PDF Download Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard
Why should be Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard in this website? Get more profits as exactly what we have actually informed you. You can discover the various other reduces besides the previous one. Relieve of getting the book Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard as exactly what you desire is also provided. Why? We provide you lots of sort of guides that will not make you feel weary. You can download them in the link that we provide. By downloading Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard, you have taken properly to select the ease one, compared to the hassle one.
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard
PDF Download Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard
Do you think that reading is an important task? Discover your reasons why including is necessary. Reviewing a publication Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard is one component of satisfying tasks that will make your life top quality a lot better. It is not concerning simply what sort of publication Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard you check out, it is not only concerning the amount of e-books you check out, it's about the practice. Checking out routine will be a means to make e-book Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard as her or his good friend. It will certainly despite if they spend money and invest more e-books to complete reading, so does this e-book Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard
This is why we suggest you to consistently visit this page when you require such book Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard, every book. By online, you could not go to get guide store in your city. By this on-line library, you can find the book that you really wish to review after for long period of time. This Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard, as one of the suggested readings, oftens remain in soft documents, as every one of book collections here. So, you may likewise not get ready for couple of days later to receive as well as check out guide Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard.
The soft data indicates that you need to visit the web link for downloading then save Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard You have actually possessed guide to review, you have actually presented this Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard It is uncomplicated as visiting the book shops, is it? After getting this quick explanation, hopefully you can download and install one as well as start to read Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard This book is extremely easy to read every time you have the downtime.
It's no any mistakes when others with their phone on their hand, as well as you're too. The distinction may last on the material to open Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard When others open up the phone for talking and speaking all points, you could often open and also check out the soft data of the Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard Naturally, it's unless your phone is readily available. You could additionally make or save it in your laptop computer or computer system that eases you to check out Restoration Agriculture, By Mark Shepard.
Around the globe most people get their calories from annual agriculture - plants that grow fast for one season, produce lots of seeds, then die. Every single human society that has relied on annual crops for staple foods has collapsed. Restoration Agriculture explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs - in your own backyard, farm or ranch. This book, based on real-world practices, presents an alternative to the agriculture system of eradication and offers exciting hope for our future.
- Sales Rank: #49949 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Acres U.S.A.
- Published on: 2013-01-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 6.00" w x .75" l, 1.30 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 344 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
Most helpful customer reviews
110 of 112 people found the following review helpful.
Broad strokes, big ideas
By N. Anderson
This work attempts to be an introduction to sustainable farming. The author's assertion (well supported by the evidence he cites) is that our current agricultural model is failing, and that we need to move away from a system built on annual plants, and towards a system built on perennial growth. This is permanent agriculture, or "permaculture". His model for this is an idealized, carefully structured combination of plants, or "polyculture" for food, fuel, and animal forage. In his words: "[w]hat we are doing is designing an agricultural system that closely mimics the savanna in its structure, the species mix, and in ecological function."
This model has been outlined in pieces in other books. Much of his ideas about livestock forage are similar to what Joel Salatin writes, though Shepard is less strident, and more open to the idea of a vegetarian diet. He spends a great deal of time demonstrating with chart and figures how, exactly, a more perennial agricultural model can generate more nutritious calories per acre than the current single crop. But the graphs do not overwhelm.
I was pleased by the concrete examples in the book. Shepard demonstrates, in color pictures and with facts and figures, the viability of a farm based on permaculture principles. He gives tree spacings, plant yields, and grazing techniques. He explains the proper ratio of cows to sheep, for instance. However I was expecting a lot more details regarding plant choices, harvesting techniques, etc. What can be said for Shepard is that he stays on point better than, and is more accessible than, Bill Mollison, who has a tendency to wax philosophical. That said, Permaculture: A Designers' Manual remains a better resource than Restoration Agriculture.
Occasionally his hypotheses are supported only by assertion. For example, he states outright "every culture built on annual crops has failed". This is either false, if you take into account current civilization, or unverifiable, if you assert, as the author does, that our culture is doomed to fail. Additionally, while he describes growing vegetables in places, he also seems to state that this will be phased out as the forest matures. I don't think any system of agriculture that phases out vegetables can be entirely nutritious. But this aspect of the book is not entirely clear, and I may be misreading the author's intention.
