crop rotation

Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre
by Brett L. Markham
Published 14 Apr 2010

However, keep in mind that the choice of green manures will be at least partially dictated by climate. Many crops that grow fine over the winter in South Carolina won’t work in Vermont. Crop Rotation Crop rotation is one of the oldest and most important agricultural practices in existence and is still one of the most effective for controlling pest populations, assisting soil fertility, and controlling diseases. The primary key to successful crop rotation lies in understanding that crops belong to a number of different botanical families and that members of each related family have common requirements and pest problems that differ from those of members of other botanical families.

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However, adequate moisture is also important because drought-stressed plants become more attractive to pests. Crop rotation is impossible to over emphasize. Just like there are viruses and bacteria that affect some mammals but not others—such as feline leukemia—there are numerous plant diseases that affect one family of vegetables but not others. Since these microbes need a host hospitable to their reproduction to complete their life cycles, depriving them of the host they need through crop rotation is extremely effective at controlling many diseases. The same applies to insect pests, so the same crop should not be grown in the same bed two years in a row. Ideally, crop rotation will prevent crops of the same family from growing in the same bed any more often than once every three years.

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Predicted harvest dates also allow me to see in advance when succession planting or starting a crop at a time when I ordinarily wouldn’t will serve to reduce peak workloads for food preservation so the work can be spread out better. My final journal lists practically everything I do related to soil fertility, including digging beds, compost contents, organic amendments added to soils, crop rotations, and so forth. This information is correlated with information about harvests of various crops and pest or disease problems. The idea of all of this journaling is to put all of my experiences and observations into a context that allows me to use that information effectively to make better decisions each year than I made the year before.

RHS Half Hour Allotment: Timely Tips for the Most Productive Plot Ever
by Royal Horticultural Society and Lia Leendertz
Published 5 Aug 2019

A access to plot 21 acid soil 133 alkaline soil 133 annual flowers 108, 109 ants 162, 164 aphids 160, 162, 164, 168 apples 57, 58, 68, 103 asparagus 56, 68 aubergines 69, 148 autumn programme 103, 108 B bamboo canes 144, 146 barriers to pests 165 beans companion planting 160 crop rotation 151 nitrogen capture 137 sowing seeds outside 55 supporting 28, 47, 144 beans, broad 69, 166 beans, French 48, 66, 70 beans, runner 70, 160 bee hotels 169 beer traps 166, 167 bees, attracting 160 beetroot 65, 71 biological controls 168 birds 172 blackfly 161, 167 Bordeaux mixture 170 bottling 192 boysenberries 79 brassicas crop rotation 151 mounding up 141 protecting 28, 162 root fly prevention 159 watering 138 broccoli 48, 71 Brussels sprouts 72, 104, 158 bulbs 106, 107 butterflies 160, 162 C cabbage root fly 159, 162 cabbages 73, 121 calabrese 71 calendars 97 camomile 160 card index 96 cardboard for weed control 119 carrot fly 159, 162, 164, 167 carrots 74 crop rotation 152 for children 179, 180 pest prevention 158, 159 protecting 148 sowing 55 watering 138 cauliflowers 74 celeriac 75 chard 75 chicken manure 137 chicory 76 children 177 chilli peppers 81, 194 Chinese cabbage 80 clay soil 133 cloches 103, 146, 148 cold frames 190, 191 companion planting 158 compost 26, 28, 148 compost bin 148 compost heap 23 copper bands against slugs 165 copper oxychloride 170 corms 107 couch grass 29, 120 courgettes 53, 65, 76, 102, 121, 152, 180 crop rotation 26, 116, 151, 157 cultivar seeds 187 cultivators 33, 118 cut flower garden 106 D daffodils 108 digging 99, 117 diseased material 150 diseases 157 drying 194 dust mulch 138 E educating children 177 Encarsia 169 espaliers 58 F fallow areas 123 feeding 134 fertilizer 134 feverfew 160 fish blood and bone 137 fleece see horticultural fleece flowers 106 freezing 192 frost protection 146, 190 fruit bushes 56, 58 for polytunnels 196 supports 144 trees 57, 164 watering 138 fruit cages 161 G gages 57 garlic 77, 194 globe artichokes 55 gluts 14, 66, 191 gooseberries 58, 102 grass paths 29, 97, 124 gravel 30 grease bands 164 green-in-the-snow 80 green manures 123 greenhouses 169, 188 growing bags 198 Growmore 137 H hardening off 190 harvesting 102, 109 harvesting crops 96 hazel twigs 144 hedgehogs 170, 172 herbicides 23 herbs 32 heritage cultivars 188 hoeing 98, 99, 121 horticultural fleece 146, 161, 167 hoverflies 172 I insects beneficial 160 see also pests K kale, curly 77, 104 L lacewings 168 ladybirds 168 landscape fabric 30 lavender 160 layout plans 25 leafmould 150 leeks 78, 158, 199 lettuce 78, 102, 157 companion planting 160 disease-resistant 158 see also salad crops lime addition to soil 134, 152 loam 134 log piles 170 loganberries 79 M maintenance 93 mange tout 48, 79, 144 manuring animal manure 133 chicken manure 137 green manures 123 marigolds 158, 160 melons 80, 148 mice 172 micronutrients 137 mizuna 80 modules 188 mowing 97, 123, 124 mulching 23, 118, 138 mushroom compost 134 mustard greens 80 N nasturtiums 160 neighbourliness 124 nematodes 168 netting 157 nitrogen 137, 152 N:P:K ratio 137 nursery bed 52 O onion family crop rotation 151 onions 53, 158 alternatives to 48 crop rotation 152 as pest preventers 159 white rot 170 organic matter 98, 134 oriental leaves 80 see also salad crops P pak choi 80 parsnips 152 paths 26, 28, 97, 198 paving 30 pears 57, 58, 81 peas 183, 188 alternatives to 48 crop rotation 151 as nitrogen providers 137 supporting 141, 144 see also mange tout; sugar snap peas peppers, sweet 81 perennials 55, 106, 107 pest controller plants 160 pests 157 pH of soil 133 phosphorus 137 Phytoseiulus 169 plastic bottle protection 148, 165 play equipment 183 plots 93 access 21 for children 177 planning layout 25 shade 22 sharing 25 size 23 slopes 22 types 21 water access 21 weed control 22 plug plants 14, 16, 52 plums 57 pollinator-attracting plants 160 polythene for covering soils 119 polytunnels see tunnels potash 137 potassium 137 potato blight 170 potatoes 82, 183 companion planting 160 crop rotation 151 digging for 28 disease-resistant 158 early 146 earthing up 100 harvesting 102 new 50, 179 planting 94 watering 138 for weed control 121 powdery mildew 170 preserving 193 pumpkins 121, 152, 179 R radishes 47, 66, 179, 180 rain collection 40 raised beds 32, 178 raking 99 raspberries 56, 82, 103, 144 red spider mite 169 redcurrants 58, 83 regulations 34, 40 resistant cultivars 158 rhubarb 56, 83 root crop rotation 151 rootstocks 57 rotation see crop rotation S sacrificial plants 160 safety 180 salad crops 50, 52, 66 for children 180 crop rotation 152 harvesting 96 for polytunnels 198 under cover 148 value plants 48 sandy soil 133 scarecrow 124 seating 34 seaweed 137 seedlings 55, 190 seeds disease-resistant 158 sowing 53, 96, 100, 188 specialist 187 vs plugs 52 shade 22, 34 shallots 50, 84 sharing plots 25 shears 33 sheds 28, 38, 104 shelter 34 showing vegetables 199 Sibley, Will 12 silty soil 133 size of plot 23 slopes 22 slow worms 170 slugs and snails 55, 164, 168 soil assessing 131 covering with mulch 118 improving 132 mounding up 141 pH 133 removing surface layer 120 testing 134 types 132 sowing seeds 53, 96, 100 spades 33 spinach 84, 148 spraying 170 spring greens 85 spring onions 50, 85, 159 spring programme 101, 108, 116 squashes 86, 160, 180 stem collars 162 stepover apples 58, 58 storage 191 strawberries 66, 86 sugar snap peas 79 sulphur dust 170 summer programme 102 sunflowers 179 supports 35, 100, 108, 138 sweet corn 87, 160 sweet peas 106, 107, 109 T tayberries 79 thinning out 55 thyme 160 tilth 99 time management 12, 93, 124,183 tomato blight 170 tomatoes 87, 100 bottling 193 for children 179, 180 companion planting 160 disease-resistant 158 drying 194 heritage cultivars 188 supporting 146 tools 33, 38, 179, 183 training fruit trees 57 tulips 108 tunnels 146, 169, 188, 196 V vegetables (general) choosing what to grow 15, 47, 65 good and bad value types 48 healthy plants 157 how much to grow 66 polytunnels 196 showing 199 watering 138 ventilation in tunnels 198 W wasps, parasitic 169 watering 21, 40, 97, 138, 198 weeding 22, 97, 103, 117 among seedlings 55, 108 composting weeds 150 covering soil 118 by hand 100 herbicides 23 hoeing 99 mowing down 123 mulching 23, 118 spring control 116 white rot 170 whitefly 160, 169 wildlife garden 172 willow stem den 181 winter moth 164 winter programme 104 White Lion Publishing, an imprint of The Quarto Group The Old Brewery, 6 Blundell Street, London, N7 9BH www.QuartoKnows.com – T (0)20 7700 6700 The Royal Horticultural Society The Half-Hour Allotment Design copyright © Quarto Publishing Group plc. 2019 Text copyright © The Royal Horticultural Society 2019 Photographic copyright © information is listed on page 205 First Frances Lincoln edition 2006 Digital edition published in 2019 Digital edition: 978-0-7112-4698-0 Softcover edition: 978-0-7112-4410-8 Lia Leendertz has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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A access to plot 21 acid soil 133 alkaline soil 133 annual flowers 108, 109 ants 162, 164 aphids 160, 162, 164, 168 apples 57, 58, 68, 103 asparagus 56, 68 aubergines 69, 148 autumn programme 103, 108 B bamboo canes 144, 146 barriers to pests 165 beans companion planting 160 crop rotation 151 nitrogen capture 137 sowing seeds outside 55 supporting 28, 47, 144 beans, broad 69, 166 beans, French 48, 66, 70 beans, runner 70, 160 bee hotels 169 beer traps 166, 167 bees, attracting 160 beetroot 65, 71 biological controls 168 birds 172 blackfly 161, 167 Bordeaux mixture 170 bottling 192 boysenberries 79 brassicas crop rotation 151 mounding up 141 protecting 28, 162 root fly prevention 159 watering 138 broccoli 48, 71 Brussels sprouts 72, 104, 158 bulbs 106, 107 butterflies 160, 162 C cabbage root fly 159, 162 cabbages 73, 121 calabrese 71 calendars 97 camomile 160 card index 96 cardboard for weed control 119 carrot fly 159, 162, 164, 167 carrots 74 crop rotation 152 for children 179, 180 pest prevention 158, 159 protecting 148 sowing 55 watering 138 cauliflowers 74 celeriac 75 chard 75 chicken manure 137 chicory 76 children 177 chilli peppers 81, 194 Chinese cabbage 80 clay soil 133 cloches 103, 146, 148 cold frames 190, 191 companion planting 158 compost 26, 28, 148 compost bin 148 compost heap 23 copper bands against slugs 165 copper oxychloride 170 corms 107 couch grass 29, 120 courgettes 53, 65, 76, 102, 121, 152, 180 crop rotation 26, 116, 151, 157 cultivar seeds 187 cultivators 33, 118 cut flower garden 106 D daffodils 108 digging 99, 117 diseased material 150 diseases 157 drying 194 dust mulch 138 E educating children 177 Encarsia 169 espaliers 58 F fallow areas 123 feeding 134 fertilizer 134 feverfew 160 fish blood and bone 137 fleece see horticultural fleece flowers 106 freezing 192 frost protection 146, 190 fruit bushes 56, 58 for polytunnels 196 supports 144 trees 57, 164 watering 138 fruit cages 161 G gages 57 garlic 77, 194 globe artichokes 55 gluts 14, 66, 191 gooseberries 58, 102 grass paths 29, 97, 124 gravel 30 grease bands 164 green-in-the-snow 80 green manures 123 greenhouses 169, 188 growing bags 198 Growmore 137 H hardening off 190 harvesting 102, 109 harvesting crops 96 hazel twigs 144 hedgehogs 170, 172 herbicides 23 herbs 32 heritage cultivars 188 hoeing 98, 99, 121 horticultural fleece 146, 161, 167 hoverflies 172 I insects beneficial 160 see also pests K kale, curly 77, 104 L lacewings 168 ladybirds 168 landscape fabric 30 lavender 160 layout plans 25 leafmould 150 leeks 78, 158, 199 lettuce 78, 102, 157 companion planting 160 disease-resistant 158 see also salad crops lime addition to soil 134, 152 loam 134 log piles 170 loganberries 79 M maintenance 93 mange tout 48, 79, 144 manuring animal manure 133 chicken manure 137 green manures 123 marigolds 158, 160 melons 80, 148 mice 172 micronutrients 137 mizuna 80 modules 188 mowing 97, 123, 124 mulching 23, 118, 138 mushroom compost 134 mustard greens 80 N nasturtiums 160 neighbourliness 124 nematodes 168 netting 157 nitrogen 137, 152 N:P:K ratio 137 nursery bed 52 O onion family crop rotation 151 onions 53, 158 alternatives to 48 crop rotation 152 as pest preventers 159 white rot 170 organic matter 98, 134 oriental leaves 80 see also salad crops P pak choi 80 parsnips 152 paths 26, 28, 97, 198 paving 30 pears 57, 58, 81 peas 183, 188 alternatives to 48 crop rotation 151 as nitrogen providers 137 supporting 141, 144 see also mange tout; sugar snap peas peppers, sweet 81 perennials 55, 106, 107 pest controller plants 160 pests 157 pH of soil 133 phosphorus 137 Phytoseiulus 169 plastic bottle protection 148, 165 play equipment 183 plots 93 access 21 for children 177 planning layout 25 shade 22 sharing 25 size 23 slopes 22 types 21 water access 21 weed control 22 plug plants 14, 16, 52 plums 57 pollinator-attracting plants 160 polythene for covering soils 119 polytunnels see tunnels potash 137 potassium 137 potato blight 170 potatoes 82, 183 companion planting 160 crop rotation 151 digging for 28 disease-resistant 158 early 146 earthing up 100 harvesting 102 new 50, 179 planting 94 watering 138 for weed control 121 powdery mildew 170 preserving 193 pumpkins 121, 152, 179 R radishes 47, 66, 179, 180 rain collection 40 raised beds 32, 178 raking 99 raspberries 56, 82, 103, 144 red spider mite 169 redcurrants 58, 83 regulations 34, 40 resistant cultivars 158 rhubarb 56, 83 root crop rotation 151 rootstocks 57 rotation see crop rotation S sacrificial plants 160 safety 180 salad crops 50, 52, 66 for children 180 crop rotation 152 harvesting 96 for polytunnels 198 under cover 148 value plants 48 sandy soil 133 scarecrow 124 seating 34 seaweed 137 seedlings 55, 190 seeds disease-resistant 158 sowing 53, 96, 100, 188 specialist 187 vs plugs 52 shade 22, 34 shallots 50, 84 sharing plots 25 shears 33 sheds 28, 38, 104 shelter 34 showing vegetables 199 Sibley, Will 12 silty soil 133 size of plot 23 slopes 22 slow worms 170 slugs and snails 55, 164, 168 soil assessing 131 covering with mulch 118 improving 132 mounding up 141 pH 133 removing surface layer 120 testing 134 types 132 sowing seeds 53, 96, 100 spades 33 spinach 84, 148 spraying 170 spring greens 85 spring onions 50, 85, 159 spring programme 101, 108, 116 squashes 86, 160, 180 stem collars 162 stepover apples 58, 58 storage 191 strawberries 66, 86 sugar snap peas 79 sulphur dust 170 summer programme 102 sunflowers 179 supports 35, 100, 108, 138 sweet corn 87, 160 sweet peas 106, 107, 109 T tayberries 79 thinning out 55 thyme 160 tilth 99 time management 12, 93, 124,183 tomato blight 170 tomatoes 87, 100 bottling 193 for children 179, 180 companion planting 160 disease-resistant 158 drying 194 heritage cultivars 188 supporting 146 tools 33, 38, 179, 183 training fruit trees 57 tulips 108 tunnels 146, 169, 188, 196 V vegetables (general) choosing what to grow 15, 47, 65 good and bad value types 48 healthy plants 157 how much to grow 66 polytunnels 196 showing 199 watering 138 ventilation in tunnels 198 W wasps, parasitic 169 watering 21, 40, 97, 138, 198 weeding 22, 97, 103, 117 among seedlings 55, 108 composting weeds 150 covering soil 118 by hand 100 herbicides 23 hoeing 99 mowing down 123 mulching 23, 118 spring control 116 white rot 170 whitefly 160, 169 wildlife garden 172 willow stem den 181 winter moth 164 winter programme 104 White Lion Publishing, an imprint of The Quarto Group The Old Brewery, 6 Blundell Street, London, N7 9BH www.QuartoKnows.com – T (0)20 7700 6700 The Royal Horticultural Society The Half-Hour Allotment Design copyright © Quarto Publishing Group plc. 2019 Text copyright © The Royal Horticultural Society 2019 Photographic copyright © information is listed on page 205 First Frances Lincoln edition 2006 Digital edition published in 2019 Digital edition: 978-0-7112-4698-0 Softcover edition: 978-0-7112-4410-8 Lia Leendertz has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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A access to plot 21 acid soil 133 alkaline soil 133 annual flowers 108, 109 ants 162, 164 aphids 160, 162, 164, 168 apples 57, 58, 68, 103 asparagus 56, 68 aubergines 69, 148 autumn programme 103, 108 B bamboo canes 144, 146 barriers to pests 165 beans companion planting 160 crop rotation 151 nitrogen capture 137 sowing seeds outside 55 supporting 28, 47, 144 beans, broad 69, 166 beans, French 48, 66, 70 beans, runner 70, 160 bee hotels 169 beer traps 166, 167 bees, attracting 160 beetroot 65, 71 biological controls 168 birds 172 blackfly 161, 167 Bordeaux mixture 170 bottling 192 boysenberries 79 brassicas crop rotation 151 mounding up 141 protecting 28, 162 root fly prevention 159 watering 138 broccoli 48, 71 Brussels sprouts 72, 104, 158 bulbs 106, 107 butterflies 160, 162 C cabbage root fly 159, 162 cabbages 73, 121 calabrese 71 calendars 97 camomile 160 card index 96 cardboard for weed control 119 carrot fly 159, 162, 164, 167 carrots 74 crop rotation 152 for children 179, 180 pest prevention 158, 159 protecting 148 sowing 55 watering 138 cauliflowers 74 celeriac 75 chard 75 chicken manure 137 chicory 76 children 177 chilli peppers 81, 194 Chinese cabbage 80 clay soil 133 cloches 103, 146, 148 cold frames 190, 191 companion planting 158 compost 26, 28, 148 compost bin 148 compost heap 23 copper bands against slugs 165 copper oxychloride 170 corms 107 couch grass 29, 120 courgettes 53, 65, 76, 102, 121, 152, 180 crop rotation 26, 116, 151, 157 cultivar seeds 187 cultivators 33, 118 cut flower garden 106 D daffodils 108 digging 99, 117 diseased material 150 diseases 157 drying 194 dust mulch 138 E educating children 177 Encarsia 169 espaliers 58 F fallow areas 123 feeding 134 fertilizer 134 feverfew 160 fish blood and bone 137 fleece see horticultural fleece flowers 106 freezing 192 frost protection 146, 190 fruit bushes 56, 58 for polytunnels 196 supports 144 trees 57, 164 watering 138 fruit cages 161 G gages 57 garlic 77, 194 globe artichokes 55 gluts 14, 66, 191 gooseberries 58, 102 grass paths 29, 97, 124 gravel 30 grease bands 164 green-in-the-snow 80 green manures 123 greenhouses 169, 188 growing bags 198 Growmore 137 H hardening off 190 harvesting 102, 109 harvesting crops 96 hazel twigs 144 hedgehogs 170, 172 herbicides 23 herbs 32 heritage cultivars 188 hoeing 98, 99, 121 horticultural fleece 146, 161, 167 hoverflies 172 I insects beneficial 160 see also pests K kale, curly 77, 104 L lacewings 168 ladybirds 168 landscape fabric 30 lavender 160 layout plans 25 leafmould 150 leeks 78, 158, 199 lettuce 78, 102, 157 companion planting 160 disease-resistant 158 see also salad crops lime addition to soil 134, 152 loam 134 log piles 170 loganberries 79 M maintenance 93 mange tout 48, 79, 144 manuring animal manure 133 chicken manure 137 green manures 123 marigolds 158, 160 melons 80, 148 mice 172 micronutrients 137 mizuna 80 modules 188 mowing 97, 123, 124 mulching 23, 118, 138 mushroom compost 134 mustard greens 80 N nasturtiums 160 neighbourliness 124 nematodes 168 netting 157 nitrogen 137, 152 N:P:K ratio 137 nursery bed 52 O onion family crop rotation 151 onions 53, 158 alternatives to 48 crop rotation 152 as pest preventers 159 white rot 170 organic matter 98, 134 oriental leaves 80 see also salad crops P pak choi 80 parsnips 152 paths 26, 28, 97, 198 paving 30 pears 57, 58, 81 peas 183, 188 alternatives to 48 crop rotation 151 as nitrogen providers 137 supporting 141, 144 see also mange tout; sugar snap peas peppers, sweet 81 perennials 55, 106, 107 pest controller plants 160 pests 157 pH of soil 133 phosphorus 137 Phytoseiulus 169 plastic bottle protection 148, 165 play equipment 183 plots 93 access 21 for children 177 planning layout 25 shade 22 sharing 25 size 23 slopes 22 types 21 water access 21 weed control 22 plug plants 14, 16, 52 plums 57 pollinator-attracting plants 160 polythene for covering soils 119 polytunnels see tunnels potash 137 potassium 137 potato blight 170 potatoes 82, 183 companion planting 160 crop rotation 151 digging for 28 disease-resistant 158 early 146 earthing up 100 harvesting 102 new 50, 179 planting 94 watering 138 for weed control 121 powdery mildew 170 preserving 193 pumpkins 121, 152, 179 R radishes 47, 66, 179, 180 rain collection 40 raised beds 32, 178 raking 99 raspberries 56, 82, 103, 144 red spider mite 169 redcurrants 58, 83 regulations 34, 40 resistant cultivars 158 rhubarb 56, 83 root crop rotation 151 rootstocks 57 rotation see crop rotation S sacrificial plants 160 safety 180 salad crops 50, 52, 66 for children 180 crop rotation 152 harvesting 96 for polytunnels 198 under cover 148 value plants 48 sandy soil 133 scarecrow 124 seating 34 seaweed 137 seedlings 55, 190 seeds disease-resistant 158 sowing 53, 96, 100, 188 specialist 187 vs plugs 52 shade 22, 34 shallots 50, 84 sharing plots 25 shears 33 sheds 28, 38, 104 shelter 34 showing vegetables 199 Sibley, Will 12 silty soil 133 size of plot 23 slopes 22 slow worms 170 slugs and snails 55, 164, 168 soil assessing 131 covering with mulch 118 improving 132 mounding up 141 pH 133 removing surface layer 120 testing 134 types 132 sowing seeds 53, 96, 100 spades 33 spinach 84, 148 spraying 170 spring greens 85 spring onions 50, 85, 159 spring programme 101, 108, 116 squashes 86, 160, 180 stem collars 162 stepover apples 58, 58 storage 191 strawberries 66, 86 sugar snap peas 79 sulphur dust 170 summer programme 102 sunflowers 179 supports 35, 100, 108, 138 sweet corn 87, 160 sweet peas 106, 107, 109 T tayberries 79 thinning out 55 thyme 160 tilth 99 time management 12, 93, 124,183 tomato blight 170 tomatoes 87, 100 bottling 193 for children 179, 180 companion planting 160 disease-resistant 158 drying 194 heritage cultivars 188 supporting 146 tools 33, 38, 179, 183 training fruit trees 57 tulips 108 tunnels 146, 169, 188, 196 V vegetables (general) choosing what to grow 15, 47, 65 good and bad value types 48 healthy plants 157 how much to grow 66 polytunnels 196 showing 199 watering 138 ventilation in tunnels 198 W wasps, parasitic 169 watering 21, 40, 97, 138, 198 weeding 22, 97, 103, 117 among seedlings 55, 108 composting weeds 150 covering soil 118 by hand 100 herbicides 23 hoeing 99 mowing down 123 mulching 23, 118 spring control 116 white rot 170 whitefly 160, 169 wildlife garden 172 willow stem den 181 winter moth 164 winter programme 104 White Lion Publishing, an imprint of The Quarto Group The Old Brewery, 6 Blundell Street, London, N7 9BH www.QuartoKnows.com – T (0)20 7700 6700 The Royal Horticultural Society The Half-Hour Allotment Design copyright © Quarto Publishing Group plc. 2019 Text copyright © The Royal Horticultural Society 2019 Photographic copyright © information is listed on page 205 First Frances Lincoln edition 2006 Digital edition published in 2019 Digital edition: 978-0-7112-4698-0 Softcover edition: 978-0-7112-4410-8 Lia Leendertz has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Allotment Gardening
by Susan Berger
Published 2 Jan 2005

