permaculture

[Victor Guest <vic@daena.eepo.com.au>]

From: Heidi Carter <csas007@UNLVM.UNL.EDU>
To: saed-share-l@cornell.edu

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems
Publishes Book that Reviews Sustainable Ag Literature

        "Future Horizons: Recent Literature in Sustainable Agriculture" 
(September
1997) is a compendium of reviews of 100 recent books and other resource
materials. This spiral-bound book provides a current overview of our state
of the art and recent thinking in this rapidly growing field. There are
reviews about the present condition of planet Earth, as related to food and
natural resources, also about both historical and current lessons in
sustainability. The often-repeated question of how to define sustainability
and how it relates to agroecology are explored. Economic and social
dimensions of sustainable systems, and lessons from farmers and others are
reviewed. Other chapters include soil quality and health, living with crop
pests, and the importance of ecology and natural systems. There is a diverse
chapter on different ways of knowing and learning, with reviews of texts,
reference works, and even novels. Among the authors whose works are reviewed
are David Orr, Wes Jackson, Herman Daly and John Cobb, Paul Hawken, Steve
Gliessman, Miguel Altieri, Fred Kirschenmann, Richard Thompson, Joel
Salatin, and Al Gore =97 plus more than 80 others. Several of the reviews=
 are
reprinted with permission from journals, but most are the work of some 30
people who are actively working in this arena and volunteered for the task.
=09
        Modeled after the highly successful book "In Praise of Nature" by
Stephanie Mills (also reviewed), this project was developed under the SARE=
 grant
"Increasing Trainer Literacy in Sustainable Agriculture," with a primary
audience of Extension educators and NRCS specialists. It's also a valuable
resource for the student who needs a quick appreciation of what is available
in the library, for the agency person who needs to get up to speed on a
completely new field, or to the farmer considering a conversion to more
sustainable systems. Edited by Gabriel Hegyes and Charles Francis, the book
is available for $10 (includes shipping) from the Center for Sustainable
Agricultural Systems, PO Box 830949, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
68583-0949, 402-472-2056. Make checks payable to University of Nebraska,
federal ID # 47-0491233.
        By the end of the year the CSAS plans to have the reviews on its Web 
page:
http://ianrwww.unl.edu/ianr/csas.

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Heidi Carter                                    E-Mail:  csas007@unlvm.unl.edu
Education Coordinator                           Phone:   402-472-0917
Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems
University of Nebraska-Lincoln