Now you can tap the source of many of agriculture¿s most popular progressive farming tools. Ideas now commonplace in the industry, such as ¿crop and soil weatherproofing,¿ the ¿row support system,¿ and the ¿tillage commandments,¿ exemplify the practicality of the soil/root maintenance program that serves as the foundation for Schriefer¿s highly-successful ¿systems approach¿ farming. A veteran teacher, lecturer and writer, Schriefer¿s ideas are clear, straightforward and practical.

A holistic and comprehensive account of the nature of the transition from hunting to farming in prehistory. It addresses for the first time the main bioarchaeological aspects such as changes in mobility, behaviour, diet and population dynamics. This book is of major interest to the relevant audience since it offers for the first time a global perspective on the bioarchaeology of the transition to agriculture. It includes contributions from world-class researchers, with a particular emphasis on advances in methods (e.g. ancient DNA of pathogens, stable isotope analysis, etc.). The book specifically addresses the following aspects associated with the transition to agriculture in various world regions: Changes in adult and subadult stature and subadult growth profiles Diachronic trends in the analysis of functional morphological structures (craniofacial, vault, lower limbs, etc.) and whether these are associated with change in overall sex-specific morphological variability Changes in mobility Changes in behaviour which can be reconstructed from the study of the skeletal record. These include changes in activity patterns, sexual dimorphism, evidence of inter-personal trauma, and the like. Population dynamics and microevolution by examining intra and inter population variations in dental and cranial metric traits, as well as archaeogenetic studies of ancient DNA (e.g. mtDNA markers).

This Open Access book presents feedback from the ‘Territorial Agroecological Transition in Action’- TATA-BOX research project, which was devoted to these specific issues. The multidisciplinary and multi-organisation research team steered a four-year action-research process in two territories of France. It also presents: i) the key dimensions to be considered when dealing with agroecological transition: diversity of agriculture models, management of uncertainties, polycentric governance, autonomies, and role of actors’ networks; ii) an operational and original participatory process and associated boundary tools to support local stakeholders in shifting from a shared diagnosis to a shared action plan for transition, and in so doing developing mutual understanding and involvement; iii) an analysis of the main effects of the methodology on research organisation and on stakeholders’ development and application; iv) critical analysis and foresights on the main outcomes of TATA-BOX, provided by external researchers.

In a time of great agricultural and rural change, the notion of 'multifunctionality' has remained under-theorized and poorly linked to the 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 new transition theory.

Describes how America changed its agricultural practices as a result of the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution.

Agriculture is confronted with changing societal expectations and demands regarding its role in food production and in the countryside. Complying with these expectations and demands will require a comprehensive, far-reaching and therefore far from easy and long-lasting transition of agriculture. This books seeks to explore the seeds of this transition by describing and analysing the production of promosing novelties in relation to to the dominant regime. On a theoretical level this books aims at the integration of hitherto largely disconneted disciplines and bodies of literature.

Agriculture is changing rapidly. The greatest current challenge to the agricultural sector is for it to become sustainable in all three of the dimensions profit, people and planet. This is certainly the case in highly urbanized countries like the Netherlands, where agriculture is confronted with high land prices, rising consumer concerns for issues like animal welfare and negative environmental effects but also with new demands from the city for recreation, health care and local food products. These are some of the developments in our society that are forcing agriculture to change. The government, farmers, the agri-food industry and the retail sector struggle to meet this challenge and find new forms of governance. In the Netherlands, the government has called for a ‘transition towards sustainable agriculture’ and it is investing in this programme with its research and education policy. Similar trends have been observed in other countries. This book presents the expertise that has been accrued from at least five years of Dutch research in this area. The aim is to collate the results of the experiments, to learn from them, to confront them with existing theory and to share them with a larger audience in order to foster learning about transition. Given the leading position of the Netherlands in global agriculture, in a highly urbanized setting, and its leading position in the study of transition theory this should be of significant interest to students and researchers of the transitions in agriculture.

"For the newcomer to the literature and logic of human behavioral ecology, this book is a flat-out bonanza—entirely accessible, self-critical, largely free of polemic, and, above all, stimulating beyond measure. It's an extraordinary contribution. Our understanding of the foraging-farming dynamic may just have changed forever."—David Hurst Thomas, American Museum of Natural History