This chapter will help you to get started. THINGS TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE YOU START The simplest way to use your allotment is to create four main beds and rotate the contents over four years (see pages 20–22 on Crop Rotation). In addition you may want to grow fruit, herbs and asparagus which all require permanent beds. If you are sharing your allotment, you will only be working half the plot. Making permanent beds will reduce the size of your four crop rotation beds, which will be further reduced by paths. So if you are sharing your plot, it may be necessary to make just two rotation beds. Then the golden rule is to rotate root crops one year with ‘above ground’ crops the next, and vice versa.

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However, if your allotment already has grass paths established, then leave them and use a lawn mower to keep them trim. With the paths in place you will then begin to feel you’re making progress and can work on the beds in a systematic way. Chapter 3 Crop Rotation Many people, when they first get an allotment, are so keen to start sowing that they ignore the principles of crop rotation. They clear some ground, sow and plant, and gradually work their way up the plot. This is fine for a year or two: you’ll probably get good results, and it’s a great way to learn what crops are easy and what crops need most attention.

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There are four family groups of vegetables to rotate: onions and roots, potatoes, brassicas and legumes. Using this method of crop rotation you need only apply manure to a quarter of the ground each year, to the site where the hungriest feeders—the brassicas—are planted. The grouping is also convenient; for example, onion and root vegetables will survive with little water, and are separate from legumes that require regular watering. And members of the brassica family grown together can be covered with a horticultural fleece to protect them from insects and pests. THE FOUR CROP ROTATION GROUPS A. Potato Family This includes tomatoes, aubergines and peppers.

How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler
by Ryan North
Published 17 Sep 2018

Instead we just used trial and error over thousands and thousands of years, which meant even the most basic two-field crop rotation didn’t show up until 6000 BCE, and four-field crop rotation arrived only in the 1700s CE. That’s more than 20,000 years just to invent non-crappy farming! And it gets worse: the symbiosis between rhizobia and legumes, which is what makes advanced crop rotation possible, first evolved over 65 million years ago. That’s so far back that actual dinosaurs could’ve invented our most complicated system of crop rotation, if only they were smart enough to, and had tried to, and had also not been horrifically killed by asteroids.* Besides nitrogen, plants also need calcium and phosphorus.

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Rather than letting you find out by surprise and then starving to death like countless other humans have throughout time, we thought we’d tell you. Growing the same plant repeatedly will kill your soil (slowly) and then you (more quickly). Luckily, you can solve this problem with a technology called “crop rotation.” What’s “crop rotation,” you ask, as allured as you are entertained? We’re more than happy to answer. CROP ROTATION There are three simple but extremely critical things to keep in mind about plants: Plants use the sun’s energy to become big and delicious. The chemical they use to extract that solar energy is called “chlorophyll.”

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And if at this point you’re thinking you could easily improve this system by farming only half your fields each year while the other half recover, congratulations: you just invented crop rotation!* Specifically, two-field crop rotation. It looks like this: Field 1 Field 2 Year 1 Plant whatever food you want. Lie fallow, let animals graze here so their poop fertilizes the land. Year 2 Lie fallow, let animals graze here so their poop fertilizes the land. Plant whatever food you want. Table 8: The two-field crop-rotation system, featuring both foods and poops.

Vertical Vegetable Gardening
by McLaughlin, Chris.
Published 22 Oct 2012

First, this technique preserves biological diversity, which can prevent the buildup of diseases in the soil, as well as pests that attack specific crops. Second, crop rotation can prevent the heavy feeders from depleting the soil of nutrients; in some cases, actually improving soil fertility. I’ll be the first to admit that crop rotation can be challenging in the smaller beds (or containers) that are often used when gardening vertically. If this is the case for you, don’t worry; it’s not a dealbreaker by any means. You may not have enough beds or what-have-you for this practice, but it’s a good technique to know and you can use it in any way you see fit. There are a couple of ways to go about crop rotation. The first is about sorting by individual vegetable families, the family rotation plan; and the second is based on the nutritional needs of these plants, the soil fertility rotation plan.

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Check Appendix B on where to get my favorite teas made by Authentic Haven Brand. Using prepackaged moo poo tea bags by Authentic Haven Brand are the easiest way to brew up a batch of manure tea. (Photo courtesy of Annie Haven) 150 h Part 3: Tending the Vertical Vegetable Garden About Crop Rotation Crop rotation is a fundamental organic gardening practice. It’s not a hard concept, but it does take a little bit of planning—mostly in the way of pencil and paper to keep track of plants. The good news is that many of us are keeping track of the plants and where we plant them anyway, so it may be no extra effort for you to give it a try.

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See cilantro corners on raised beds, 46 cos lettuce, 197 crisphead lettuce, 197 crookneck squash, 186 crop rotation, 150, 152â•‚153 cross-over season vegetables, 123 cucumber beetle, 163 cucumbers (Cucumis sativus), 178‑180 curly parsley, 237 cut logs for raised beds, 42 cuttings, 133â•‚136 Index D damselflies, 161 day-neutral strawberries, 223 deadheading, 155â•‚156 deck rails, containers on, 26 determinate tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), 188 diatomaceous earth for pest control, 165â•‚166 directions, reading safety, 43 disease, 6 plants in compost pile, 109 mulch, 144 suppression by compost, 110 tomatoes, 190 dragonflies, 161 drainage, raised beds, 40 dressers repurposed, 96 drip irrigation, 142â•‚143 E EarthBoxes, 32 eggplants (Solanum melongena), 122, 195â•‚196 erosion mulch, 144 raised beds, 40 espalier, 209â•‚210 apple varieties, 212 everbearing brambles, 220 everbearing strawberries, 223 evergreens, pruning, 154 F fabric strip ties, 57 face mask, 43 families, plant, 151 family crop rotation, 150 feed bags, 87â•‚89 fences boundary fences, 25â•‚26 chain-link, climbing plants, 26, 55 containers on, 25â•‚26 fence clips, 58 field fencing as climbing material, 55 picket-type, 26 plastic poultry fencing as climbing material, 55 repurposed fence panels, 90 fertility, crop rotation, 152â•‚153 fertilizer, 145â•‚148 field fencing as climbing material, 55 fish meal/emulsion, 147 flat ladder trellis, 69â•‚70 flat-leafed parsley, 237 flies, 159 flowering, pruning, 154 flowers, climbing with vegetables, 28 food gardening popularity, 3 frames repurposed, 94 framing materials, 56 friable soil, 105 fruit blackberries (Rubus), 219â•‚220, 222 crop rotation, 153 grapes (Vitis), 217â•‚219 kiwis (Actinidia), 225â•‚226 pruning, 154 raspberries (Rubus), 219â•‚220 h 265 slings, 58 strawberries (Fragaria ananassa), 223â•‚224 fruit trees, 209â•‚216 full shade/sun, 9â•‚10 G galvanized pipe, framing material, 56 garbage bag potatoes, 86â•‚87 garbage cans repurposed, 96 garden centers, 20 garden journal, 19, 20 garden netting as climbing material, 55 garden soil, 99 in compost pile, 108 pH level, 103 genetic diversity of heirloom plants, 132 gloves, 43 goggles, 43 gourd family, 151 granite meal, 148 grapes (Vitis), 217â•‚219 grass clippings, 147 green lacewing, 161 greenhouses, 18â•‚20 greensand, 148 greenwood as climbing material, 55 ground beetles, 161 growing season composting, 110 raised beds, 40 266 h Vertical Vegetable Gardening H hand watering, 141 hanging planters/baskets, 33‑35 hanging tin tub garden, 82â•‚83 hardening off seedlings, 18, 132â•‚133 hardiness zones, 11â•‚12 harvesting basil (Ocimum basilicum), 229 beans (Fabaceae), 177 blackberries (Rubus), 220 carrots (Daucus carota), 194 chives (Allium schoenoprasum), 231 cilantro (Coriandrum sativum), 233 coriander (Coriandrum sativum), 233 cucumbers (Cucumis sativus), 179 eggplants (Solanum melongena), 196 fruit trees, 212, 214 grapes (Vitis), 218 kiwis (Actinidia), 226 lettuce (Lactuca sativa), 198 melons (Cucumis melo and Citrullus lanatus), 181 mint (Mentha spp.), 235 oregano (Origanum vulgare), 238 parsley (Petroselinum crispum), 237 pear trees (Pyrus), 216 peas (Pisum sativum), 184 peppers (Capsicum annuum), 200 potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), 202 pumpkins (Cucurbita spp.), 192 radishes (Raphanus sativus), 204 raspberries (Rubus), 220 rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis), 240â•‚241 sage (Salvia officinalis), 242 spinach (Spinacia oleracea), 206 squash (Cucurbita pepo and maxima), 185 strawberries (Fragaria ananassa), 224 Swiss Chard (Beta vulgaris), 207 thyme (Thymus vulgaris), 244 tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), 187‑188 winter squash (Cucurbita spp.), 192 health, pruning for, 153 heated greenhouses for house plants, 18 heat stress, 143 heat zone map, 121 heirloom seeds, 130â•‚132 herbicide, chemical, 168â•‚169 herbs basil (Ocimum basilicum), 228â•‚230 chives (Allium schoenoprasum), 230â•‚232 cilantro (Coriandrum sativum), 232â•‚234 containers, 227 coriander (Coriandrum sativum), 233 lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), 236 mint (Mentha spp.), 234â•‚235 oregano (Origanum vulgare), 237â•‚239 parsley (Petroselinum crispum), 236â•‚237 rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis), 239, 241-242 sage (Salvia officinalis), 242â•‚243 thyme (Thymus vulgaris), 243â•‚245 water amounts, 140 hog panels, as climbing material, 54 honey bees, 160 hoop houses, microclimate, 15‑17 hornworms, 160, 164 horse trough, 90 horticultural oils for pest control, 167 hoses, 141 house plants in heated greenhouses, 18 hoverflies, 161 humidity, seed starting, 127 hybrids, 129 grape varieties, 217 versus GMOs (genetically modified organisms), 129 I indeterminate tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), 154‑155, 188 indoor seed starts, 122 versus outdoor, 127â•‚128 inorganic mulch, 145 Index insecticidal soaps for pest control, 166 insects, beneficial, 158â•‚162.

Your Own Allotment : How to Find It, Cultivate It, and Enjoy Growing Your Own Food
by Russell-Jones, Neil.
Published 21 Mar 2008

It also alters the fertility demands of crops as each has different requirements – surface-feeder, deep-rooter, nitrogen-fixer, etc – and therefore helps to reduce depletion of soil nutrients. Crop rotation can also improve soil structure by, for example, alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants, or leaving one part to lie fallow for a season, or grassing it over before using it the following year. The grass or other green manure is dug in to provide a natural manure for the next crops. 306 30 • Crop Rotation 307 A four stage rotation could be: 1 Potatoes, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins 2 Legumes 3 Brassicas 4 Onions, carrots, parsnips The pattern for a plot divided simply into four parts (quarters A–D) would look like the diagram below: Animal and mixed rotation Rotation has long been used of course with animals.

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247 247 248 PART III: Maintaining Your Allotment 27 Planting Winter preparation Sowing from seed Buying plants 255 256 257 264 28 Organic Matter Manure v compost 267 267 • Contents ix Composting How to make compost The compost heap What is a mulch? Membranes 269 270 273 276 277 29 Dealing with Pests, Diseases and Weeds Pests Diseases Weeds Pest-eaters Encouraging beneficial animals 280 281 288 293 299 303 30 Crop Rotation Why rotate? What sort of rotation is best? Non-rotating crops 306 306 308 311 31 Protecting Your Crops Plant covers Windbreaks 312 313 315 32 Enjoying the Fruits of Your Labour Storage Preserving Cooking the produce 317 318 320 323 33 Food for Free Harvesting seeds Lifespans of seeds Drying 333 334 336 337 34 The Allotment Society – Getting Involved Typical structure Fund-raising Children 339 339 340 340 35 Allotment Tips Health and safety Diaries General tips Companion planting 346 346 347 353 354 36 The Allotment Year Conclusion Summary (vade mecum) Annual Calender 357 358 360 366 Index 367 About the author Neil Russell-Jones (BSc (Hons), MBA, ACIB) is an author and management consultant.

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G Families generally (but not always) share the same likes and dislikes (eg acid, alkaline, wet, dry and so on) and this can be of help in deciding where and when to plant them, and how to nurture them. G Pests have adapted to their prey. Understanding which plants belong to which family helps enormously when planning crop rotations to minimise diseases and for soil preparation, eg liming for brassicas, manuring for potatoes. There are around 250,000 families of flowering plants and some of the largest include: English name Latin name Members Examples Daisy Compositiae 25,000 Lettuce, aster Orchid Orchidaceae 18,000 Orchids Pea Leguminosae 17,000 Peas, broad beans Grass Graminae 9,000 Maize, wheat, rye There are some surprises.

The Essential Allotment Guide: How to Get the Best Out of Your Plot
by John Harrison
Published 14 Jun 2009

One of the charming things about allotments is the innovative use of other people’s rubbish. I’ve seen raised beds edged with old wine bottles (placed neck-end down), old telegraph poles, broken down decking and reclaimed floorboards doubled up to provide strength. Be creative, re-use and recycle. Crop Rotation We’ve now covered all the hard landscaping of the plot but there is one thing left to think about in your planning: your crop rotation. If you grow the same vegetable in the same place for year after year what will happen is that the nutrients in the soil will become unbalanced as some plants use more of one nutrient than another. The pests and diseases will begin to concentrate and after a few years your crop yield will collapse.

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Coldframe A low, glass-covered structure to provide sheltered growing conditions – see Coldframes, here. Compost Term used for a growing medium produced by the decomposition of organic matter. Also commercial composts which include other materials such as peat or fibre, minerals and fertilizers, etc. Crop Rotation Moving crops around to avoid the build-up of pests and disease and to best utilize available nutrients – see Crop Rotation, here. Cucurbit The plant family that includes cucumbers, marrows, squashes, pumpkins and courgettes. Cultivar A variety or type of plant; for example, Sungold and Gardener’s Delight are cultivars of tomatoes. Damping Down Raising the humidity in a greenhouse by watering the floors and/or staging.

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When you come to weed after a holiday you can weed a bed at a time and feel you have won, at least in part at the end of the day. On the other hand, I can hoe half the plot in the time it takes to hand weed two raised beds. For some crops raised beds make a lot of sense but for potatoes, squash and sweetcorn they don’t provide any advantage and may actually be a disadvantage. They can also make crop rotation difficult and they’re not very flexible if you change things as the years go on. Finally, raised beds are a lot of work and a bit of an expense to construct properly in the first place. Before discussing how to construct a raised bed, let’s take a look at the theory of them and their benefits.

