Part green building primer, part architectural photo essay, this is an essential resource for professionals and homeowners interested in the leading edge of environmental building. Imhoff traveled extensively to document and photograph beautiful and novel alternatives to wood intensive-building. Building with Vision is the first book to link residential building with forest impacts. Nearly 1.5 million new houses are built in the United States each year, 90 percent framed with wood, and the average house consuming an acre's worth of trees. But as Building with Vision shows, from framing and siding to new building systems and finish materials, there are many ways architects, contractors, and homeowners can make high-quality, resourceful, long-lasting and beautiful decisions. Details include building techniques as well as materials, including Styrofoam, steel, concrete, straw bales, rammed earth, adobe and much more.

Building with Vision: Optimizing and Finding Alternatives to Wood (Wood Reduction Trilogy)

Science & Math

Imhoff, Daniel

Biological Sciences

Watershed Media

Every five years, the U.S. Congress passes a little understood piece of legislation called the Farm Bill. Primarily accountable for setting the budgets and work plans for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Farm Bill is anything but bureaucratic trivia. It is an essential economic and policy engine that drives the food and farming system and provides nutritional assistance to tens of millions of Americans--many of them children. In recent years, more and more citizens are realizing just how much is at stake in this political chess game. Originally published in 2007, Food Fight was Daniel Imhoff's highly acclaimed primer on the 2008 Farm Bill. Now in a newly updated and expanded edition, packed with helpful charts and illustrations, Imhoff looks ahead at this important issue, as the debate for 2012 is already underway. With the legislation due to be reauthorized in late 2012, Food Fight offers a critical resource that can help all who live in the U.S. to deconstruct this challenging bill, organize in their communities to gain a seat at the bargaining table, and ultimately vote with their forks. Includes a foreword by Michael Pollan and introduction by Fred Kirschenmann.

Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to the Next Food and Farm Bill

Business & Money

Economics

The deceptively simple supermarket choice echoed in the title symbolizes the dilemma of a society on a collision course with the planet's life-support systems. About one-third of America's municipal solid waste is packaging--at least 300 pounds per person each year--and the "upstream" costs in energy and resources used to make packaging are even more alarming. In this fascinating and timely book, author Daniel Imhoff unwraps the packaging problem and gives consumers, product designers, and policymakers the information they need to take steps toward a more sustainable future.

Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World (Watershed Media Books)

Featuring profiles from more than 20 states and illustrated with over 200 color photographs, Farming with the Wild offers a compelling view of a future in which farming and ranching operations are integrated into regional networks of protected wildlands. Dan Imhoff records his travels to the far reaches of the United States in search of farmers, ranchers, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations who are striving to develop and renew successful agricultural practices that are compatible with wild Nature. Combining elements of narrative, travelog, photo essay, and resource guide, Imhoff provides valuable information and inspiration for conversationists, farmers, ranchers, gardeners, students, landowners, and anyone interested in a truly sustainable future for agriculture and biodiversity. Farming with the Wild demonstrates persuasively that such a future is possible.

Farming with the Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches

Nature & Ecology

Though it is not widely recognized, modern industrial agriculture, which now affects more than two-thirds of the land in the lower forty-eight states, plays a major role in the rampant decline in biodiversity in the United States. Habitat destruction and fragmentation, displacement of native species and the introduction of exotic species, persecution of predators, and pollution of all kinds are just a few of industrial agriculture's damaging ecological consequences. Fortunately, a new vision for a more environmentally beneficial and sustainable agriculture is emerging. Such a vision begins with farms that gracefully meld within landscapes, pulsing with a wide range of native species. It combines implementation of landscape-level restoration efforts, natural systems farming research, and the community spirit of farmers markets and local watershed stakeholders. Presenting an inspiring look at this new conservation-based agriculture, Farming with the Wild offers vivid profiles of more than thirty farms, ranches, and organizations in the United States, together with more than one hundred color photographs. The result is an on-the-ground picture of a new agrarian movement that is slowly sweeping across the nation—a movement that aims to provide healthier food to Americans while restoring healthy ecosystems.

Farming with the Wild

Imhoff, Dan

Carra, Roberto

Sierra Club Books

The supermarket conundrum Paper or plastic?” sums up a Western consumer society that is on a collision course with the planet’s life-support systems. Do we clearcut forests, process pulp, and bleach it with chlorine to make paper bags? Or do we make a pact with demon hydrocarbon, refining ancient sunlight into handy plastics? About half of America’s municipal solid waste is packagingat least 300 pounds per person each yearand its upstream” costs in energy and resources are even more alarming. In this fascinating look at the world of packaging, author Daniel Imhoff delves into the life cycles of packaging materials, from wood products to glass, metals, and plastics, and looks at the countless ways that packaged goods shape our culture. Using case studies, the book explores positive trends such as producer responsibility and take back” laws, the eco-design movement, plant-based plastic, labeling to disclose the ecological and social impacts of products, and integrated regional economiesthat is, producing and consuming locally and in bulk. As consumers, there’s much we can do to address the still-growing problem of packaging. Paper or Plastic offers a checklist for action, along with resources for detailed information.

Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World

The Farm Bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation the American president signs. Negotiated every five to seven years, it has tremendous implications for food production, nutrition assistance, habitat conservation, international trade, and much more. Yet at nearly 1,000 pages, it is difficult to understand for policymakers, let alone citizens. In this primer, Dan Imhoff and Christina Badaracco translate all the “legalease" and political jargon into an accessible, graphics-rich 200 pages. Readers will learn the basic elements of the bill, its origins and history, and perhaps most importantly, the battles that will determine the direction of food policy in the coming years. The authors trace how the legislation has evolved, from its first incarnation during the Great Depression, to today, when America has become the world’s leading agricultural powerhouse. They explain the three main components of the bill—farm subsidies, food stamps or SNAP, and conservation programs—as well as how crucial public policies are changing. As Congress ramps up debate about the next farm bill, we all need to understand the implications of their decisions. Will there be limits on subsidies to huge agribusinesses? Can we shift toward programs that reward sustainable farming practices? Will hungry kids get the help they need? These are questions that affect not only farmers, but everyone who eats. You have a stake in the answers. The Farm Bill is your guide.

The Farm Bill: A Citizen's Guide

Badaracco, Christina

Island Press

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Books by Imhoff, Daniel