleolithic world or the passenger pigeon of the last century. In Lost Feast, food expert Lenore Newman sets out to look at the history of the foods we have loved to death and what that means for the culinary paths we choose for the future.

With global population numbers projected to increase by two billion by 2050, a veritable food crisis is on the horizon. In this audiobook we examine some of the complex factors involved in the coming “food crisis” and the innovative ideas and technologies designed to increase food production sustainably. We also examine current industry methods to increase production and the controversies surrounding them, including not only hot-button issues like genetically modified (or GM) and processed foods but also food safety and the physical effects of the modern diet.

There’s no denying it: we treat our planet like dirt. Humanity’s impact has become a geologic force changing the climate and threatening oceans, glaciers, and the lands that feed us. Living in rural Indiana, author Kelsey Timmerman witnesses first-hand the damage modern industrial agriculture has done to our land and our communities. He’s afraid to let his kids swim in the nearby pond filled with farm runoff. There are times, after manure from giant chicken factories has been spread on the surrounding fields, that it’s hard to breathe.

The Problem with Solutions combines an analysis of the rise of tech company solution culture with findings from actual research on the sector's ill-informed attempts to address the problems of food and agriculture.

A água que brota das nascentes ou o calor do sol que nos aquece contam histórias de um sistema planetário delicado, interconectado e finito. Pensar em Nosso Futuro Sustentável é reconhecer que nossa sobrevivência está diretamente ligada à forma como gerenciamos a água e a energia, elementos essenciais e inseparáveis. Entender os ciclos naturais, as leis da termodinâmica e os impactos das nossas ações não é apenas ciência, mas um convite à responsabilidade coletiva para proteger o que sustenta a existência humana e a biodiversidade.

Bombastic headlines about science and technology are nothing new. To cut through the constant stream of information and misinformation on social media, or grab the attention of investors, or convince governments to take notice, strident headlines or bold claims seem necessary to give complex, nuanced information some wow factor. But hype has a dark side, too. It can mislead. It can distract. It can blinker us from seeing what is actually going on.

With a global population estimated to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, we face a huge challenge in feeding everyone on the planet. How is that to be achieved? In this brilliantly insightful one-stop guide, WIRED journalist Matt Reynolds assesses the limits and drawbacks of current food production and looks at the ways in which they can be tackled.

Caitlin Shetterly discovered the importance of GMOs the hard way. Shortly after she learned that her son had an alarming sensitivity to GMO corn, she was told that she had the same condition, and her family's daily existence changed forever. An expansion of Shetterly's viral Elle article "The Bad Seed", Modified delves deep into the heart of the matter - from the cornfields of Nebraska to the beekeeping conventions in Brussels - to shine a light on the people, the science, and the corporations behind the food we serve ourselves and our families every day.