The Polytunnel Book: Fruit and Vegetables All Year Round
by Joyce Russell
Published 3 Apr 2013

This only needs to be done for the first flowers; later ones seem to have fewer problems setting fruit. Blossom end rot The flower end of tomato fruit sometimes turns black, hard and dry. Applying lime to the soil is one solution to this problem, but lack of water can be another cause. Adjust watering regimes so that plants never go short. 6 ONGOING CARE CROP ROTATION IN A POLYTUNNEL The principle of crop rotation is simple: don’t grow the same or a similar crop on the same piece of ground in consecutive years and, if possible, don’t grow the same crop on the same piece of ground for another three or four years. The practice is simple too: draw up a plan and stick to it. Of course, you can add something new into the scheme at any time, as long as it rotates in the right family group along with all the cousins.

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FRUIT AND VEGETABLES AT A GLANCE Aubergines Basil Beetroot Broad beans (early crop) Broccoli (Spring) cabbage Carrots (early crop) Courgettes Cucumbers Figs Florence fennel (as an overwinter crop) French beans Grapes Kohl rabi Lettuce Melons Peas (mangetout, as a spring crop) Peaches and nectarines Peppers New potatoes Pumpkins and squash Salad leaves (rocket, mizuna, etc.) Spinach, spinach beet and Swiss chard Strawberries (early) Sweetcorn Tomatoes 5. PESTS, DISEASES AND OTHER PROBLEMS – AN ORGANIC APPROACH Some polytunnel pests Some polytunnel diseases Mineral deficiencies Some physical problems 6. ONGOING CARE Crop rotation in a polytunnel Ten steps to soil health Repairs and maintenance 7. MAKE YOUR OWN How to make a hotbed How to make your own potting mixes How to make liquid feeds List of suppliers Glossary Index Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION I bought a polytunnel about sixteen years ago. It seemed like a major investment at the time and, with a large garden already growing a wide range of crops, I wasn’t sure how much use it would be.

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If there’s a problem in the polytunnel, look here to find out what it might be. Don’t despair! There are always solutions to problems and this section can help you negotiate the worst pitfalls. PART 6 PART 6 goes a little beyond the immediacy of month-by-month growing and looks at the overall plan. Get crop rotations organized, look after the soil and look after the structure of the polytunnel, and you should grow great crops for years to come. PART 7 PART 7 is for those who like to ‘make their own’ if they possibly can. There are recipes for potting compost, as well as how to set up a hotbed and how to make liquid feeds.

Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production
by Vaclav Smil
Published 18 Dec 2000

When the price of beans is low, soy beans can be cast into the field, each bean enriching an area of about three inches square; the cost is later twice repaid by the grain yield.5 Recycling was particularly important in areas with adequate precipitation or in regions where irrigation either removed or at least alleviated the recurrent threat of Traditional Sources of Nitrogen 23 6 cropping begins Soil organic matter content (%) 5 temperate climate crop rotations, residue management 4 continuous grain crops 3 crop rotations tropical climate 2 continuous grain crops 1 0 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Years 4 5 6 7 8 Figure 2.1 Declines of soil organic matter with crop cultivation. water shortages, which would have been otherwise the most important yield-limiting factor—but its impact was always restricted by competing uses for crop residue as well as by commonly inefficient means of recycling both plant and animal and human wastes.

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Four researchers made particularly outstanding contributions: Jean-Baptiste Boussingault (1802–1887), Justus von Liebig (1803–1873), John Bennet Lawes (1814–1900), and Joseph Henry Gilbert (1817– 1901). Nitrogen in Crop Production Boussingault had a career as a mining expert and a professor of chemistry in Bogotá and Lyon before he settled in 1836 on his father-in-law’s farm in Alsace, which became the site of his experiments on crop rotations, manuring, and sources of plant nitrogen (fig. 1.3).18 He concluded that the nutritional value of fertilizers is proportional to their nitrogen content.19 Later he published impressively accurate analyses of nitrogen content of about eighty different organic materials, including all major crops, their residues, animal wastes, and an assortment of organic wastes ranging from dried animal blood to spoiled salted cod (appendix B).20 Boussingault was also a good conceptualizer.

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In traditional Chinese farming soybeans, beans, peas, and peanuts were rotated with millets, wheat, and rice (fig. 2.4).35 Indian legume cultivation has JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP CORN OR MILLET SOYBEANS OR SWEET POTATOES COTTON BROAD BEANS OR GREEN MANURES COTTON OR CORN OCT NOV DEC WHEAT OR BARLEY WHEAT, BARLEY OR PEAS WHEAT OR BARLEY RAPESEEDS, PEAS Figure 2.4 An example of a traditional crop rotation from South China including the cultivation of legumes. 30 Chapter 2 been dominated by lentils, but it also included peas, chickpeas, and pigeon peas in both wheat- and rice-growing areas of the subcontinent.36 Peasants of Southeast Asia still cultivate a number of species not widely planted elsewhere, including wing beans, mung beans, and rice beans; sub-Saharan Africa cultivated peanuts, cowpeas, and bambara groundnuts with its staple root crops; and beans and corn were grown by all settled New World cultures.37 Peas and beans were the European favorites.

Energy and Civilization: A History
by Vaclav Smil
Published 11 May 2017

In the long run the provision of adequate nitrogen is of such importance that intensive agricultures cannot do without the nitrogen-fixing legumes and must plant them instead in edible varieties. This desirable practice, repeated every year or as part of longer crop-rotation sequences, represents perhaps the most admirable energetic optimization in traditional farming. Not surprisingly, it formed the core of all intensive agricultural systems relying on complex crop rotations, but it was only between 1750 and 1880 when standard rotations, including legume cover crops (exemplified by Norfolk’s four-year succession of wheat, turnips, barley, and clover), were widely adopted in Europe and at least tripled the rate of symbiotic nitrogen fixation and secure rising yields of nonleguminous crops (Campbell and Overton 1993).

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In 1800 about a quarter of German fields were fallowed, but the share was less than 10% by 1883. Average annual per capita meat consumption was less than 20 kg before 1820, but it was almost 50 kg by the end of the century. Earlier three-crop rotations were replaced by a variety of four-crop sequences. In a popular Norfolk cycle, wheat was followed by turnips, barley, and clover, and six-crop rotations were also spreading. Applications of calcium sulfate, and of marl or lime to correct excessive soil acidity, became common in better-off areas. The adoption of better-designed implements also accelerated during the nineteenth century, and it was accompanied by increasing numbers of draft livestock: between 1815 and 1913 the total of horses, oxen, and donkeys (in horse equivalents) rose by 15% in the UK, 27% in the Netherlands, and by 57% in Germany (Kander and Warde 2011).

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Principal commonalities included basic field and postharvest operations, a widespread dominance of cereals in cropping, and sequences of production cycles that were determined largely by environmental conditions. Four major steps toward the intensification of traditional farming were a more efficient use of animal labor, advances in irrigation, increasing fertilization, and crop rotation and multicropping. Despite many environmental and technical constraints, traditional agricultures could support population densities that were orders of magnitude higher than those of all but a few foraging societies. Relatively early in their existence they began creating an energy surplus that allowed initially small but significant numbers of adults to engage in an expanding range of nonfarming activities, which eventually led to highly diversified and stratified preindustrial societies.

The Soil Will Save Us
by Kristin Ohlson
Published 14 Oct 2014

Kirschenmann points to the career of one of his young colleagues at Iowa State University as an example of the subtle chilling effect this corporate pressure can exert. Ecologist Matt Liebmann had an experiment going for 9 years in which he compared the conventional two-crop rotation of corn and soybeans with three- and four-crop rotations. With these more complex rotations and more diverse crops, Liebmann found that farmers could reduce their fertilizer use by 90 percent and pesticide use by almost 90 percent, with comparable yields and more money going to the farmer. “The university has its own public relations system and they select what they’re going to publicize, and they never even mentioned Matt’s work,” Kirschenmann said.

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To manage an ecosystem (Savory says the process can be used to manage anything, from a family to a small business), decision makers look at the array of tools people have traditionally used to manage the land. Savory lists three that are typically used to manage large landscapes: fire, technology (from plowing to spraying chemicals), and rest (from roping off parklands for decades to crop rotation). Instead of these tools, which can never heal brittle lands, he proposes grazing and animal impact—careful grazing in which domestic animals are moved through a landscape as a proxy for the ancient herds that helped build the grasslands in the first place. I heard much of Savory’s story during long interviews around a fire pit in the cluster of thatch and stone buildings where he and Butterfield live during their trips to Zimbabwe.

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The test fields themselves were pretty unremarkable looking—nothing much was growing—but it was clear that neither the organic nor the conventional plots had any sort of topographic advantage, as they alternated in 5-foot strips for 100 feet across the landscape. The organic strips employ the basic three tools of organic agriculture—the “three Cs,” as Moyer called them: a top dressing of good compost, nitrogen-grabbing legume cover crops during fallow periods, and crop rotation. The thinking behind the latter is that when you plant the same crop in the same field every year, the diseases and pests that prey on that crop take up residence there, too; if you move the crop every year, then you don’t have to fight so much with the diseases and pests. Good organic farming isn’t just the absence of synthetic chemicals, Moyer explained, but rather an approach that works with biological processes and regards the soil as a complex system of living organisms.

Living in a Material World: The Commodity Connection
by Kevin Morrison
Published 15 Jul 2008

They are then harvested in September just before the corn harvest in October, so farmers would use the soya bean harvest as a chance to fire up the combine that had been sitting idle in the shed since last autumn. The switch between corn and soya bean growing abides by the traditional farming method of crop rotation, which was one of the tenets of one of the founding fathers of America, Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States. Crop rotation is practised widely around the world. My grandfather used to do it by growing hay one year, followed by barley and then turnips to feed the cattle. Ultimately though, the crop decision comes down to potential price and financial return for the next season.

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The leaves were used as fodder for cattle, and the corn husks were used to make mattresses, rugs and twine. Fermented corn mash became beer and whiskey and any left over corn was used for animal feed to fatten up the cows, pigs and chickens, which in turn produced more milk, eggs and meat. Once the colonists had learned from the Indians the techniques of crop rotation and planting of the seeds, they no longer needed the farming skills of the indigenous people. Go West The westward shift of corn from the east coast to the Midwest is a significant reflection of the expansion of the US at that time. At independence in 1776, about 90 % of the population of 2.8 million were in agriculture, and the tobacco from plantations in the south was the biggest commercial agricultural export (Warman, 1988).

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The sons of farmers were being educated in agricultural science through land colleges, set up in the mid-19th century following the Land Grant College Act, which was signed by President Lincoln in 1862 (Crabb, 1947). With no further land expansion by the US government, increases in production were only going to occur if yields themselves improved, through better breeding, crop rotation, tillage, use of fertilizers and insect control (Gardner, 2002). Seeds of Growth After the end of the Civil War, corn yields improved at a slow and steady rate. Corn was grown from open-pollinated seeds, without any intervention from farmers – a process still used for wheat, oats and barley. The rate of yield growth improved in the 1930s with the introduction of new seeds that changed the way corn had been grown for hundreds of years.

The Allotment Chef: Home-Grown Recipes and Seasonal Stories
by Paul Merrett
Published 3 Sep 2014

Geoff Hamilton is a ‘plant in rows’ man and he does look like the type you can trust, but Titchmarsh reckons one shouldn’t overlook the block planting method and he’s done OK for himself, so the jury is still out. Next up it’s crop rotation. All the books agree that crop rotation is a must. This is for two reasons: if a bug knows that every May his or her favourite food will be in abundance then he or she just sits and waits for the harvest to begin, so crop rotation thwarts pests and disease; secondly, certain plants sap the soil of certain nutrients so, if one sows a different type of crop in a plot each year, the nutrients remain at a consistent level.

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All the books do, however, give practical advice on starting out, and it is obvious to me that we should give some thought to how the finished plot will look. There are more ways than one to plant a cabbage, apparently, so it is important to think ahead. At this stage two questions need to be answered: Are we the ‘plant in row’ traditionalist types, or are we going to have raised beds? How are we going to deal with crop rotation? I turn first to the issue of raised bed versus traditional row sowing. My grandpa’s vegetable patch was a succession of perfect rows, each one a different vegetable – this is the ‘row’ method and it allows the gardener to walk between the plants to weed and water. The modernists are not satisfied with this tried and tested method, however, so they have come up with a new method called ‘raised bed’ growing.

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If we can fuel their enthusiasm, it’s worth relaxing the rules so, after breakfast, we give them a gardening book and tell them to make a list of what they want to plant. This list, when complete, looks something like this: I am trying hard to embrace MJ’s cunning plan and show willing but, when I read their list, it’s hard not to give just a small lecture on the principles of plant types and crop rotation. I bite my lip just in time. When we get to the allotment MJ immediately stakes out a small bed, about ten by five feet (3 x 1.5 metres) and starts to dig the kids’ vegetable patch and, to my amazement, they are happy to help. During the afternoon we have some visitors; our next-door neighbours Gill, Mal, Jake and Joe come down to give us a hand.

How to Grow Food in Your Polytunnel: All Year Round
by Mark Gatter and Andy McKee
Published 14 Sep 2010

Jam- and preserve-making is an age-old storage method that relies on high concentrations of sugar to prevent bacterial growth, and pickling uses high levels of vinegar or salt to do the same thing. You can find instructions for making these in ordinary cookbooks, but the related option of canning needs specialised knowledge and equipment to be done safely – please don’t attempt it without doing some further reading. Crop rotation ‘Rotation’ is the practice of using a piece of ground to grow different groups of crops in sequence, rather than growing the same type of plant in the same place several times. This reduces the build-up of soil pests and can also help you keep your soil-feeding routine as simple as possible (see Chapter 11).

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Site them right up against the north side of the polytunnel to avoid shading other plants, and enrich the soil by forking in some manure or rich compost as far ahead as you can manage. To avoid the traditional fuss of having to nip out male flowers, choose a female-only F1 hybrid; one with good resistance to mildew that will fruit well into late autumn. When you finally take the plants out, winter peas are an ideal following plant, both in terms of crop rotation and habit. Sowing F1 hybrid cucumber seeds are some of the most expensive seeds you will plant in a vegetable garden, and hate being transplanted because their roots are fragile and brittle. For both these reasons, plant them singly into biodegradable pots (see Chapter 4, page 35). Sow a couple of weeks before the last frost date for your area.