My one concern about permaculture is that the staple crops derived from trees are not as easily palatable. Certainly anyone who has eaten "bread" from acorn flour will be unlikely to prefer it to bread from whole-wheat flour. So a place will likely remain in society for grain crops. But we could all do well to read this book and encourage farmers and landowners to start implementing these principles. If you consider that the nutrition in, say, an ear of corn has to come from somewhere, and that "somewhere" is largely out of the ground, and out of fertilizers derived from petroleum, you can easily see that our current agricultural model is essentially mining the topsoil. Since current practices do not build topsoil, and at some point, maybe in 10 years, maybe in 100 years, we are going to see petroleum reserves stable off and eventually decline, we are not in a sustainable cycle of production. Whatever your political conviction, you should think about the issues addressed here.
Overall, however, a very well written distillation of the classics of permaculture, plus examples of how well it works, and a plan to implement it on a large scale across North America. I think the target audience here is not the well read, inspired permaculture enthusiast, but instead the average person who has not heard of this concept. For that purpose, he succeeds well at introducing concepts, and demonstrating how well they work. Go to other sources to get the details though.
57 of 58 people found the following review helpful.
The real deal
By GregD
I have read several permaculture books (Holmgren, Holzer, Hemenway, Jacke, Bane, etc.), and Mark Shepard's 'Restoration Agriculture' is worthy of its subtitle 'Real-World Permaculture for Farmers'. He has combined his hard-nosed practicality from his engineering background with a hefty dose of permacultural idealism to successfully realize his dream of 'New Forest Farm'. Shepard has been doing broad-scale permaculture/agroforestry since the mid 1990's, and has turned an old eroding cornfield into a productive property with fruit trees, nut trees, fruit shrubs, berries, vines, mushrooms, animals, bees, and annual (squash) and perennial (asparagus) vegetables as cash crops to help pay bills until the perennials start bearing more heavily.
Of special interest to me were chapters 11 and 12, in which he deals with questions about the capacity of a perennial agriculture to provide enough calories to feed people. Can 'permaculture' really feed people or must we subsidize the permaculture fantasy with destructive annual tillage and a diet based on annual crops? Shepard admits his figures are a bit rough (yields for polycultures will change as trees mature), but corn produces about 13 million calories per acre annually, and Mr. Shepard suggests that a perennial system with perhaps a few annuals alley-cropped, can produce 6 million calories per acre. He says nutritionally there is simply no comparison between a monocrop of corn and the variety of a perennial system - the nutrition of the perennial system is vastly superior to a corn-based diet. The benefits of a perennial system are reduced cost in seed, gasoline or diesel fuel, and tractor maintenance, along with drastically improved soil, minimal tillage, greater capacity for photosynthesis, and an astonishing diversity of yields over a greater period of time. His findings give me hope that there truly is a different way to feed large numbers of people in a way that builds rather than destroys soil, is comparable to annual agriculture in caloric yields, is superior nutritionally, requires FAR fewer fossil-fuel based inputs, and is better for people. The type of thing he is doing seems to be the foundation of a relocalized economy that empowers the everyman rather than enriching elites. To top it all off, the 'New Forest Farm' is a giant informal research station for new varieties of fruits, nuts, and for appropriate-scale nut processing equipment.
This book comes highly recommended if you have already been introduced to some of the ideas of permaculture and are interested to see how it really does work on a large scale. Even if you're unfamiliar with permaculture it could serve as a decent introduction to some key concepts as long as you have a bit of farming experience already. If someone you know seems to think permaculture is a joke, lend them this book. The icing on the cake is the book itself is well bound, has a beautiful cover, has the right margins so you don't have to break the spine to read it, and the book just 'feels right' when you hold it. Mark Shepard seems to be the real deal. I really enjoyed this book.
P.S. - He is based in Wisconsin, so obviously the species one might incorporate into something like he is doing will vary from climate to climate.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
Just what I needed
By Denise Domning
I totally enjoyed this book. Although other reviewers complained that he didn't give specifics about what plants to grow and how to put them in the ground (I mean, seriously guys--you each have a planting zone; he gave you the plant families and how to intermingle them--do your own research), that's not really what I wanted from the book. I wanted to better understand the overarching principles and how I can apply them to my own measly few acres. He more than gave me that information, as well as how it can work with my cows and chickens and, if I can talk my husband into it, pigs. Not only that he gave me ideas and glimmers of ideas on what is possible with what I have. I can run with it from there.
And best of all I now practice the STUN (Sheer, Total, Utter, Neglect) planting method. I love it!
See all 84 customer reviews...
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard PDF
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard EPub
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard Doc
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard iBooks
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard rtf
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard Mobipocket
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard Kindle
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard PDF
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard PDF
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard PDF
Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard PDF
