This work reviews current thinking on practising sustainable agriculture, with contributions from agricultural, biological, environmental and social scientists. The emphasis is on temperate zones, with many of the contributions addressing US agriculture. However, the principles explored here have application in any climatic or geographical region. The book discusses stewardship, biodiversity, reliance on mixed food systems and other approaches, always with a view toward reducing environmental degradation, maintaining economic viability and stabilizing rural communities.

There is an increasing realization among biophysical scientists that human behavior drastically impacts the degree to which sound agroecosystems are implemented. Written by an international team of experts assembled by a leading rural sociologist, Interactions Between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities shows how human behavior impacts agroecosystems both positively and negatively and provides an understanding of alternative ways of working with human communities to increase agroecosystem sustainability.
Through a general overview and a series of case studies, this text demonstrates how...

Communities in rural America are a complex mixture of peoples and cultures, ranging from miners who have been laid off in West Virginia, to Laotian immigrants relocating in Kansas to work at a beef processing plant, to entrepreneurs drawing up plans for a world-class ski resort in California's Sierra Nevada. Rural Communities: Legacy and Change uses its unique Community Capitals framework to examine how America's diverse rural communities use their various capitals--natural, cultural, human, social, political, financial, and built--to address the modern challenges that face...