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air see ventilation ants 34, 160-1 aphids 13, 161 ants and aphid farms 34 ladybirds and 161, 161 lettuce root 111, 166 plants particularly at risk from 70, 71, 73, 75, 78, 80, 83, 90, 95, 98, 111, 121, 123, 125, 146 apricots 68-70 April 40 Armillatox 30 arugula see rocket aubergines 70-1 growing 70-1 harvesting 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 71 problems 71 seed storage 152 sowing 32, 39, 70 storage 71 August 55 autumn 14, 57-62 fleece protection 58-60 harvesting 61 jobs 60-1 sowing 61 treating fungal diseases 58 baking soda 58, 140, 162 bamboo canes 51 basil 55, 131 seed storage 152 bean shoots, sowing 42 beans see broad beans; dwarf French beans; French beans bed preparation 18-19 see also soil beer, slug bait 170 bees 53, 53 beetroot 14, 76-7 growing 76 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 61, 62, 76-7 mineral deficiency symptoms 180 problems 77 seed storage 155 soil preparation 76 sowing 44, 55, 76 storage 77 bicarbonate of soda 58, 140, 162 biocontrols 161, 169 birds 53, 100, 137 plants particularly at risk from 78, 80 blight 127, 146, 162 Blightwatch 184 bolting 43-4 bonemeal, sterilised 177 borax 34 Bordeaux mixture 162 botrytis 107, 117, 140, 162-3 bottle cloches 170-1 bran, slug bait 170 brassicas 53, 53 seed storage 155-6 see also specific plants broad beans 13, 41, 71-3 growing 72 harvesting 40, 54, 73 mineral deficiency symptoms 180 problems 73 seed storage 155 soil preparation 72 sowing 31, 32, 44, 61, 72 storage 73 broccoli, sprouting 77-8 growing 78 harvesting 40, 54, 55, 78 problems 78 seed storage 155-6 soil preparation see under cabbage sowing 39, 40, 44-5, 54, 55, 56, 77-8 storage 78 butterflies 53, 53 cabbage 78-80 growing 79-80 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 80 mineral deficiency symptoms 180 problems 80 seed storage 155-6 soil preparation 79 sowing 32, 39, 40, 45, 54, 55, 56, 61, 79 storage 80 cabbage root fly 80, 119, 163 calcium deficiency 180, 181 calendula 53 canes, bamboo 51 capillary beds 13, 49 cardboard tubes 30, 36 carrot fly 82, 163 carrots 14, 80-2 growing 81 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 41, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 81-2 mineral deficiency symptoms 180 problems 82 Index 187 seed storage 154-5 soil preparation 81 sowing 32, 39, 40, 45, 54, 55, 81 storage 82 caterpillars 24-5, 163 plants particularly at risk from 78, 80, 83, 88, 119 cats 24 cauliflower 82-3 growing 83 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 55, 56, 61, 62, 83 mineral deficiency symptoms 180 problems 83 seed storage 155-6 sowing 32, 39, 40, 45, 54, 55, 56, 82-3 storage 83 celeriac 41, 84-5 growing 84 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 56, 61, 62, 84-5 problems 85 seed storage 155 soil preparation 84 sowing 32, 39, 45, 84 storage 85 celery 14, 85-7 growing 86 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 86-7 mineral deficiency symptoms 180 problems 87 seed storage 155 soil preparation 86 sowing 32, 39, 45, 86 storage 87 in winter 28 celery fly 85, 87, 163 chard 28, 29, 42, 87-8 bolting 43 growing 88 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 88 problems 88 seed storage 156 soil preparation 88 sowing 32, 39, 40, 45-6, 88 storage 88 chemical fertilisers 176-7 chemical pesticides 169-70, 175 chervil 131 chicons 131 chicory 131 chillies 13 Chinese cabbage 28 cilantro see coriander Citrox 30, 38, 58, 140 clamps 20 cleaning 29-30 the tunnel cover 36-8, 60 cloches bottle 170-1 fleeced (in-tunnel) 14, 28, 29, 58-60, 59 club root 78, 80, 129, 148, 164-5, 164 cold frames 14, 19, 29, 38 comfrey 177-9 comfrey-based fertilisers 69, 125, 178 pellets 69, 143, 179 tea 178 compost 18-19, 29, 35, 60, 175-6 cool pile 175 hot pile 175 learning to hot compost 176 copper tape, slug barrier 170, 171 coriander 89-90 bolting 43 growing 89-90 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 90 problems 90 seed storage 153 soil preparation 89 sowing 31, 32, 39, 40, 46, 54, 55, 56, 61, 89 storage 90 corn salad 132 courgettes 90-3 growing 91 harvesting 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 92 problems 92-3 seed storage 158 soil preparation 91 sowing 40, 54, 91 storage 92 in winter 28 crop bars 20 crop rotation 66 crowding, avoidance 48 cucumbers 13, 57, 93-5 growing 94-5 harvesting 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 95 problems 95 seed storage 157 soil preparation 93 sowing 40, 54, 93-4 storage 95 in winter 28 cucurbits 157-8 see also courgettes; cucumbers; melons cutting ground-level growth 50 cutworms 165 daikon 96-7 growing 96 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 55, 56, 61, 62, 96-7 problems 97 soil preparation 96 sowing 54, 55, 56, 96 storage 96-7 damping off 13, 130 debris removal 29, 60 December 30-1 dill 131-2 seed storage 155 diseases dealing with 159-60, 162-3, 164-5, 166, 167-8, 171-2 fungal see fungal infections see also specific diseases drippers 23 drying, for storage 65 dwarf French beans 73-5 calcium deficiency symptoms 180 growing 74 harvesting 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 74 problems 75 seed storage 152-3 soil preparation 74 sowing 40, 74 storage 75 sweetcorn grown with 141 earthworms 18, 35 earwigs 165 Ecover 58 eelworms 102, 165 eggplants see aubergines eggshells 170 elephant garlic 101-2 growing 101-2 harvesting 54, 55, 102 problems 102 soil preparation 101 sowing 32, 61, 101 storage 102 Ethical Consumer freezer-use guidelines 184 EU Common Catalogue 150 F1 hybrids 149, 150 Farm In My Pocket website 183 February 31-2 fennel 14, 97-8 growing 98 harvesting 31, 55, 56, 61, 62, 98 problems 98 seed storage 155 soil preparation 98 sowing 39, 40, 54, 55, 98 storage 98 fertilisers chemical 176-7 comfrey-based 69, 125, 178 general 106 nitrogenous 139 organic 69, 74, 99, 106, 113, 136, 137, 139 tomato-based 74, 99, 125 figs 99-100 First Tunnels (supplier) 185 flea beetles 78, 80, 83, 97, 119, 128, 129, 148, 165-6 fleece for celery 45 draped 25, 29 fleece cloches 14, 28, 29, 58-60, 59 and light reduction 58 flowers 13 flying insects 53 freezing, for storage 65-6 French beans 75 calcium deficiency symptoms 180 harvesting 54, 55, 56, 61, 62 seed storage 152-3 sowing 40 frost 29, 33 plants particularly at risk from 95, 127 protection 28, 58-60, 61 see also fleece fungal infections 58 blight 127, 146, 162 damping off 13, 130 leek rust 102, 166 mildew 58 see also powdery mildew peach leaf curl 121, 167 powdery mildew 92-3, 95, 167-8 white rot 171-2 fungus fly 169 Garden Organic 184 gardening gloves see gloves garlic 100-2 growing 101-2 harvesting 54, 55, 102 problems 102 soil preparation 101 sowing 32, 61, 101 storage 102 glass paper 30, 171 gloves 154, 156, 179 hanging 39 to prevent allergic reactions 92 rubber 125 goji berries 103-4 goji gall mites 104 grapevines 104-7 greenhouses 38 polytunnels compared with 10, 12, 20, 26-7 grow lights 21 growing strings 51 growth 21 harvesting autumn 61, 62 seasonal chart, inside and outside tunnel 63-4 spring 40 storing the harvest 65-6 see also individual plants summer 54, 55, 56 winter 31, 32 heat sinks 61 heaters 60-1 Heritage Seed Library 151, 185 holidays 52 home freezing 65-6 horticultural fleece see fleece hoverflies 13, 53 human urine 177 hungry gap (between end of March and start of June) 41-7 insects 13 flying 53 installation of polytunnels 17, 18 iron deficiency 180, 181, 182 jam-making 66 January 31 July 54-5 June 54 kale, mineral deficiency symptoms 181 kohlrabi 13, 107-9 growing 108 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 41, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 108 problems 108-9 seed storage 155-6 soil preparation 108 sowing 32, 39, 40, 42, 46, 54, 55, 56, 61, 108 storage 108 ladybirds 161, 161 lamb’s lettuce 132 leafmould 176 leatherjackets 166 leek rust 102, 166 lettuce 14, 109-11 bolting 43 growing 110 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 110-11 mineral deficiency symptoms 181 problems 111 seed storage 153 soil preparation 109 sowing 32, 39, 40, 46, 54, 55, 56, 109-10 storage 111 in winter 28 lettuce root aphid 111, 166 light 13, 15, 19 cleaning the cover for 36-8, 60 deprivation 19 fleece and light reduction 58 grow lights 21 and temperature 27-8 magnesium deficiency 83, 180, 181, 182 manganese deficiency 180, 181, 182 manure 35, 174-5 March 38-40 marigold 53 May 53-4 melons 13, 14, 111-15 growing 112-13 harvesting 55, 56, 113-14 problems 115 seed storage 157 soil preparation 112 sowing 40, 54, 112 storage 114-15 tips for success 114 metaldehyde 169 methiocarb 169 mibuna 132 mice 73, 95, 123, 134, 142, 166 plants particularly at risk from 115 micro-jet watering systems 23 micro-misters 23 microclimates 43 mildew 58 powdery 92-3, 95 milk, slug bait 170 minerals deficiencies 19, 83, 179-82 excessive concentration 49, 125, 176-7 mizuna 43, 55, 132 module sowing 50 moles 167 molybdenum deficiency 180, 182 mooli see daikon moulds 29 botrytis 107, 117, 140, 162-3 plants particularly at risk from 75, 111, 115, 117, 137 treatment for botrytis and other moulds 162-3 multiple-outlet connectors 23 mustard 132 mustard greens 28 nematodes 161, 169 Nippon 34 November 61-2 NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) 177, 179 oatmeal, slug bait 170 October 60-1 onion fly 102, 167 onions, bulbing 115-17 curing 14 growing 116 harvesting 54, 55, 116 problems 117 soil preparation 116 sowing 46, 55, 116 storage 117 onions, spring see spring onions organic compost 35, 175, 176 Organic Gardening Catalogue 184 pak choi 28, 118-19 growing 119 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 119 problems 119 seed storage 155-6 soil preparation 118 sowing 46, 55, 119 storage 119 paper pots 36, 37 parsley 155 pea moth 167 pea shoots 132 peach leaf curl 121, 167 peaches 120-1 peas 122- 3 growing 123 harvesting 40, 54, 123 mineral deficiency symptoms 181 overwintering 122 pea shoots 132 problems 123 seed storage 153 soil preparation 122 sowing 31, 32, 42, 42, 46, 55, 56, 122 spring-planted 122 storage 123 peppers 13, 57, 124-5 growing 125 harvesting 31, 55, 56, 61, 125 problems 125 seed storage 153 soil preparation 124 sowing 32, 124 storage 125 in winter 28 perpetual spinach 43 pesticides 169-70, 175 pests 23-5, 26, 29 biocontrols 161, 169 keeping pest habitat to minimum 29, 60, 160 A–Z of pests 160-72 see also specific pests planning your plants 15-16 plant debris removal 29, 60 planting guide key 67 planting notes 21, 42 planting seeds see sowing plants bolting 43-4 diseases see diseases; fungal infections F1 hybrids 149, 150 growing summer plants in pots 50 harvesting see harvesting keeping track of 35 open-pollinated 150 planning your plants 15-16 quarantining new plants 33, 159-60 shade-tolerant 52 sowing see sowing see also individual plants pollination pollinating insects 13 pollinators versus brassicas 53 polytunnels cleaning the cover 36-8, 60 cloches within see cloches cold frames within 14, 19, 29, 38 compared with greenhouses 10, 12, 20, 26-7 crop rotation 66 first year 17-25 flowers 13 during holidays 52 installation 17, 18 keeping up with growth 21 layout 15-16, 16 light 13, 15, 19, 27-8, 36-8 main uses in vegetable growing 11 planning your plants 15-16 preparing the beds 18-19 repairs 30, 60 seasonal use of see seasonal use of polytunnels and individual seasons soil see soil temperature see temperature tunnel plans 21 ventilation 22, 26 Potato Council 184 potatoes 13, 125-7 chitting seed potatoes 31-2 growing 126 harvesting 31, 126-7 mineral deficiency symptoms 181 problems 127 soil preparation 126 sowing 32, 47, 56, 126 storage 127 pots biodegradable 30, 35-6, 37 growing summer plants in 50 powdery mildew 92-3, 95, 167-8 preserve-making 66 Q-clips 20 quarantining new plants 33, 159-60 rabbits 24, 137, 168 radishes 28, 127-8 daikon see daikon growing 127 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 127-8 problems 128 seed storage 156 soil preparation 127 sowing 32, 39, 40, 47, 54, 55, 56, 61, 127 storage 128 Real Seed Catalogue 184-5 record keeping 42 planting notes 21, 42 red spider mites 70, 71, 95, 100, 107, 146, 168 rocket 14, 128-9 growing 129 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 129 problems 129 seed storage 153-4 soil preparation 128 sowing 32, 39, 40, 47, 54, 55, 56, 128-9 storage 129 in winter 28 rubbish collecting 30 see also debris removal rust 102 S-hooks 20 salad leaves see also 41, 129-32 salt build-up 176-7 sciarid fly 169 seasonal use of polytunnels 12-16 hungry gap (between end of March and start of June) 41-7 individual months see specific months individual seasons see specific seasons seasonal layout 15-16 seaweed extract 177 seed storage and the commercial market 149-51 difficult seeds 157-8 easy seeds 152-4 easy-to-moderate seeds 154-5 moderate seeds 155-6 moderate-to-difficult seeds 156-7 rewards of 151 seedlings 19-20 and light 38 seeds and F1 hybrids 149, 150 legal restrictions on sale of 150-1 longevity of 149 sowing see sowing storage see seed storage SEER Centre 184 September 55-6 shade 54 shade-tolerant plants 52 shelves, suspended 39 slug pellets 169-70 slugs 13, 29, 34, 169-71 April to May slug patrol 44, 53 eggs 29, 53 infiltrating compost bags 60 nematodes and 161 plants particularly at risk from 75, 77, 78, 80, 82, 83, 85, 87, 88, 92, 95, 98, 111, 115, 117, 119, 123, 125, 127, 128, 134, 137, 142 removing slime from fingers 34 snails 169-71 soil 18-19, 173-82 compost see compost feeding the tunnel 173-6, 177-9 see also compost; fertilisers; manure fertilisers see fertilisers fertility 35 looking after the soil 173-82 mineral build-up 49, 125, 176-7 mineral deficiencies 19, 83, 179-82 preparation for specific plants see individual plants temperature 33 testing 35 sowing 19-20 autumn 61 avoiding crowding 48 for the hungry gap 44-7 module sowing 50 planting guide key 67 planting notes 21, 42 spring 38, 39, 40 summer 54, 55, 56 tips on planting times 42 underplanting 52 undersowing 50-2 winter 31, 32 see also individual plants spinach 133-4 growing 133-4 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 134 manganese deficiency symptoms 181 problems 134 seed storage 156-7 soil preparation 133 sowing 31, 32, 39, 40, 47, 54, 133 storage 134 spring 12-13, 33-40 harvesting 40 jobs 34-8 light 13 polytunnel installation 17, 18 recognising tunnel spring 33 seasonal rush 34 sowing 39, 40 see also individual spring months spring onions 117-18 growing 118 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 118 problems see under onions, bulbing soil preparation 117 sowing 32, 39, 40, 46, 54, 55, 56, 61, 117-18 storage 118 sprouting broccoli see broccoli, sprouting squirrels 137 staging 39 storage 65-6 see also individual plants strawberries 13, 53, 134-7 growing 135-6 harvesting 40, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 136-7 problems 137 soil preparation 134-5 sowing 32, 39, 40, 47, 55, 56, 135 storage 137 strings for growing 51 summer 13-14, 48-56 clearing ground-level growth 50 dilemma of when to pull out summer plants 25 flying insects 53 growing summer plants in pots 50 holidays 52 module sowing 50 and the ruthless grower 50-2 sowing 54, 55, 56 underplanting 52 undersowing 50-2 ventilation 48-9 watering 48-9, 54 see also individual summer months suspended shelves 39 suspended staging 39 sweet potatoes 137-40 growing 138-9 harvesting 56, 61, 139 planting 32, 55, 138 problems 140 root cuttings 138 slips 138 soil preparation 138 stem cuttings 138 storage 139-40 sweetcorn 140-2 dwarf French beans grown with 141 growing 141-2 harvesting 55, 56, 142 magnesium deficiency symptoms 181 problems 142 seed storage 158 soil preparation 141 sowing 54, 141 storage 142 temperature 17, 19 checking heating equipment 60-1 control in the autumn 57 heat preservation 27 and light 27-8 plants prone to cold damage 95, 127 protection from the cold 27, 58-60 see also fleece of the soil 33 spring 33 thrips 117, 171 toads 13, 29, 53 tomatoes 13, 142-6 growing 144-5 harvesting 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 146 how to grow a huge tomato 146 mineral deficiency symptoms 181-2 problems 146 seed storage 154 soil preparation 143 sowing 32, 39, 143-4 storage 146 water used by plants 49 tunnel gutter 49 tunnel plans 21 turnip moth 165 turnips 147-8 bolting 43 growing 147-8 harvesting 31, 32, 40, 54, 62, 148 problems 148 seed storage 155-6 soil preparation 147 sowing 32, 47, 55, 147 storage 148 underplanting 52 undersowing 50-2 urine, human 177 uses for polytunnels main uses in vegetable growing 11 seasonal see seasonal use of polytunnels and individual seasons ventilation 22, 26 and avoiding plant diseases 160 summer 48-9 verticillium wilt 95 vine weevil 100, 171 vines 104-7 warmth 19 water rationing 49 security 49 watering 22-3 automatic systems 22-3, 53, 61 during holidays 52 reviews 160 September 55 spring 33 summer 48-9 winter 28 worms and 35 watermelon 111-15 growing 112-13 harvesting 55, 56, 113-14 problems 115 soil preparation 112 sowing 40, 54, 112 storage 114-15 weed control 19 white rot 117, 171-2 whitefly 71, 125, 146, 172 winter 14-15, 26-32 harvesting 31, 32 jobs 29-30 sowing 31, 32 see also individual winter months wolf berries 103-4 wood ash 170 woodlice 29, 85, 115, 172 worms earthworms 18, 35 nematodes 161 and watering 35 zucchini see courgettes * * * By the same authors: The Polytunnel Handbook Planning • siting • erecting • using • maintaining The Polytunnel Handbook looks at all aspects of using a polytunnel, from planning your purchase to harvesting the rewards, and includes a step-by-step guide detailing how polytunnels are put up and maintained.

Meat: A Benign Extravagance
by Simon Fairlie
Published 14 Jun 2010

It started out with two courses of red clover, so over the first 15 years there were three years of clover. Phosphorus added. Problems with establishing clover.12 5:0 Rodale, PA USA: A five year five crop rotation of corn, soybeans, oats, corn oats. After 1991 this was changed to a three year rotation of corn, soybean and wheat.13 1 Rodale Institute (2000), Crop Rotation Basics: How to Zap Pests, Build Soil with Cover Crops in Strategic Crop Rotations, p 3, http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20021001/crop_rotate 2 Abrams-McHenry, M (n.d.), ‘Fertility and Land Utilization’, Vohan News International, 2. 3 . Personal communication from S Oxbrow. 4 Irish Farmer’s Journal (1999), Producing Organic Grain and Beef, http://www.farmersjournal.ie/1999/0821/environment/news.html 5 Canadian Organic Growers (n.d.), A Farmer’s Profile: Organic Crop Rotations, www.cog.ca/gainingground_FarmerProfile.htm 6 ‘Tolhurst Organic Produce: A Step into the Future’ (n.d.), Growing Green International, No 7. 7 Jenny Hall (n.d.), ‘To Till or Not to Till’, Growing Green International, No 7. 8 Thorup-Kristensen, K (2005), Use of Green Manure, Catch Crops and Deep Rooted Crops in an Organic Vegetable Rotation, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Dept of Horticulture. 9 CWS Farm Groups (2002), Organic Farming: Experiments 1989-1997 – A Summary of Key Findings, http://www.pmac.net/focus_on_practice.html 10 Zhang Luziang (1956), op cit. in Netting, op cit., p 137. 11 Løes, A K et al (2007), N Supply in Stockless Organic Cereal Production under Northern Temperature Conditions.

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Personal communication from S Oxbrow. 4 Irish Farmer’s Journal (1999), Producing Organic Grain and Beef, http://www.farmersjournal.ie/1999/0821/environment/news.html 5 Canadian Organic Growers (n.d.), A Farmer’s Profile: Organic Crop Rotations, www.cog.ca/gainingground_FarmerProfile.htm 6 ‘Tolhurst Organic Produce: A Step into the Future’ (n.d.), Growing Green International, No 7. 7 Jenny Hall (n.d.), ‘To Till or Not to Till’, Growing Green International, No 7. 8 Thorup-Kristensen, K (2005), Use of Green Manure, Catch Crops and Deep Rooted Crops in an Organic Vegetable Rotation, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Dept of Horticulture. 9 CWS Farm Groups (2002), Organic Farming: Experiments 1989-1997 – A Summary of Key Findings, http://www.pmac.net/focus_on_practice.html 10 Zhang Luziang (1956), op cit. in Netting, op cit., p 137. 11 Løes, A K et al (2007), N Supply in Stockless Organic Cereal Production under Northern Temperature Conditions.

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For manure use I have used a number of sources, in particular Lampkin, N (1990), Organic Farming, Farming Press; ASAE (2003), Manure Production and Characteristics, American Society of Engineers; and Chorley, G (1981), ‘The Agricultural Revolution in N Europe, 1750-1880: Nitrogen, Legumes, and Crop Productivity’, Economic History Review. The 6:4 ley:crop rotation is also taken from Lampkin (1990); a 5:2 or 7:3 rotation might be easier to achieve and this would mean that the organic livestock option would require more land for green manure. The figure for human sewage represents half the total nitrogen available from the population’s excrement – and twice the amount per person that Wessex Water is currently obtaining from 2.5 million customers.

Food and Fuel: Solutions for the Future
by Andrew Heintzman , Evan Solomon and Eric Schlosser
Published 2 Feb 2009

Yet in the span of just one generation, farmers put the renewable heritage of their land behind and transformed their farms into assemblers of inputs from other industries — seeds from one company sprayed with chemicals from other companies using tractors and fuel from still more companies. Functions once fulfilled by on-farm inputs — animals, manure, and crop rotation — were now tied to off-farm suppliers. Bob Stirling, a rural sociologist at the University of Regina, says the farmer’s job evolved from knowing his land and its needs to one of sorting through the marketing pitches of the companies supplying him. “Skill at the work of actually growing something becomes secondary in this new set of practices.”6 The industrialization of agriculture was so gradual, and so tied to marketing pitches telling farmers how all these new inputs would make them progressive and modern, that its unsustainability would not be revealed for decades.

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If all farms could achieve such a balance between crops and livestock — as they once did — there would not be such a need for artificial nitrogen fertilizer. Other techniques could be used as well. Many come from organic farming, which does not allow farmers to use artificial fertilizers. The main practice of organic farmers is crop rotation. Each crop pulls different nutrients from the soil, so rotating crops allows the soil to replenish itself while still producing food. While some conventional farms rotate three crops through a field, meaning a crop will only be planted in any given field once every three years, organic farmers may rotate five or more crops through their fields — giving their soil an extra chance to replenish itself.

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While some conventional farms rotate three crops through a field, meaning a crop will only be planted in any given field once every three years, organic farmers may rotate five or more crops through their fields — giving their soil an extra chance to replenish itself. Combined rotations of nitrogen-fixing crops such as soybeans, peas, and alfalfa, which extract nitrogen from the air and put it in the soil, eliminate the need for artificial nitrogen on organic farms. On conventional farms, crop rotation could reduce nitrogen use to a low enough level that farmers are no longer putting the environment at risk. Such techniques would also necessitate diversifying our farms, and moving away from the monocultures that dominate farming today. Our farms, however, have become addicted to nitrogen. After decades of monocultures and industrial agriculture, the soil has become so depleted of natural nutrients that it needs the boost offered by chemicals.

