Whether we live in Manhattan or Peoria, we depend on a healthy countryside: it supplies the food we eat. So it s welcome news that across the nation, a hearty crop is taking root. Smart, young people are returning to the roots of American Agriculture roots steeped in a tradition and culture of diversity, quality, and respect for the Earth. Full of brilliant color photographs, Youth Renewing the Countryside shares remarkable stories of young people in each state changing the world through rural renewal.

Youth Renewing the Countryside

Renewing the Countryside

David Holman

SARE Outreach

The New American Farmer: Profiles of Agricultural Innovation by SARE Outreach (2005) Paperback

Science & Math

Agricultural Sciences

While every farming system is unique, the principles of ecological pest management apply universally. Manage Insects on Your Farm highlights ecological strategies that improve your farm's natural defenses and encourage beneficial insects to attack your worst pests. Learn about the principles of ecologically based pest management and the strategies of farmers around the world to address insect problems. Minimize insect damage with wise soil management and identify beneficial insects to put these "good bugs" to work for you. Examples of successful pest management strategies sprinkled throughout the book will stimulate your imagination to address insect problems and develop a more complex, more diverse ecosystem on your farm.

Manage Insects on Your Farm: A Guide to Ecological Strategies

Miguel A. Altieri

"How to Direct Market Your Beef" portrays how one couple used their family's ranch to launch a profitable, grass-based beef operation focused on direct market sales. From slaughtering to packaging, through labeling and advertising, Jan and Will Holder transform their real-life experiences to a compelling narrative rich with practical tips.

How to Direct Market Your Beef

Jan Holder

Managing Cover Crops Profitably explores how and why cover crops work and provides all the information needed to build cover crops into any farming operation. Revised and updated in 2007, the 3rd edition includes new chapters on brassicas and mustards, six new farm profiles, as well as a comprehensive chapter on the use of cover crops in conservation tillage systems. Updates throughout are based on more than 100 new literature citations and consultations with cover crop researchers and practitioners around the country. Appendices include seed sources and a listing of cover crop experts.

Managing Cover Crops Profitably

Building Soils for Better Crops is a one-of-a-kind, practical guide to ecological soil management, now expanded and in full color. It provides step-by-step information on soil-improving practices as well as in-depth background from what soil is to the importance of organic matter. Case studies of farmers from across the country provide inspiring examples of how soil and whole farms have been renewed through these techniques. A must-read for farmers, educators and students alike. Written by University of Vermont plant and soil science professor emeritus Fred Magdoff and Cornell University soil science professor Harold van Es. Produced by Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE).

Building Soils for Better Crops

FRED MAGDOFF

Harold Van Es

Land and Power: Sustainable Agriculture and African Americans features a selection of the presentations, posters, discussions, and performances that made up this extraordinary, joyous event. The authors capture the perspectives of various Black American cultural leaders about land and power as they relate to sustainable agriculture and Black American traditions. Land and Power places African American farmers, their cultural traditions, and the historical circumstances they have faced squarely in the forefront of the sustainable agriculture movement.

Land and Power: Sustainable Agriculture and African Americans

VARIOUS

Organic food is a booming business. The profit potential along with other rewards has farmers, ranchers and food business owners across the country considering the switch to organic production. But successfully managing your business through the multi-year transition process requires careful planning.
 If you are interested in transitioning, Organic Transition: A Business Planner for Farmers, Ranchers and Food Entrepreneurs is the perfect tool to help. The Organic Transition Planner will walk you through the development of an actionable business transition plan that is suitable for yourself, your management team or a lender.
 While not a comprehensive guide to meeting certification requirements, the Organic Transition Planner will help you explore organic transition strategies and decide whether going organic makes sense for your farm or business. It can help you explore critical questions such as:
 What are your long-term business goals? What organic market opportunities are you in a position to exploit? How will you acquire the resources you need to make the transition? How will you anticipate and deal with challenges as they arise?
 The Organic Transition Planner contains explanations of key concepts, real-life examples from transitioning farmers and detailed worksheets covering farm operations, marketing, human resources and finances. For ease of use, electronic spreadsheets and fillable PDF worksheets are available online with the Organic Transition Planner through the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture.

Organic Transition: A Business Planner for Farmers, Ranchers and Food Entrepreneurs

Gigi DiGiacomo

Robert P. King

Dale Nordquist

Farmers today face a complicated host of environmental, social and economic pressures: protecting water and air resources, mitigating greenhouse gases, conserving biodiversity and limiting soil erosion, all while trying to make a living. These challenges are linked, yet most agricultural research of the last 80 years has approached them from a reductionist standpoint. To build truly sustainable farming systems, agricultural research must embrace a multidimensional approach known as agricultural systems research. Systems Research for Agriculture outlines both the theory and practice of agricultural systems research, helping agricultural professionals to study, understand and develop economically, socially and environmentally sustainable production systems. This handbook begins with a brief introduction to the theoretical basis for agricultural systems research. It then delivers guidance on how to form effective interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder teams, which include farmers and ranchers, and how to plan, implement and analyze systems experiments. This handbook is essential reading for research coordinators and all other team members as they navigate the complexities of multifaceted systems projects.

Systems Research for Agriculture

Laurie E. Drinkwater with Diana Friedman and Louise Buck

Farming with Soil Life: A Handbook for Supporting Soil Invertebrates and Soil Health on Farms

Emily May

Jennifer Hopwood

Stephanie Frischie

Eric Lee-Mäder

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Books by SARE Outreach