The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis
by Ruth Defries
Published 8 Sep 2014

INDEX Africa failure of Green Revolution to reach, 182 introduced species, 150 locust plagues, 145 pest management, 152 wheat rust, 183 Age of Discovery, 94, 97 Agricultural revolution, 81 Agriculture birth of, 53, 56 Chinese, 75–78 corn, 60, 133–136, 148 four-course system, 80–81 genetically engineered crops, 168 greenhouse gases from, 196–197 pesticide use in, 154–155 rice, 176–178 slash-and-burn, 60, 65, 69–70 soybeans, 138–140 three-field system, 80 wheat, 136–138, 172–176 See also Farming and farmers Al-Haytham, Ibn, 72 Algal bloom, 118–120 Amaranth, 194 Amazon region, farming in, 59–60 Ambrosia beetles, farming by, 9 American crows, learning by, 40 Ammonia, 63–64, 108, 109 Animals domestication of, 52–53 transport to New World, 94–95, 97 use for power, 73, 74–75, 78–81, 97, 98, 123, 141 Antony Gibbs & Sons, 89, 90 Ants farming by, 9 fire, 155 insecticide use to control, 155 leaf-cutter, 149 Aping, 44 Arctic, 35–37 Arsenic, 151, 156, 169 Artificial breeding, 127–128 Asia, rice breeding in, 176–178 Asimov, Isaac, 65–66 Aswan dams, 72 Atmosphere greenhouse effect, 20–21 greenhouse gases in, 121–125, 196–197 of Mars, 21 nitrogen in, 62 solar wind as threat to, 21, 22 Aurora australis, 21 Aurora borealis, 21 Australia, locust plagues in, 146 Australopithecine, 48 Azotobacter, 63, 109 Aztec, 93 Bacillus thuringiensis, 168 Bacteria of early Earth, 30 nitrogen cycling and, 63–65 Balboa, Vasco Nuñez de, 94 Bangladesh, increase in overweight people in, 194 BASF, 109, 110 Beachell, Henry, 177 Beans in China, 75 New World origin of, 93 nitrogen and, 62–63, 75 soybeans, x, 138–140, 186, 193 Bennett, Merrill, 142–143, 144, 191, 192 Bergius, Friedrich, 109 Biofuels, 198 Biotechnology, criticisms of, 186–187 Birds guano from, 88–92 pesticide effects on, 160–162 protecting crops from, 151 Birth rates, 6 Black Death, 80 Blended inheritance, 129, 132 Blue-green algae, 63 Bolivia, 90, 91 Bone meal, 113 Bone Valley, Florida, 116 Bones, phosphorus from, 113–116 Borlaug, Norman on Africa, 182 on criticisms of Green Revolution, 182–183 in Mexico, 172–174 Nobel Peace Prize, 179, 181 on pest reappearance, 184 on pesticide use, 164, 169 on poverty, 181 view of biotechnology, 187 Bosch, Carl, 109 Boserup, Ester, 13–14 Bottlenose dolphin, 41, 42 Bowen, Samuel, 139 Boyd, Robert, 38, 45 Brain evolution of human, 42–43 intelligent, 40 Brandt, Hennig, 66 Brazil deforestation, ix–xi diet transformation in, 192 overweight people, 194 soybean production, x Breastfeeding, 57 Britain, guano trade, 90–91 Bt crops, 168, 186 Bubonic plague, 80 Buffalo bones, phosphorus from, 114 Calories burned to produce food, 122 Canals, 71 Capron, Horace, 138 Capuchin monkeys, 44 Carbon, cycling of, 23–24, 26–27, 125 Carbon dioxide global warming and, 27 as greenhouse gas, 121, 196, 202 nitrous oxide compared to, 121 in photosynthesis, 74 temperature effect on atmospheric, 27 from volcanoes, 24, 26, 27 weathering and, 26 Carnivore, 74 Carson, Rachel, 161–163, 169 Carter, Jimmy, 182 Cassava mealybug, 150, 167 Catton, William, Jr., 13 Chemical poisonings, 167–168 Children, number of, 6 Chile, 90, 91 Chimpanzee, 43–44, 45, 48 China agriculture in ancient, 75–78 diet transformation, 191–192 pest control in, 151 soybean domestication in, 139 Cholera, 77, 86 Chrysanthemum, 151, 152, 154, 158, 167, 169 Cities, growth of population in, 5 Civilization farming link to, 8 food as engine of, 7–10 overshoot and, 13–14 Clear Lake, California, 160–161 Climate agriculture’s impact on, 196–197 change from greenhouse gases, 125 fluctuations in, 43 shift from foraging to farming and, 55–56 Clover, 62–63, 75, 78, 80–82 Coal energy from, 81–82 industrial revolution and, 81–82 opening of energy bottleneck by, 123 steam engine tractors, 123 Coffee, as New World commodity, 96 Collar harnesses, 78 Colorado potato beetle, 158–159 Columbus, Christopher, 10, 93–94 Comets, 30 Communication by animals, 50 cumulative learning, 44–46 genetic inheritance, 39 language, 50–51 transition to cooked meals and, 49 Continents, 24–25 Continuously Habitable Zone, 20 Cooking, 49 Corals, phosphorus from, 116 Corn, 133–136 as biofuel, 198 Bt, 168, 186 farming in Amazon region, 60 fungal disease of, 148 high-fructose corn syrup, 193 origin of, 53–54, 93 Cortés, Hernando, 94 Cotton, Bt, 168, 186 Cows, greenhouse gases released in production of, 196 Crick, Francis, 186 Crookes, Sir William, 105–106, 107, 108, 136, 141 Crop rotation in China, 75–76 in Egypt, 78 in Europe, 80 Crops, genetically engineered, 168, 186 Crosby, Alfred, 94 Cross-fertilization, 130–131 Crows, tool use by, 48 Culsius, Carolus, 98 Culture cumulative learning and, 45–46 defined, 37, 45 evolution of, 38, 39 genes and, 46 role in human evolution, 37–38 Cumulative learning, 44–46, 49, 50 Dairy farming, 46 Dalrymple, Oliver, 123 Dams, 101, 124 Darwin, Charles hybrid vigor principle, 129 inbreeding, 128–129 natural selection and, 37–38, 127–128 On the Origin of Species, 128 Dawkins, Richard, 10 DDT.

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See Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane de la Vega, Garcilaso, 89 Dead zone, 121 Death rates, 6 Decomposition, 65, 67 Deforestation, ix–xi, 60, 69–70, 197 Demographic transition, 6 The Descent of Man (Darwin), 38 Detasseling, 148–149 Detergents, phosphate, 119 Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT), 151 ban on, 163–164 biomagnification of, 160–161, 164 consequences of use, 157, 159–165, 199 early synthesis of, 153 exemptions for use of, 165 for gypsy moth control, 156 human health effects of, 164–165 long-range transport of, 164 persistence in the environment, 160 properties of, 156–157, 160 resistance to, 157–159 in World War II, 154 Dickens, Charles, 86 Diet changed by Haber-Bosch process, 112 eating locally and sustainably-produced foods, 202 fat in, 191–193 movement toward more plant-based, 202 overweight and obesity increase and, 193–195 protein-deficient, 61 shift to more meat, less starch, 142–144, 191–192 sugar in, 96–97, 193 transformation by New World crops, 96 transformation from farmer to urbanite and, 192–195 in transition from foraging to farming, 191 Digestive tracts, short, 43 Dinosaurs, extinction of, 32 “Dirty dozen” chemicals, 164 Disease in ancient China, 77 spread from Old World to New World, 95 spread with crowding of people, 55 water contaminated with human waste and, 86, 87 Diversity of life, 29–32 Dobzhansky, Theodosius, 38 Domesticated animals, 52–53 human labor supplemented by, 73, 74–75, 78–79 of New World, 93 transport to New World, 94–95, 97 Domesticated plants, 52–55, 184–185 Dominant gene, 131–132 Doomsday vault, 185 Dorset, Bill, 139 Drake Well, 124 Drinks, sugary, 193 Drought, in England (1790s), 82 Dutch Elm disease, 156 Dwarf genes, 174, 176–177 Earth average temperature, 20 basic machinery of, 18–19 life development on, 30–32 life supported on, 18–19 magnetic field, 21 number of species on, 30 recycling machinery of, 23–28 tilt of, 22–23 Earthquakes, 25 East, Edward Murray, 134, 172 East India Company, 139 Economic entomology, 147, 153 Ecuador, 90 Egypt crop rotation in, 78 Nile River and, 71–72 pest control by ancient Egyptians, 151 Ehrlich, Paul, 175, 176 Einkorn, 52 Elephants, learning by, 40 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 109–110 Emerson, Rollins Adam, 134, 172 Emmer, 52, 185 Energy animal power, 73, 74–75, 123 from burning coal, 81–82 cost in calories to produce food, 141–142 cost of meat, 77, 143–144 human to produce food, 122–123 in industrial nitrogen fixation process, 109 loss in food chain, 74, 77 from sunlight, 73–75 used to obtain food, 72–73 England human waste disposal, 85–88 industrial revolution, 81–82 manure use in, 78 nineteenth century, 85–88 sugar consumption, 96 Environmental issues biodiversity loss, 197 biomagnification of DDT, 160–161, 164 Green Revolution, effects of, 182–183 greenhouse gases, 121, 125, 196–197 persistence of pesticides, 157, 160 Espionage, industrial, 110 Euphrates River, 70–71 Europe animal power use in, 78–81 bubonic plague in, 80 diet transformation by New World crops, 96 famines in, 78–80, 82, 83 four-course system of farming, 80–81 medieval, 78–80 moldboard plow use in, 78 sugar from New World, 96–97 three-field system of farming, 80 Eutrophication, 118–120 Evergreen Revolution, 183 Evolution of human brain, 42–43 of human lineage species, 47–51 pest reemergence, 184 of pesticide resistance, 158–159 of photosynthesis, 31 role of culture in human, 37–38 Exoticorum Libri Decem (Culsius), 98 Experimental Lakes Area, Canada, 118 Experiments, 3 Extinctions of plant and animal species, 32 Families, size of, 6 Famine, 4 in ancient China, 77 in Europe, 79–80, 82, 83 Great Irish Famine, 10–13, 148 in India, 175–176 Malthus’ prediction of, 2 Farming and farmers in Amazon region, 59–60 animal labor used in, 73, 74–75 civilization link to, 8 crop rotation, 75–76, 78, 80 dairy, 46 four-course system, 80–81 of Old World crops in New World, 97 by other animal species, 5, 9–10 pest control by traditional practices, 151–153, 166 population growth and, 56–57 three-field system, 80 transition from foraging to, 5, 52–57, 191 transition to urbanites, 5, 15, 203–205 Fat increase in diet, 191–192 sources of, 192–193 Fermi, Enrico, 17 Fermi’s paradox, 17–18 Fertile Crescent, 52, 53, 57, 136 Fertilizer guano as, 88–92 Haber-Bosch process and, 109–113 industrial production, 109 lake eutrophication from, 119–120 Liebig as father of fertilizer industry, 62 mineral theory and, 107 phosphorus, 113–118 saltpeter, 91–92 Finches, of Galapagos Islands, 37–38, 39–40 Fire, 43, 49–50 Fire ants, 155 Floods, 71, 79 Flush toilets, 86, 87 Food abundance of, 5, 6–7 as civilization’s engine, 7–10 cooked, 43, 49 cost of, 5 energy used to obtain, 72–73 hunger, 7 processed, 194, 195 spread to new areas, 149 stored, 55, 56 surplus, 8, 70, 81–83 virtual water and, 98–99 wasted, 201 Food chain, 143, 160–161 Food miles, 202 Food production focus on quality, 201 greenhouse gases from, 196–197 interference with planet’s recycling machinery, 197 land surface area devoted to, 190 local, 202 paradox of success, 200 sustainably-produced foods, 202 threat to diversity of life, 197 See also Agriculture; Farming and farmers Food riots, 82, 83, 198 Foraging, 52, 55, 56, 72–73, 191 Fossil fuels agriculture powered by, 123–124, 140–141 biofuels as replacements for, 198 greenhouse gases from burning, 125 Fossil phosphorus, 116–117 Franklin, Benjamin, 139 Franklin, Lady Jane, 36 Franklin, Rosalind, 186 Franklin, Sir John, 35–37, 39, 45 Frying food, 193 Fungi, 31 Fungus farms, 9 Galapagos Islands, 37–38, 39–40 Gaud, William, 178 Genes, 131–132 diversity of, 29 dwarf, 174, 176–177 tomato, 184 in wild relatives of domesticated species, 184, 186 Genetic engineering Bt crops, 168, 186 criticisms of, 186–187 Genetics genetically engineered crops, 168 Mendel’s experiments, 129–132 See also Inheritance Gilbert, Sir Henry, 62, 103 Global warming, atmospheric carbon dioxide and, 27 Golden Rice, 186 Goodall, Jane, 48 Grains, whole, 194 Great Irish Famine, 82, 83, 148 Great Splash, 22 Grebes, 161 Green Revolution, 176 criticisms of, 179–183 effect on environment, 182–183 failure to reach southern Africa, 182 origin of term, 178 water dependence, 181–182 yield increases with, 178–179 Green spider mite, 150 Greenhouse effect, 20–21 Greenhouse gases, 121, 125, 196–197 Grocery stores, 189 Groundwater, 100, 101 Guano, 88–92, 103 Guano Island Act in 1856, 90 Guatemala, pest management in, 152 Gulf of Mexico, 121 Gunpowder, 110 Gypsy moth, 151, 156 Haber, Fritz, 108–113, 197 Haber-Bosch process, 110–112 Habitable Zone, 19–21 Hadley, George, 94 Hadley cells, 94, 95 Hamburger connection, 198 Harness, collar, 78 Hays, Willet, 137 Herbivore, 74 Hessian fly, 150 Hi-Bred Corn Company, 135 High-fructose corn syrup, 193 Holmes, Arthur, 24–25 Homo erectus, 47, 49 Homo floresiensis, 47 Homo habilis, 47, 48 Homo heidelbergensis, 47 Homo sapiens, 47, 48 Honeybees, 50 Horses, 78, 97, 98 Hoskins, William, 153, 155, 166 Houseflies, resistance to DDT, 158 Hugo, Victor, 76, 87 Human ingenuity, 199–200 civilization and, 8 interplay with nature, 2, 7, 15, 18 overshoot and, 14 as ultimate resource, 2 Human labor, supplementing with domestic animals, 73, 74–75, 78–79 Human waste, 85–88 Humans brain size and complexity, 42–43 evolution and extinction of early human species, 47–51 lactose digestion by, 45–46 Humboldt, Alexander von, 89, 103 Humpback whales, 50 Humus theory, 106–107 Hundred Years’ War, 79 Hunger, 7 Hunter-gatherers, 55, 56, 57, 141 Hutton, James, 28 Hutton, John, 100 Huxley, Aldous, 117 Hybrid vigor, 129, 134, 135, 177 Hybrids corn, 134–136 cross-bred, 130 rice, 177–178 Ice Ages, 43 Ice cream, 190–191 Inbreeding, 128–129, 134 Inca, 88–89 India food production in, 175–176 groundwater extraction, 181–182 growth of urban population in, 203–204 uneven access to Green Revolution, 180–181 Indigenous people, Kayapó, x–xii Indus River, 70, 72 Industrial revolution, 81–82 Inheritance, genetic, 39–40 blended, 129, 132 Darwin and, 128–129 Mendel’s experiments with, 129–132 randomness of, 127 Innovations, cumulative learning and, 44 Insecticides for fire ant control, 155 for gypsy moth control, 156 synthetic organic, 156–157 See also Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane; Pesticides Integrated pest management, 166–167 Intelligent brains, 40 Intelligent life, elsewhere in the universe, 17–18 Internal combustion engine, 123 Introduced species, 150 Inuit, 35–37, 38–39, 45, 164, 194 Invasive species, 150 IR8 (rice variety), 176–177 Ireland, Great Famine in, 10–13, 148 Irrigation, in Mesopotamia, 71 James (King of England), 95 Japan manure use in, 78 short wheat varieties, 174 Japanese macaque, 41, 44 Jericho, 8, 101 Jones, Donald, 135 Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry, 111 Kayapó (indigenous people), x–xii Kellogg, Luella, 43, 50 Kellogg, Winthrop, 43, 50 Kenya, increase in overweight people in, 194 Knowledge, building across generations, 3 Kwashiorkor, 60–61 Lactase, 45–46 Lactose, digestion of, 45–46 Lake, eutrophication, 118–120 Lake Mendota, 119–120 Language, 50–51 Law of the Minimum, 65 Lawes, Sir John, 62, 103, 114, 115 Lead arsenite, 156 Leaf-cutter ants, farming by, 9, 149 Learning compensating for locked-in inheritance, 40 cumulative, 44–46, 49, 50 social, 41–43 trial-and-error, 40 Legumes, 62–63, 75 Lenoir, Jean J., 123 Les Misérables (Hugo), 76 Levees, 71 Lice, control with DDT, 153, 154 Liebig, Justus von on Chinese agriculture, 75 law of the Minimum, 65 mineral theory, 106–107 phosphorus and, 62, 65, 103, 113–116 on sewage return to field, 87–88 Life biological homogeneity, 94–95, 98 building blocks of, 30 diversity of, 29–32 diversity threatened by food production, 197 liquid water as requisite for, 19 planets supporting, 17–18 from rivers, 70–72 transcontinental transfer of species, 94–95, 97–98 Life-span, average, 5 Limits to Growth (Meadows), 2 Little Ice Age, 57 Livestock, corn-fed, 133, 134 Lockwood, Jeffrey, 147 Locusts, 145–147, 165–166 London human waste disposal, 86–88 population growth in, 105 London’s Farmer Club, 87 Longping, Yuan, 177–178 Los Baños, Philippines, 176 Maggi, Blairo, x, xii Magma, 24, 26, 27 Magnetic field, planetary, 21–22 Maize.

…

See Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane de la Vega, Garcilaso, 89 Dead zone, 121 Death rates, 6 Decomposition, 65, 67 Deforestation, ix–xi, 60, 69–70, 197 Demographic transition, 6 The Descent of Man (Darwin), 38 Detasseling, 148–149 Detergents, phosphate, 119 Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT), 151 ban on, 163–164 biomagnification of, 160–161, 164 consequences of use, 157, 159–165, 199 early synthesis of, 153 exemptions for use of, 165 for gypsy moth control, 156 human health effects of, 164–165 long-range transport of, 164 persistence in the environment, 160 properties of, 156–157, 160 resistance to, 157–159 in World War II, 154 Dickens, Charles, 86 Diet changed by Haber-Bosch process, 112 eating locally and sustainably-produced foods, 202 fat in, 191–193 movement toward more plant-based, 202 overweight and obesity increase and, 193–195 protein-deficient, 61 shift to more meat, less starch, 142–144, 191–192 sugar in, 96–97, 193 transformation by New World crops, 96 transformation from farmer to urbanite and, 192–195 in transition from foraging to farming, 191 Digestive tracts, short, 43 Dinosaurs, extinction of, 32 “Dirty dozen” chemicals, 164 Disease in ancient China, 77 spread from Old World to New World, 95 spread with crowding of people, 55 water contaminated with human waste and, 86, 87 Diversity of life, 29–32 Dobzhansky, Theodosius, 38 Domesticated animals, 52–53 human labor supplemented by, 73, 74–75, 78–79 of New World, 93 transport to New World, 94–95, 97 Domesticated plants, 52–55, 184–185 Dominant gene, 131–132 Doomsday vault, 185 Dorset, Bill, 139 Drake Well, 124 Drinks, sugary, 193 Drought, in England (1790s), 82 Dutch Elm disease, 156 Dwarf genes, 174, 176–177 Earth average temperature, 20 basic machinery of, 18–19 life development on, 30–32 life supported on, 18–19 magnetic field, 21 number of species on, 30 recycling machinery of, 23–28 tilt of, 22–23 Earthquakes, 25 East, Edward Murray, 134, 172 East India Company, 139 Economic entomology, 147, 153 Ecuador, 90 Egypt crop rotation in, 78 Nile River and, 71–72 pest control by ancient Egyptians, 151 Ehrlich, Paul, 175, 176 Einkorn, 52 Elephants, learning by, 40 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 109–110 Emerson, Rollins Adam, 134, 172 Emmer, 52, 185 Energy animal power, 73, 74–75, 123 from burning coal, 81–82 cost in calories to produce food, 141–142 cost of meat, 77, 143–144 human to produce food, 122–123 in industrial nitrogen fixation process, 109 loss in food chain, 74, 77 from sunlight, 73–75 used to obtain food, 72–73 England human waste disposal, 85–88 industrial revolution, 81–82 manure use in, 78 nineteenth century, 85–88 sugar consumption, 96 Environmental issues biodiversity loss, 197 biomagnification of DDT, 160–161, 164 Green Revolution, effects of, 182–183 greenhouse gases, 121, 125, 196–197 persistence of pesticides, 157, 160 Espionage, industrial, 110 Euphrates River, 70–71 Europe animal power use in, 78–81 bubonic plague in, 80 diet transformation by New World crops, 96 famines in, 78–80, 82, 83 four-course system of farming, 80–81 medieval, 78–80 moldboard plow use in, 78 sugar from New World, 96–97 three-field system of farming, 80 Eutrophication, 118–120 Evergreen Revolution, 183 Evolution of human brain, 42–43 of human lineage species, 47–51 pest reemergence, 184 of pesticide resistance, 158–159 of photosynthesis, 31 role of culture in human, 37–38 Exoticorum Libri Decem (Culsius), 98 Experimental Lakes Area, Canada, 118 Experiments, 3 Extinctions of plant and animal species, 32 Families, size of, 6 Famine, 4 in ancient China, 77 in Europe, 79–80, 82, 83 Great Irish Famine, 10–13, 148 in India, 175–176 Malthus’ prediction of, 2 Farming and farmers in Amazon region, 59–60 animal labor used in, 73, 74–75 civilization link to, 8 crop rotation, 75–76, 78, 80 dairy, 46 four-course system, 80–81 of Old World crops in New World, 97 by other animal species, 5, 9–10 pest control by traditional practices, 151–153, 166 population growth and, 56–57 three-field system, 80 transition from foraging to, 5, 52–57, 191 transition to urbanites, 5, 15, 203–205 Fat increase in diet, 191–192 sources of, 192–193 Fermi, Enrico, 17 Fermi’s paradox, 17–18 Fertile Crescent, 52, 53, 57, 136 Fertilizer guano as, 88–92 Haber-Bosch process and, 109–113 industrial production, 109 lake eutrophication from, 119–120 Liebig as father of fertilizer industry, 62 mineral theory and, 107 phosphorus, 113–118 saltpeter, 91–92 Finches, of Galapagos Islands, 37–38, 39–40 Fire, 43, 49–50 Fire ants, 155 Floods, 71, 79 Flush toilets, 86, 87 Food abundance of, 5, 6–7 as civilization’s engine, 7–10 cooked, 43, 49 cost of, 5 energy used to obtain, 72–73 hunger, 7 processed, 194, 195 spread to new areas, 149 stored, 55, 56 surplus, 8, 70, 81–83 virtual water and, 98–99 wasted, 201 Food chain, 143, 160–161 Food miles, 202 Food production focus on quality, 201 greenhouse gases from, 196–197 interference with planet’s recycling machinery, 197 land surface area devoted to, 190 local, 202 paradox of success, 200 sustainably-produced foods, 202 threat to diversity of life, 197 See also Agriculture; Farming and farmers Food riots, 82, 83, 198 Foraging, 52, 55, 56, 72–73, 191 Fossil fuels agriculture powered by, 123–124, 140–141 biofuels as replacements for, 198 greenhouse gases from burning, 125 Fossil phosphorus, 116–117 Franklin, Benjamin, 139 Franklin, Lady Jane, 36 Franklin, Rosalind, 186 Franklin, Sir John, 35–37, 39, 45 Frying food, 193 Fungi, 31 Fungus farms, 9 Galapagos Islands, 37–38, 39–40 Gaud, William, 178 Genes, 131–132 diversity of, 29 dwarf, 174, 176–177 tomato, 184 in wild relatives of domesticated species, 184, 186 Genetic engineering Bt crops, 168, 186 criticisms of, 186–187 Genetics genetically engineered crops, 168 Mendel’s experiments, 129–132 See also Inheritance Gilbert, Sir Henry, 62, 103 Global warming, atmospheric carbon dioxide and, 27 Golden Rice, 186 Goodall, Jane, 48 Grains, whole, 194 Great Irish Famine, 82, 83, 148 Great Splash, 22 Grebes, 161 Green Revolution, 176 criticisms of, 179–183 effect on environment, 182–183 failure to reach southern Africa, 182 origin of term, 178 water dependence, 181–182 yield increases with, 178–179 Green spider mite, 150 Greenhouse effect, 20–21 Greenhouse gases, 121, 125, 196–197 Grocery stores, 189 Groundwater, 100, 101 Guano, 88–92, 103 Guano Island Act in 1856, 90 Guatemala, pest management in, 152 Gulf of Mexico, 121 Gunpowder, 110 Gypsy moth, 151, 156 Haber, Fritz, 108–113, 197 Haber-Bosch process, 110–112 Habitable Zone, 19–21 Hadley, George, 94 Hadley cells, 94, 95 Hamburger connection, 198 Harness, collar, 78 Hays, Willet, 137 Herbivore, 74 Hessian fly, 150 Hi-Bred Corn Company, 135 High-fructose corn syrup, 193 Holmes, Arthur, 24–25 Homo erectus, 47, 49 Homo floresiensis, 47 Homo habilis, 47, 48 Homo heidelbergensis, 47 Homo sapiens, 47, 48 Honeybees, 50 Horses, 78, 97, 98 Hoskins, William, 153, 155, 166 Houseflies, resistance to DDT, 158 Hugo, Victor, 76, 87 Human ingenuity, 199–200 civilization and, 8 interplay with nature, 2, 7, 15, 18 overshoot and, 14 as ultimate resource, 2 Human labor, supplementing with domestic animals, 73, 74–75, 78–79 Human waste, 85–88 Humans brain size and complexity, 42–43 evolution and extinction of early human species, 47–51 lactose digestion by, 45–46 Humboldt, Alexander von, 89, 103 Humpback whales, 50 Humus theory, 106–107 Hundred Years’ War, 79 Hunger, 7 Hunter-gatherers, 55, 56, 57, 141 Hutton, James, 28 Hutton, John, 100 Huxley, Aldous, 117 Hybrid vigor, 129, 134, 135, 177 Hybrids corn, 134–136 cross-bred, 130 rice, 177–178 Ice Ages, 43 Ice cream, 190–191 Inbreeding, 128–129, 134 Inca, 88–89 India food production in, 175–176 groundwater extraction, 181–182 growth of urban population in, 203–204 uneven access to Green Revolution, 180–181 Indigenous people, Kayapó, x–xii Indus River, 70, 72 Industrial revolution, 81–82 Inheritance, genetic, 39–40 blended, 129, 132 Darwin and, 128–129 Mendel’s experiments with, 129–132 randomness of, 127 Innovations, cumulative learning and, 44 Insecticides for fire ant control, 155 for gypsy moth control, 156 synthetic organic, 156–157 See also Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane; Pesticides Integrated pest management, 166–167 Intelligent brains, 40 Intelligent life, elsewhere in the universe, 17–18 Internal combustion engine, 123 Introduced species, 150 Inuit, 35–37, 38–39, 45, 164, 194 Invasive species, 150 IR8 (rice variety), 176–177 Ireland, Great Famine in, 10–13, 148 Irrigation, in Mesopotamia, 71 James (King of England), 95 Japan manure use in, 78 short wheat varieties, 174 Japanese macaque, 41, 44 Jericho, 8, 101 Jones, Donald, 135 Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry, 111 Kayapó (indigenous people), x–xii Kellogg, Luella, 43, 50 Kellogg, Winthrop, 43, 50 Kenya, increase in overweight people in, 194 Knowledge, building across generations, 3 Kwashiorkor, 60–61 Lactase, 45–46 Lactose, digestion of, 45–46 Lake, eutrophication, 118–120 Lake Mendota, 119–120 Language, 50–51 Law of the Minimum, 65 Lawes, Sir John, 62, 103, 114, 115 Lead arsenite, 156 Leaf-cutter ants, farming by, 9, 149 Learning compensating for locked-in inheritance, 40 cumulative, 44–46, 49, 50 social, 41–43 trial-and-error, 40 Legumes, 62–63, 75 Lenoir, Jean J., 123 Les Misérables (Hugo), 76 Levees, 71 Lice, control with DDT, 153, 154 Liebig, Justus von on Chinese agriculture, 75 law of the Minimum, 65 mineral theory, 106–107 phosphorus and, 62, 65, 103, 113–116 on sewage return to field, 87–88 Life biological homogeneity, 94–95, 98 building blocks of, 30 diversity of, 29–32 diversity threatened by food production, 197 liquid water as requisite for, 19 planets supporting, 17–18 from rivers, 70–72 transcontinental transfer of species, 94–95, 97–98 Life-span, average, 5 Limits to Growth (Meadows), 2 Little Ice Age, 57 Livestock, corn-fed, 133, 134 Lockwood, Jeffrey, 147 Locusts, 145–147, 165–166 London human waste disposal, 86–88 population growth in, 105 London’s Farmer Club, 87 Longping, Yuan, 177–178 Los Baños, Philippines, 176 Maggi, Blairo, x, xii Magma, 24, 26, 27 Magnetic field, planetary, 21–22 Maize.

Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World
by Vaclav Smil
Published 4 May 2021

The first option was laborious, especially the collection of human and animal waste and its fermentation and application to fields, but manures and night soil had relatively high nitrogen content (commonly 1–2 percent) compared to the less than 0.5 percent nitrogen in straw or plant stalks. The second option required crop rotation and prevented continuous cultivation of staple grain crops, be it rice or wheat. As the demand for staple grains grew with an expanding (and urbanizing) population, it became clear that farmers would not be able to meet future food needs without new, synthetic sources of “fixed” nitrogen—that is, nitrogen available in forms that can be tapped by growing crops.

…

Following a poor harvest, up to 30 percent of the yield had to be saved for the next year’s seed, and the share was commonly no less than 25 percent. Early medieval harvests were often as low as 500–600 kilograms per hectare (that is as little as 0.5 ton). Yields up to 1 ton per hectare became common only by the 16th century, and by 1850 the mean was about 1.7 t/ha—roughly a tripling since 1300. Then came a combination of measures (crop rotation including nitrogen-fixing legumes, field drainage, more intensive manuring, and new crop varieties) that lifted the yields above 2 t/ha at a time when French yields were still only 1.3 t/ha and America’s extensive Great Plains fields produced only about 1 t/ha (and that was the countrywide mean even as late as 1950!).

…

and house heating, 299, 302 human effect, 279–82 and meat consumption, 251 and poverty, 306 coal, 148, 174, 176–7, 301, 303 Coca-Cola, 98, 100 coffee, 99 cognitive ability, and height, 22 Cold War, 54 Colombia, 40, 42–3, 46, 49 Comet planes, 204 compressors, power, 104 computers data creation and storage, 129–32, 130 integrated circuits, 124 life expectancy, 288, 289 microchips, 97 Moore’s Law, 125–6, 126 operating energy cost for portable devices, 290 production operating cost for portable devices, 287–90, 288 Concorde, 183 concrete, 283–6 condensation, window, 297 condors, 270 Congo, Democratic Republic of, 4, 46, 48 conveyors, 104 corn, 126 corruption, 39–41, 79 cosmic rays, 99 COVID-19, 15, 17–19 Croatia, 7, 235–6, 249 crop rotation, 221, 222, 227–8 crop yields, 126–7, 226–9, 227 current, understanding measurement units, xiv Cyprus, 235–6 Czech Republic happiness, 39, 40 human height, 23 manufacturing, 83, 85 quality of life, 37 unemployment, 37, 83 Czechoslovakia, 61, 88–9, 300–1 Daimler, Gottlieb, 187–8 dairy products, 23, 259–63, 260, 273 dams, hydroelectric, 203, 285 Dar es Salaam, 49 data creation and storage, 129–32, 130 Davenport, Thomas, 101 Day, Richard, 156 daylight saving time, 135 de Havilland, 204 deer, xiv, 30 Degner, Gus, 193 Delhi, 47 Denmark corruption, 79 diet, 237 economic inequality, 79 electricity cost, 171, 172 fertility rate, 6 food exports to UK, 66–7 happiness, 39, 40, 41 human height, 23 quality of life, 8 Déri, Miksa, 106 Dhaka, 47 dictation machines, 119 diesel advantages, 109–12, 110 and container ships, 166–8 modern uses, 176 and wind turbines, 147, 149 Diesel, Rudolf, 109, 110, 111 diphtheria, 12–13 diseases infection risk in hospitals, 215 pandemics, 15–20 vaccination, 12–14 Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, Mikhail Osipovich, 104 Dominican Republic, 74 doors, revolving, 98, 100 downloads, music, 120 Drais, Karl, 185 drones, 270 Dubai, 152, 284 Dunlop, John Boyd, 189–91, 190 DVDs, 130 Earth: shape, rotation, tilt, and orbital path, 279–80 earthquakes, 281 economics Chinese economy, 73–6, 79–80 economic inequality, 79 EU economic output, 63 GDP as measure of quality of life, 8–9, 39–41, 135–6 Indian vs.

Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time
by James Suzman
Published 2 Sep 2020

But for others it was a harsh lesson in the challenges of sustainability, which they solved mainly by moving to new, under-exploited turf, so speeding the expansion of agriculture across Europe, India and South East Asia. Rudimentary crop-cycling systems based on switching grains with legumes, or leaving a field fallow once in a while, were adopted in many early agricultural societies but it would take until the eighteenth century before the benefits of long-cycle sequential crop rotation were properly established anywhere, with the result that early farmers everywhere must have experienced the same sense of frustration, followed by impending doom, when despite the weather being just right, the seed stock plentiful and the pests under control, they ended up producing anaemic harvests inadequate to sustain them for the year ahead.

…

It is no coincidence that the first cities in the Middle East, South East Asia and the Indian subcontinent all developed in climates particularly well suited to cereal production, and in the floodplains of magnificent river systems that were subject to seasonal flooding. Before anyone worked out the value of fertiliser or established the principles of well-organised crop rotation, populations in these areas relied on floods dispatched by their river gods to refresh their topsoils with rich alluviums and organic matter gathered from further upstream. In much the same way that some scientists speculate that entropy meant that the appearance of life on earth was almost inevitable, so history suggests that the creation of cities and towns wherever people became sufficiently productive food producers was inevitable too.

…

Most important among these were the adoption of the highly efficient Dutch plough, which turned the sod better than its predecessors could, and could be pulled by a single draught animal; the intensive use of both natural and artificial fertilisers; a greater focus on selective breeding; and more sophisticated crop rotation systems. Between 1550 and 1850, net yields in wheat and oats per acre farmed in Britain nearly quadrupled, yields in rye and barley tripled, and yields in peas and beans doubled. This increase in productivity catalysed a surge in population growth. In 1750, the population of Great Britain was around 5.7 million people.

Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space
by Derek Fell
Published 25 Apr 2011

In contrast, when you garden vertically, remember you need less soil, so it may be possible for you to sterilize enough topsoil yourself by baking batches in a disposable aluminum turkey roasting pan in your kitchen oven. Simply bake at 450°F for 40 minutes. Do a thorough winter cleanup in your garden. Delegate all garden debris to a compost pile or a burn pile. Properly made compost will heat up and kill most dormant insect eggs and disease organisms. Practice crop rotation for vegetables. Do not grow the same family of plants in the same space 2 years in a row. Rather, split your plot up into quarters and rotate crops so they grow in the same space once every 5 years. The four major plant families are: tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplants (solanaceous crops); peas and beans (leguminous plants); cabbages (crucifers), turnips, and radishes; and other root crops like beets, parsnips, and carrots.

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See also Garden systems advantage of gardening in, 61–62 for air layering rooter pots, 100 bushel baskets, 66, 66 choosing, 63 compost bins as, 70 for cuttings, 98 green walls as, 58, 224, 349, 353 hanging, xi, 8, 65, 192, 193 hayrack planters, 66 plants for cascading, 63 foundation plants, 69 skyscraper plants (erect vines), 64, 64 trailing plants, 64, 65 weeping plants, 68 plastic pouches and bags, 42–44, 189 for seed starting, 86–88, 87, 194 shallow-dish planters, 64, 65 Skyscraper Gardens (See Skyscraper Gardens) soil for, 85–86, 183 baking to sterilize, 96, 108 strawberry pots, 62, 67, 192 supports for use in, 38, 62 terra-cotta pots, 36, 67, 67, 187, 188, 191, 192 tower pots and systems, 7, 17, 52–56, 55, 159, 182, 188 cascade planters, 53 hydroponic, 53–55, 54, 187 types of for vertical gardens, 17 urns, 67–68, 68, 191 Versailles planters, 68–69, 69, 191 whiskey half-barrels, 62, 192, 213 window boxes, 69, 190, 193, 208 Copper, liquid as fungicide, 110 Coral pea (Hardenbergia violacea), 219, 298–99, 299 Coral vine (Antigonon leptopus), 299–300, 300 Cordons, fruit, 256, 256, 258, 258 Corn, sweet, 151–52, 152 ‘Early Xtra-Sweet’, 151 ‘Golden Bantam’, 151–52 “Super Sweet” hybrids, 151 Crabapples, 207 Crimson glory vine (Vitis coignetiae), 300, 300 Crop rotation, 108 Cross vine (Bignonia capreolata), 215, 219, 301, 301 Cucumbers, 46, 152–56, 153, 156, 186 Armenian (gourd), 157–58 bacterial wilt and, 197 horned cucumber (jelly melon), 154–55 varieties ‘County Fair’, 153, 154 ‘Lemon’, 155 ‘Marketmore 76’, 155 ‘Orient Express’, 188 ‘Orient Express Burpless Hybrid’, 155 ‘Parisian Pickling’, 155 ‘Poona Kheera’, 155 ‘Tall Telegraph’, 199 ‘West Indian Gherkin’, 155–56 Cucurbita maxima (ornamental large gourd), 269–70, 270 Cucurbita pepo (ornamental small gourd), 270–71, 271 Cup-and-saucer vine (Cobaea scandens), 265, 265 Cuttings containers for, 98 soil for, 96 stem, 96, 97 Cutworms, 90, 115 seedlings and, 84, 90 Cypress vine (cardinal creeper) (Ipomoea x multifida), 264–65, 264, 265 D DE (diatomaceous earth), 109 Deer, 111–13 Delphiniums, 189 Designing in large gardens, 351–55 in small gardens, 348–51 naturalizing, 350–51 screening, 348 trees in, 350 windbreaks, 349–50 Diatomaceous earth (DE), 109 Dioscorea bulbifera (air potato), 235 Dipladenia (mandevilla), 189, 319, 319 Diseases.

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See also Environmental disorders common, 118–21 anthracnose, 118, 178, 197 bacterial wilt, 119, 197 black rot, 195 black spot, 119, 196 blights, 119 blossom end rot, 119, 178, 197 Botrytis, 119, 196 cankers, 119–20 downy mildew, 120 fire blight, 120 leaf spots, 120 mosaic, 120 powder mildew, 120–21 root rot, 121 sooty mold, 121 wilts, 121 fungicides for baking soda sprays, 110 liquid copper, 110 nematodes, 179 preventing companion planting and, 110–11 crop rotation, 108 floating row covers, 108 overhead watering and, 108 sterile soil mix and, 108 winter cleanup and, 108 vertical gardens and, 10–11 Division, 95–96 Dolichos lablab (hyacinth bean), 271–72, 272 Drainage, 13–14, 20 Dutchman's pipe (Aristolochia durior, A. macrophylla), 291, 291, 292 E Earthworms, compost and, 73 Eggplants, 156–57, 157 Environmental disorders chlorosis (nutrient deficiency), 120, 195 frost damage, 195 sunscald, 121, 178 Epiphyllum oxypetalum (orchid cactus, “queen of the night”), 320–21, 321 Espaliering, 256–59, 256, 258, 258 Espaliers, 9–10, 204, 205, 206, 207, 220 Eucalyptus tree, 222 Euonymus fortunei (wintercreeper), 211, 221, 339, 339 F Fallopia aubertii (silver fleece vine, mile-a-minute), 130–31, 286, 331–33, 332, 333 Fall webworms, 115 Fences in espaliering, 204 as plant supports, 41, 41, 171, 212, 215 Ferns, 228 Fertilizers fish emulsion, 104 fish meal, 108 seaweed concentrate, 108 sewage sludge as, 24 slow-release pellets, 183 Fertilizing, 128–29 Festoons, 34–35, 34 “Fiery” brew, 104 Figs (Ficus), 240–41, 241 Benjamin, 227 creeping (F. pumila), 302, 302 espaliered, 206 propagating, 99 Fire blight, 120 Firethorn (Pyracantha coccinea), 302–3, 303 ‘Mohave’, 220 Fish emulsion, 104 Fish meal, 108 Flame vine, Mexican (Ipomoea lobata), 208, 266, 266 Flea beetles, 115 Floating row covers, 108 Frost damage, 195 Frost pockets, site selection and, 19–20, 21–22 Fruit.

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
by James C. Scott
Published 8 Feb 1999

Diverse old-growth forests, about three-fourths of which were broadleaf (deciduous) species, were replaced by largely coniferous forests in which Norway spruce or Scotch pine were the dominant or often only species. In the short run, this experiment in the radical simplification of the forest to a single commodity was a resounding success. It was a rather long short run, in the sense that a single crop rotation of trees might take eighty years to mature. The productivity of the new forests reversed the decline in the domestic wood supply, provided more uniform stands and more usable wood fiber, raised the economic return of forest land, and appreciably shortened rotation times (the time it took to harvest a stand and plant another).'

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But these other qualities can become relevant (especially to the state) only after the terrain to which they apply has been located and measured. And unlike identifying location and dimension, identifying these qualities involves judgments that are complex, susceptible to fraud, and easily overtaken by events. Crop rotations and yields may change, new tools or machines may transform cultivation, and markets may shift. The cadastral survey, by contrast, is precise, schematic, general, and uniform. Whatever its other defects, it is the precondition of a tax regimen that comprehensively links every patch of land with its owner-the taxpayer.RZ In this spirit, the survey for a 1807 Dutch land tax (inspired by Napoleonic France) stressed that all surveyors were to use the same measurements, surveyors' instruments were to be periodically inspected to ensure conformity, and all maps were to be drawn up on a uniform scale of 1:2,880.13 Land maps in general and cadastral maps in particular are designed to make the local situation legible to an outsider.

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Wilson, Harold Ware (who had extensive experience in the Soviet Union), and Guy Riggin were invited to plan a huge mechanized wheat farm of some 500,000 acres of virgin land. It would be, Wilson wrote to a friend, the largest mechanized wheat farm in the world. They planned the entire farm layout, labor force, machinery needs, crop rotations, and lockstep work schedule in a Chicago hotel room in two weeks in December 1928.31 The fact that they imagined that such a farm could be planned in a Chicago hotel room underlines their presumption that the key issues were abstract, technical interrelationships that were context-free. As Fitzgerald perceptively explains: "Even in the U.S., those plans would have been optimistic, actually, because they were based on an unrealistic idealization of nature and human behavior.

Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
by Vaclav Smil
Published 2 Mar 2021

Regions, countries, and nations became distinguished by their cropping systems (single- or double-cropping, intercropping, the presence or absence of major tree crops) and by the numbers and variety of domesticated mammals and birds (more than a dozen species throughout the Old World, only dogs and turkeys in ancient Mesoamerica), diets (ranging from completely vegetarian to highly meaty), and prevalence of specific economic activities (field farming, mixed farming, pastoralism, fishing). Cropping ranged from extensive shifting cultivation to intensive crop rotations helped by elaborate irrigation (characteristic of South China and Southeast Asia). Everyday diets were distinguished by the consumption, or absence, of dairy products (shunned by all high civilizations of East Asia but consumed by neighboring nomads), meat (whose consumption was prohibited in Japan for more than a millennium until the Meiji emperor himself urged his subjects to eat it), and seafood, and by often complex dietary taboos that were found in almost every traditional culture, not the least in China with its unrestricted omnivory but with many foodstuffs prohibited during illness and pregnancy.

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Society’s collective lack of concern about food production is a perfect testimony to the enormous achievements that have resulted from more than a century of agricultural transitions whose accomplishments belong to a large category of productivity improvements. Combinations of plant breeding (improved cultivars, genetically modified crops) along with agronomic, technical, and managerial advances (ranging from the introduction of crop rotations to the use of field machinery, synthetic nitrogenous fertilizers, and other agrochemicals) have increased the productivity of land (rising crop yields), inputs, and labor (Bindraban and Rabbinge 2012). Typical yields of staple crops are now multiples of traditional harvests, some (including American grain corn) even an order of magnitude higher.

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Similarly, modern civilization could continue to prosper even after reducing its transportation (or industrial, residential, or commercial) energy use by the amount far surpassing the total of energy subsidies used to produce its food—but without that 4% of global energy devoted to the modern food production it would be impossible to feed the world’s current population of more than 7.5 billion people. How did this dependence on anthropogenic energy inputs come about? The first important innovation did not involve any fossil energies; it was an intensification of a well-appreciated traditional practice of widespread adoption of regular crop rotations that included nitrogen-fixing leguminous crops (vetches, clovers, and alfalfa). Such rotations have been known since antiquity but the common use of optimized sequences (such as Norfolk’s four-year rotation of wheat, turnips, barley, and clover) dates only to the middle of the 18th century. Subsequent widespread adoption of the practice had at least tripled nitrogen available to non-leguminous crops and began to raise long-stagnant staple grain yields (Campbell and Overton 1993).

Green Interior Design
by Lori Dennis
Published 14 Aug 2020

In this old-world courtyard, they were the perfect finishing touch to soften the sea of stone. (Courtyard by Lori Dennis. Photo by Ken Hayden.) On the other hand, organic cotton is a green fiber. Never genetically modified, it doesn’t use poisonous chemicals found in polluting pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Instead, eco-friendly techniques like crop rotation and introduction of natural predators are used in organic cotton cultivation. All organic cotton farmers must meet GOTS guidelines during cultivation and production. Organic certification also includes annual inspections of land and crops by reputable certifying organizations. Linen Linen comes from the flax plant.

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See also Wardrobe clutter, 188 coastal decor, 62 coffee maker, 191 collecting, 9, 188 color hue, 80 shade, 80 tint, 80 tone, 80 value, 80 community, 3, 5 compost, 143, 194, 196 pail, 130, 190–191 consignment shops, 25 Consumer Reports’ Greener Choices, 126 Control4, 74 cookware, 131 Teflon, 131 cooling, 185 forced air, 187 cotton, 65, 76, 78, 81, 105, 160, 162–163 counters, 110, 110, 111 choosing, 110 composite stone, 110 glassy and maintainable, 111 granite, 111 healthy materials, 111 recycled, 111 Cow Project, 163 cows, 79 Coyuchi, 163 Craigslist, 25, 26 Crate and Barrel, 26, 135 crop rotation, 78 Crypton, 85 crystals, 69 amethyst, 60 citrine, 60 iron pyrite, 60 lapis lazuli, 60 rose quartz, 60 selenite, 60 tiger’s eye, 60 cultivation, 78 current, electrical, 159 D Dark-Sky Association, 153 DDT, 117 decks, 196 dehumidifiers, 131–132, 192 automatic shut-off, 131 cleaning, 192 draining, 131 humidistat, 131–132 Dennis, Lori, 1–3, 24, 26, 71, 77, 109–110, 112, 138, 138, 140–141, 162, 163 detergents, 162 dining room, 24, 35, 61, 93–94, 109, 120, 137 dioxin, 131, 194 dishes, washing, 190 dishwashers, 129–130, 190 booster heaters, 129 cleaning, 190 maintaining, 129 water conservation, 191 water usage, 129 and wood, 190 disposals, 130 cleaning, 190 doormat, 188 doors front, 188 placement, 184 sliding, 137 down, 160 drain clog, 190 drains, to catch hair, 129 drapes.

Green and Prosperous Land: A Blueprint for Rescuing the British Countryside
by Dieter Helm
Published 7 Mar 2019

Once the true scale of the disaster of modern British agriculture is recognised, we can set about putting nature back into our countryside, to the benefit of not just the environment but for farmers and taxpayers too. It is one of those really rare examples of win–win–win. How we got into this mess Farming today is the product of a long process of the symbiotic development with transport and market access, and technical advances since the late eighteenth century. Railways, crop rotation, enclosures, fertilisers and tractors transformed an organic and labour-intensive agriculture, largely delivering local self-sufficiency, into what is now a global, capital-intensive industry. This intensification really got going with the Dig for Victory objective of maximising food production during World War II, the 1946 Hill Farming Act,1 1947 Agriculture Act, the Common Agricultural Policy since 1973, and the 1975 White Paper, ‘Food from Our Own Resources’, all encouraging the relentless march of agri-chemistry and farm mechanisation.

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It is something they argue they should be protected from again now. Were the bureaucrats to set the prices correctly so that they averaged out the economic fundamentals of supply and demand, this policy might have had limited environmentally damaging outcomes, although it would still have undermined mixed farms and crop rotations – the traditional way in which farmers reduced the risk of price fluctuations. But the bureaucrats went one stage further, fixing prices higher than the average. They did this in part because they were captured by powerful farming interests, in part because they thought excess production would improve food security, and in part to raise farm incomes.

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Farmers would look more closely at substitutes, and at ways of managing the fertility of their soils rather than treating them as blotting paper. They would take natural processes much more seriously into account in their business plans, and in the process they would halt the decline of the carbon in the soils. They would have to think much more about how to work with rather than against nature. Crop rotation, mixed-farming approaches, which produce manure for the fields, and greater efforts to prevent the loss of the now much more valuable soils would all feature more strongly. There would be less-intensive factory farms. This would be an enormous win for the natural environment and all of it increasing economic prosperity.

Invention: A Life
by James Dyson
Published 6 Sep 2021

All but one of the farms we’ve bought to date had suffered from underinvestment and lack of maintenance; this is why they had become run-down and inefficient. On every farm there were blocked drains, overgrown ditches, worn-out tracks, a lack of grain stores, black grass competing adversely with wheat and barley, improper crop rotation, missing hedgerows, and collapsed walls. This hasn’t been for some innate lack of interest on the part of most farmers, who were passionate about their farms, but because of a lack of capital and profit from the sector more generally. Not one of the farms had a modern grain store, so they would contract out the storing and drying of grain, meaning a further cut in their tight margins while losing the added value of maintaining a high-quality grain in store.

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The impact of machinery, like Viscount Jethro Tull’s horse-drawn seed drill of 1701 or the Scottish engineer Andrew Meikle’s threshing machine of 1786, raised the productivity of British farms many times over. Norfolk witnessed revolutionary improvements in soil health as its farmers—notably Charles “Turnip” Townshend at Raynham Hall—adopted a four-year crop rotation cycle with fields given over successively to wheat, barley, clover, and turnips. Each of these crops acted on the soil in different ways, each benefiting the others. English farms became extremely productive. The population grew rapidly. With a large supply of food and labor, a new generation of factory proprietors was able to think big.

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effect 170, 172 Cockerell, Sir Christopher 6, 35, 91 Codrington family 72 Collis, Charles 141 Colombe, Paul 87 Colombo, Jo 28 Comet 118–19 Conair 100 Concert for Bangladesh 49 Concorde 67, 73, 125, 264, 293 Confederation of British Industry (CBI) 273 Conran Shop 117–18, 119, 186, 283 Conran, Terence 28, 117 Conservative Party 238–39 Contrarotator, Dyson 128, 129, 130 Cooper, John 51 core technologies, Dyson 132–80. See also individual technology and product name Cornish, Evan 104 Cornish, Michael 249 Corrale, Dyson 172–75, 173, 174, 193 Cossons, Sir Neil 268–69 Couverture 300 Covid-19 pandemic 174, 201, 202, 233–41, 280, 286 Creative Industries 42 Crichel Down Rules 229 Critchley Light 50 crop rotation cycle 244, 248 Cryptomic technology 165, 167 Cu-Beam Duo, Dyson 126 Cure EB 288 Currys 118, 119 cyclonic separators Cinetic vacuum cleaner and 145 DC07 upright cleaner and/first vacuum to have multi cyclones 135 Diesel Trap and 130–31 Dyson core technology 132, 156 JD first uses 74, 75–76, 83 prototypes of Dyson vacuum cleaner and 1, 3, 84–89, 96, 188, 255, 296, 302 technology evolution 136 Daily Telegraph 135 Daimler 50 DA001, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 111 Davidson, Andrew 176 DC01, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 106–31, 112, 114, 132, 133, 156 DC01 Antarctic Solo, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 128 DC02, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 127–28, 128, 133, 135, 137 DC02 Recyclone, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 128 DC03, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 133, 134, 306 DC04, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 133, 134 DC05, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 134, 135, 143 DC06, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 135, 135, 137, 175, 177–78 DC07, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 135, 136, 187 DC08, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 143 DC11, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 143, 144, 145 DC12, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 151–52, 152, 186 DC14, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 145, 146 DC15, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 145, 146, 147 DC16, Dyson (first handheld vacuum cleaner) 153–54, 153 DC35 Digital Slim, Dyson (vacuum cleaner) 154, 155, 156, 157, 158–59 Dean, Roger 28 Decauville, Paul 246 de Gaulle, General 207 degree-awarding powers (DAPs) 273, 277 Design Centre, Haymarket 21 Design Museum 117 De Stijl 127 Devlin, Polly 46 DeVos, Richard 95 “Dieselgate” 226–27 diesel pollution 130–31, 131, 209–11, 212, 213, 226–27, 228 Diesel Trap, Dyson 130–31, 131 Digital Motor, Dyson 149–56, 149, 157, 158, 160, 170, 176, 179, 182, 186, 196–97, 211, 215 Dillon, Charles 21 Dodington Park 72, 142, 249, 293 Dorman, R.

The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Photography
by Jim Miotke
Published 9 Feb 2011

With this checked, you can reduce the overall pixel dimensions to an e-mail-friendly size, such as 400 pixels wide. If you do this, be sure to use that Save As option right away so that you can save the resized image with a different name and, thus, avoid overwriting your larger source file. CROPPING, ROTATING PHOTOS, AND LEVELING HORIZONS Once you learn how to use it, the Crop tool in Photoshop may be the one tool to which you turn the most. You can fix countless photographs that you might otherwise throw away with a simple application of the Crop tool. If you have photos with distracting elements on the edges or if you feel that your photo would have had more impact if you had moved in closer, the Crop tool enables you to fix these problems after the fact.

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See EXIF data microdrive motivation nature noise assignment intentional generation of normal lenses notebook, keeping visual, 2.1, 2.2 assignment optical viewfinders, fm 1.1, 1.1, 1.2, 6.1, 6.2 optical zooms, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 overexposure, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 avoiding panning, 4.1, 4.2 facts to remember for parallax pattern, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 people, 2.1, 4.1 Peterson, Bryan Photoshop, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 cropping, rotating photos, and leveling horizons resizing saving JPEG files sharpening filters pixel resolution, 3.1, 6.1 digital zooms and cameras with lower planning keeping visual notebook and previsualizing while maintaining flexibility point-and-shoot cameras low-end point of view, altering, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 assignment to prevent merging of shapes portraits, 5.1, 6.1 previsualizing and planning printing assignment home printer versus photo lab or kiosk Program mode raw file format, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 5.1 memory space required for shooting: assignment shooting in tweaking images on computer with white balance and recomposing remote shutter release, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1 resizing resolution, 6.1, 6.2 changing optical or interpolated pixel, 3.1, 6.1, 6.2 Rule of Thirds, 2.1, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 applying to vertical composition: assignment exception to for scenes with horizons self-timer shape emphasizing, with shadows silhouettes emphasizing sharpening filters shutter lag shutter-priority mode, 4.1, 4.2 shutter speed, 4.1, 4.2, 6.1 catching the moment with fast effect of sun’s brightness on fast interrelation of aperture, ISO, and measurement of using fast enough sidelighting software, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 216–218.

Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto
by Stewart Brand
Published 15 Mar 2009

“Rural economies, including agricultural work,” she wrote, “are directly built upon city economies and city work.” It was so in the beginning, she argued, and continues to this day. Most farming innovations, for example, are city-based. When Rome collapsed, European agriculture collapsed. When crop rotation was reinvented in the twelfth century, it began around European cities and took two centuries to reach remote farms. In the eighteenth century, the revolutionary use of fodder crops like alfalfa to fix nitrogen in the soil was developed first in city gardens. American agriculture soared in the 1920s when hybrid corn was invented, not on a farm but in a New Haven, Connecticut, laboratory.

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• Humanity’s first venture into genetic modification—agriculture—was a global event. We exploited the genetic malleability of dozens of plants in at least ten independent centers of agricultural innovation. The process was gradual, progressing from selective gathering to small-scale and then large-scale clearing and tilling, to techniques such as irrigation and crop rotation for what were by then exquisitely designed cultivars. Sing their praises!—the crops of the Americas: squash (first domesticated 10,000 years ago), corn (9,000 years), potatoes (7,000 years), peanuts (8,500 years), and chilis (6,000 years); the crops of the Mideast: rye (13,000 years), figs (11,400 years), wheat (10,500 years), and barley (10,000 years); the crops of China: rice (8,000 years) and millet (8,000 years); the crops of New Guinea: bananas (7,000 years), yams (7,000 years), and taro (7,000 years); and the crops of Africa: sorghum (4,000 years) and pearl millet (3,000 years).

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New glyphosate-resistant weeds are turning up, not so much through gene borrowing as through the usual evolutionary response to the increased selection pressure of any highly successful, overemployed, deadly technique. When only glyphosate is used to kill weeds, some weeds will evolve a workaround all too soon. The main countermeasure is to employ the full arsenal of integrated pest management—crop timing, crop rotation, biocontrols, etc.—so the weeds face too many simultaneous obstacles to evolve around. Genetic engineering also can “stack” genes for resistance to other effective herbicides such as Dicamba along with the glyphosate resistance, and the genes can be parked in the maternal portion of the genome so they can’t spread to the world through the male pollen.

Vertical Vegetables and Fruit
by Rhonda Massingham Hart
Published 14 May 2011

I like to keep records of which varieties I plant, when they produce first fruits, when pests appear (deer usually don’t bother until August, the bleeping ground squirrels have a heyday in May, and yellow jackets take over in late summer), temperatures, rainfall, and so on. It allows me the illusion that I am in control. And keeping records of what is planted where, from season to season, is critical to effective crop rotation. Some crops shouldn’t set root in the same spot for three or four years. Who remembers for that long? Rule No 8: Round and Round We Go Or in other words, rotate your crops. Planting different types of crops in different areas of your garden each season helps avoid a myriad of problems that can plague your plants if they are grown in the same spot season after season.

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Some gardeners caution that wire or metal may overheat and burn the tendrils or leaves, but the leaves should shade the frame well enough to prevent this. Wire and pipe can be wrapped with florists’ tape or cloth strips to prevent it from burning the vines. The zigzag design of an A-frame trellis is very popular for cucumbers. It is easily relocated year after year to facilitate crop rotation, and cucumbers find the sloping sides easy to scale (see page 27). THE SECRET LIFE OF CUCUMBERS If you think your sex life is complicated, be grateful you’re not a cucumber. Some cucumber plants are gynoecious (GY), which means they produce only female (fruiting) flowers. Some are monecious (MO), producing both male and female flowers on the same plant.

The End of Work
by Jeremy Rifkin
Published 28 Dec 1994

In the near future, computerized "expert systems" will collect data on weather changes, soil conditions, and other variables from computer-based sensors located on the land and use the information to make specific recommendations to the farmer. Highly specialized robots will be instructed, in tum, to carry out many of the computer-generated action plans. Many expert systems are currently being tested around the country. Virginia Tech has developed the Crop Rotation Planning System (CROPS) to assist farmers in evaluating the risk of soil erosion and nutrient and pesticide leaching and runoff. The farmer enters data on soil type, topography, land use, and field size into the computer. The computer then uses the information to devise an overall program of THE DECLINE OF THE GLOBAL LABOR FORCE farm production, balancing acreage targets and profit objectives with the need to reduce environmental risks to an acceptable level. 22 Expert systems are currently being developed to assist farmers in a range of integrated crop-management decisions covering irrigation, fertilization, nutrition, weed and insect control, and herbicide application.

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For the better part of the twentieth century, farming has declined in importance as an increasing number of its activities have been expropriated by the input sector on the one end and the marketing sector on the other. For example, chemical fertilizers have replaced animal manuring on the farm. Commercial pesticides have replaced crop rotation, mechanical tillage, and hand weeding. Tractors have replaced horses and manual labor. Today only a handful of farmers package their own produce or transport it to retail markets. These functions have been increasingly taken over by agribusiness companies. Now, chemical and pharmaceutical companies hope to use genetic-engineering technologies to eliminate the farmer altogether.

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See also Automation in agriculture, 113-15 historical development of, 64-66 impact on organized labor, 5- 6, 66-68 introduced to automate industries, 66-68 re-engineering of the workplace as a result of, 6-11, 101-6 role of, 60- 62 Congressional Budget Office (CBO), 268-69,270 Connery, William P.,Jr., 28 Connors, Rochelle, 166 Consumers Association ofPenang (CAP), 281 Consumption/consumerism definition of, 19 economics, creation of, 20 growth of mass, 19-25 New Deal, 29-32 post World War II, 32- 33 saturation of, in the 1970s, 90-91 share the work movement, 25-29 Consumption/consumerism, creation of brand labels and, 21-22 consumer credit and, 22 dissatisfied consumer notion and, 20 impact of the Depression on, 23 -24 role of marketing in, 20-21 suburbs and, 22-23 Continental, 268 Conyers, John, 230-31 Cottle, Thomas T., 195-96 Cotton picker, impact of the mechanical, 70-71, 72-73 Courtaulds, 139 Cowdrick, Edward, 19 Cox and Cox, 68 Credit, consumer creation of, 22 in the 1990s, 35 340 Index Crime. See Violence and crime Crop Rotation Planning System (CROPS), 113-14 Crystal Court Shopping Mall, 153 CUC International, 157 Cybernation revolution, 81-82 Daily News, 87 Davidow, William, 105 Day ojProsperity, The (Devinne), 46 Debts/deficits, worldwide, 37-38 Deere, John, 110 Defense industry, 38 Deficits. See Debts/deficits, worldwide De Martino, Nick, 161 Democratic movements, third!

Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States
by James C. Scott
Published 21 Aug 2017

In an experiment in northern Europe, a crop of modern barley, fertilized but not protected with modern herbicides or pesticides, was reduced by half: 20 percent due to crop disease, 12 percent to animals, and 18 percent to weeds.15 Threatened by the diseases of crowding and monoculture, domesticated crops must be constantly defended by their human custodians if they are to yield a harvest. It is largely for this reason that early agriculture was so dauntingly labor intensive. Various techniques were devised to reduce the labor involved and improve the yields. Fields were scattered so that they were less contiguous; fallowing and crop rotation was practiced; and seed was procured at a distance to reduce genetic uniformity. Ripening crops were closely guarded by farmers, their families, and scarecrows. But given the disease-prone agro-ecology of the domesticated crop, it was touch and go whether the crop would survive all the predators to feed its ultimate guardian and predator: the farmer.

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See also unfree labor collapse, of states, 112, 183, 204, 207–210, 251 climate change linked to, 31 “dark ages” linked to, xii, xiii, 213 disease linked to, xiv, 21, 31, 97 documentation lacking for, 16 frequency of, 27, 29, 203, 213 of Maya, 30 in Mesopotamia, 122 self-inflicted, 212–213, 234 types of, 31–32, 185–188 of Ur III Dynasty, 185, 214–215 walled settlements and, 137, 202 colonialism, 151 Comanche, 8 commensals, 19, 73, 78, 82, 103, 104, 105–106 conquistadores, 151 conscription, 21, 23, 139, 173 flight from, 32, 203, 211, 217, 232 in Greece, 175 during Qin Dynasty, 147 records needed for, 142–143, 146 contagion, 98–99 convicts, 29, 181 cooking, 17, 40–43, 84, 91, 196 copper, 125, 192, 223, 243, 247 elites dependent on, 159 labor used to mine, 170, 176 trade in, 226, 245 coppicing, 70 corvée labor, 23, 32, 143, 144, 152, 158, 164 canals dug and maintained by, 121, 199 in Mesopotamia, 174 records of, 141 Cossacks, 251 Cowgill, George, 185, 187 cowpox, 104 Crete, 24, 185, 210, 234, 239, 245 cribra orbitalia, 108 crop failure, 109, 123, 153, 188, 190, 201, 216, 217, 231 crop rotation, 112 crowding, 20, 85 among animals, 77–78, 84, 189 climate and, 60 of crops, 109–111 diseases linked to, 78, 84, 97, 100–103, 105, 106, 107, 110–111, 191, 193 among humans, 81, 83, 189 crows, 73 Crutzen, Paul, 257 n. 1 cuneiform, 13, 24, 141, 143, 161, 176 Cunliffe, Barry, 224–225, 234, 245 Cyprus, 239, 245 daffodils, 76 dark ages, xii, xiii, 213–218, 222 day lilies, 76 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Gibbon), 210 décrue (flood-retreat) agriculture, 20, 66, 72, 93, 120, 124 deer, 38, 88, 94 deforestation, 19, 31, 195–200 delayed-return theory, 65–66 Delphi, 225 density-dependent diseases, 102 desert kites, 77 diphtheria, 21 dogs, 18, 73, 76, 81, 86, 103, 104 domestication: of animals, x, 11, 18, 20, 44, 49, 63, 70, 76–83, 169, 180, 181, 191 barbarism vs., 230, 255 definitions of, xii–xiii, 11–12, 18–19, 70 environmental of fire, 37–43 epidemiological effects of, 103–105, 109, 111–112 of Homo sapiens, 18–19, 83–90 impact of, 20 of plants, x, 12, 17, 22, 24, 44–45, 61, 66, 69, 71–76, 90–91, 117, 129, 135, 155 sedentism followed by, xi, 46, 100 state formation preceded by, 7, 58–59, 155 states characterized by, 5, 17, 18 of unfree human subjects, 155, 160, 166, 169, 180–182, 221 of whole environments, 70–71 donkeys, 77, 83 drainage, 47, 134 drought, 30, 31, 62, 112, 189, 190, 212–216 ducks, 18, 53, 103, 105 dysentery, 102, 193 eels, 53, 90 Egypt, xiv, 30, 44, 56, 66, 124, 127–128, 134, 185, 219, 239, 245, 252 chronology of, 27, 215 forced resettlement in, 176–177 grain exported by, 246 nomarchs in, 215–216 plague in, 194 pyramids and mummies of, 186 records of, 209 sea people’s invasion of, 224 slavery in, 29, 164–165, 168, 173 state formation in, 14, 24 sumptuary laws in, 208 einkorn wheat, 73 elective affinity, 117 elephants, 39, 68 Elias, Norbert, 91 elk, 38 emmer wheat, 73 Engels, Friedrich, 9 England, 56 Eninnu temple, 164 Epic of Gilgamesh, 62, 98, 126, 138, 141 ergot, 111 Eridu, 44, 119, 179 Erlitou cultural area, 144 erosion, 66, 198 Evans-Pritchard, E.

Diet for a New America
by John Robbins

For over 20 years, the USDA had been reassuring customers their meat was healthy by stamping the meat with a cancer-causing dye.122 The Good News Fortunately, there are alternatives to pesticides. Agricultural techniques such as organic farming and integrated pest management (IPM) are decidedly on the upswing today. These utilize natural insect controls, such as predatory insects, weather, crop rotation, pest-resistant varieties, soil tillage, insect traps, and other environmentally sound practices. IPM systems use chemicals when necessary but recognize that tolerable quantities of pest insects may actually be desirable, because they provide food for beneficial insects. Organic and IPM systems realize that “controlling” insects by poisoning them is not the best strategy.

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So, when soybeans are planted alternately with corn, the rootworm has nothing to eat and cannot survive. The soybean plants have the added benefit of supplying nitrogen to the soil and so reducing the need for fertilizer for the ensuing corn crop.126 Unfortunately for pesticide-addicted agriculture, however, simply switching to crop rotation after years of pesticide use can run into a few difficulties. Some of the weed killers used today on corn crops persist in the soil and kill noncorn plants. Soybean plants die if planted in soil to which these chemicals have been applied. Farmers who have been led to rely on pesticides can find themselves in a vicious circle.

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vegetarianism and, 247 colons, human vs. animal, 236–37, 237 colons, spastic, 263 Colorado, 344 Columbia River, 342–43 Columbia University, 182, 224 Common Market, 313 community gardens, 64 Confinement (farming journal), 72 Conquest of Cancer Act (1971), 227–28 constipation, 262, 263 cookbooks, 113 corn, 326, 349–50, 359–60 Cornell University, 181, 342 corn rootworms, 315–16 Costa Rica, 318, 328, 338, 339 cotton, 359–60 council. See National Livestock and Meat Board Council on Environmental Quality, 319 Courtney, Diane, 297 crop rotation, 316 D Dachau concentration camp, 103–4 Dachau Diaries (Kupfer), 104 Dairy Council of Wisconsin, 223 dairy cows, 92–93, 108, 112 dairy industry advertising by, 257–58, 356 atherosclerosis “theory” and, 189–90 cancer and,231 lawsuits against, 356 lobbying efforts of, 152 “nutritional education” materials of, 151–52, 205 obfuscations by, 194, 196–99, 205–6, 273 political power of, 221–24 PR campaigns of, 201 scientific studies sponsored by, 238 See also National Dairy Council Dairyman (trade magazine), 208 dairy products acidity formed by, 177 t.

Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made
by Gaia Vince
Published 19 Oct 2014

Ologara village is in a semi-arid region, meaning that it gets less than 800 millimetres of rainfall per year. Cacti and small shrubs are the only naturally occurring vegetation. Deforestation has left the soils thin and loose; when the wind picks up, dust storms darken the sky. People here cannot afford to leave their fields fallow for even a season – they practise crop rotation, but it is not very effective and the soils are exhausted and infertile, leaving them vulnerable to problems like striga, a parasitic weed that destroys sorghum. In Africa, most smallholders cannot afford to replace the nutrients and minerals taken up by their crops each season, so three-quarters of farmland is degraded, with harvests in sub-Saharan Africa declining by 15–25% per year.11 Already, grain yields in most of Africa are only around one tonne per hectare, compared with 2.5 in South Asia and 4.5 in East Asia.

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This causes dead zones for kilometres, and is a particular issue in China, where intensive farming has polluted whole river systems. A solution is targeted application – or ‘micro-dosing’ – directly to each plant, which minimises waste, and catchment reed beds can filter out any run-off before it enters waterways. Organic farming advocates prefer pre-industrial methods of soil enrichment, such as muck-spreading, crop rotation with legumes (which harbour bacteria in their roots that can ‘fix’ nitrogen directly from the air, enhancing the soil’s fertility for other crops while requiring little or no fertiliser), and so-called ‘conservation agriculture’, in which the stalks and leaves that are not harvested are left in the fields to mulch down.

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INDEX AAHH see Lima Abu Dhabi 209, 366 ADAPTA 291, 292–3 Afghanistan 29, 37, 59 Africa 2, 138, 147 agriculture 134–6, 138, see also Uganda drought 118, 121, 122–3, 195–6, 215 land-acquisition by foreign investors 102–3, 123–4 mobile phones 28, 29 solar energy 211–12 tree-planting 129 water-harvesting and storage projects 121–2 see also specific countries and towns Agona, Ambrose 122 agriculture/farming 3, 7, 38, 106–9, 148–9, 257, 338 in Africa 134–6, 138, see also Uganda commodities speculation 124 ‘conservation’ agriculture 133 female workforce 120–21 in India 49–50, 51, 57, 58–9, 61, 113, 114 ‘no till’ agriculture 142 organic farming 133–4 see also irrigation and specific crops air conditioning 10, 172, 374, 375 air pollution 3, 34–9, 51, 65, 66, 251, 327, 330, 368 aircraft wings 317 albatrosses 186, 187 alcoholism in indigenous peoples 227, 234 algae 16, 84, 143, 146, 148, 309, 334 coral species 165, 167 toxic 84, 133, 187 Alliance for Green Revolution 120, 138 Almería, Spain: greenhouses 65 alpaca farming 62 aluminium 304, 316, 324 Amazon rainforest 264, 266, 270–72, 284, 286 animal trafficking 267, 274, 275, 276 birds 266, 268, 270, 271–2, 278–9, 280–81 and drought 284–5 gold mining 268, 269, 273, 277, 279, 283, 284, 288 hydrodams 278, 280, 282 indigenous people 266, 268, 269, 270, 272, 275, 277, 279, 280 logging see logging mapping of 288 oil exploration 277, 280, 284 road building 277, 281–4 urbanisation 378 see also deforestation; Madidi National Park; Madre de Dios region Amazon River 71, 83, 266, 283 fish 283, 291--3 Amesti, Sergio de 83 Amigos Dos Amigos gang 356 amphibians 239, 265 see also frogs Andaman Islanders 279 Anderson, Ray 319 Andes, the 47, 52, 62–4, 217, 265, 269, 334 Angkor Wat, Cambodia 99 animals 12, 47, 71, 148, 198, 199–200, 377 domestication 4, 107, 250–51, see cattle; livestock and extinction 4, 9, 222–3, 237, 238–40, 242, 243, 244, 256–7 illegal trade 245–6, 267, 273, 274, 275, 276 see also specific animals Annamite mountains, Laos 94 Antarctica 46, 73, 177, 178, 215 anteaters 240 antelopes 198, 221, 233, 237 see also dik-diks Anthropocene epoch 4–5, 7–13 ants 91, 279 Apple 313, 314 aquifers 111, 112, 115, 203, 215 for carbon dioxide storage 330–31 Arab revolutions 28–9, 124, 368 Arabian Desert 103, 104, 107 Aral Sea 72 arapaima (fish) 71 Arcibia, Simon 306 Arctic, the 5, 9, 37, 152, 177–83, 293 Arctic Ocean 178–82, 308 Argentina 60, 86 Ariel, Yotam 212 Arizona Desert: solar photovoltaic panels 212 Armstrong, Neil 334 Armstrong, Rachel 167–8 arowana (fish) 71 Ascension island 285–6 Asner, Greg 288, 289 asteroids 2, 5, 298, 300 Aswan Dam, Egypt 79 Atacama Desert, Chile 76, 108, 212, 308 fog harvesting 219 Athabasca oil sands, Canada 4 atmosphere, the 15–18, 46, 22, 42–4 artificially cooling 64–9 ‘Atmospheric Brown Cloud’ see ‘brown cloud’ Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species, New Orleans 259–60 aurochs 236, 250 Australia 27, 37, 102, 128, 175, 363 climate change experiments 66, 293 Great Barrier Reef 169 irrigation 219 marine reserve 186 wildlife 237, 250, 256, 258 Aysén, Chile 75, 81, 83 Azeez, Abdul 169 baboons 226 Babylon 339 Bachelet, Michelle, President of Chile 87 badgers 241 Baker River, Patagonia 73–4, 83 proposed dams 74, 84, 86 bald eagle 256 Baltistan, Pakistan: ‘glacier grafting’ 59–60 Bangalore, India 116–18 Bangladesh 128, 161, 163, 175, 343 Bantu tribe 238 baobab trees 226 Barcelona: Media-TIC building 374–5 Bardia National Park, Nepal 243–4 barley 7, 23, 49, 51, 61, 143 Barnosky, Anthony 238, 239, 249 basalt rock cliffs 296 batteries 211, 212, 332, 335, 336, 365, 373 BBVA (bank) 87 bears 182, 270 polar bears 178, 187 beehive fences, Kenyan 242 bees 199–200, 226, 242, 243, 264 Beijing 35, 321, 373 Belo Monte Dam, Pará, Brazil 83, 278 Beni, Nepal 21 Beni River, Bolivia 266, 278, 283 Bennu Solar (company) 212 Berlin: rooftop fish farms 376 Better Place 373 Bhola Island, Bangladesh 174 bicycles 114, 310–11, 373, 378 biodigesters 41, 129 biodiversity 43, 83, 88, 134, 186, 254, 255, 264, 278–9 lack/loss of 10, 123, 127, 138, 152, 235, 236, 247, 248, 249–50, 252, 256, 258, 265, 321 restoring 258, 277, 278, 375 biofuels 41, 134, 144–6, 147, 332 biomass 250, 251, 272, 288, 305 bioplastics 326 birds 71, 79, 104, 148, 199–200, 209, 226 Amazon rainforest 268, 270, 271–2, 278–9, 280–81 bison, American 236, 237, 251, 256 blackberries 253, 255 Bluepeace (environmental organisation) 162 Bodélé depression, Chad 272 Bogotá, Colombia 370, 372 Bolivia 108, 240 silver mining 300–6 Uyuni salt flats (salar)/lithium mining 332–7 Borana tribe 194–5 boreholes 111, 112, 117, 122, 215, 234 Borneo: rainforest 264, 276–7 Bosch, Carl 108 Boswellia trees 202 botfly 274 Botswana 125, 305 San people 232–3, 234–5 Bowman, David 258 Brahmaputra River 53 Branson, Richard 247, 256 Brazil 34, 83, 102, 240, 241, 290 agriculture 140, 142 favelas (slums) 354–8 see also Amazon Basin; Amazon River Brilliant, Larry 44 Britain 17, 30, 116, 157, 208, 214, 225, 241, 250, 265, 307, 322 coal mining 319 electricity consumption 371 native trees 383 tidal power 385 see also Industrial Revolution; London British Geological Society 7 ‘brown cloud’/brown haze pollution 36–9, 51, 65, 66 Buchanan, James, US President 27 buffalo 32, 39, 91, 93, 97, 226, 227, 228, 229 Burj Khalifa, Dubai 370 Bush, George W., US President 273 bushmen see Hadzabe people; San people Busoga Trust 121 cable-car systems 357–8 caimans 240, 241, 266, 274 Cambodia 99–100 camels 196, 200, 221, 237 cameras 310, 311, 312 Camisea gas project, Las Malvinas, Peru 282 Can Tho, Vietnam 101 Canada 4, 102, 309 canals 56, 72, 103, 104, 121, 320 Cano, Luis Marquez 218 capybara 241, 242, 268, 383 carbon capture and storage 294–5, 323, 330–31 carbon dioxide 3, 8, 9, 16, 17, 23, 38, 42, 46, 142, 264, 296, 319 and Amazon rainforest 264, 284–5 and ocean acidification 64 removing from air 294, 295–7, 332 carbon emissions 38–9, 76, 89, 142, 168, 169, 265, 319, 324–5, 345, 369, 371 carbon nanotubes 316–17, 364 carbon taxing 324 carbon trading 331–2 Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington DC 288 cars 37, 317–18, 323, 324, 335, 372 electric 42, 336, 373 Cartagena, Colombia 341–2, 343, 344 Carteret Islands 174 cassava 120, 125, 129, 130, 132, 142, 143, 147 catfish 83, 96, 384 cats 255, 258, 260 cattle/cows 33, 81, 82, 83, 107, 109, 148, 196, 205, 221–2, 227, 230, 231, 236, 241–2, 250 and biofuel 145 and drought 202, 206 greenhouse gas emissions 146 killed by jaguars 241–2 rustling 195, 201, 206 Central African Republic 245 cereals 106–7 see also barley; corn; maize; wheat Cerro Rico see Potosí, Bolivia CFCs 374 Chad 245, 272 Chad, Lake 72 Chalon Sombrero mountain, Peru 62–4 Chandon, Pankaj 54 Chaparro, Father Fabio-Miguel 194–5, 196–204, 206, 207, 210 charcoal-making 201, 202, 207 cheetahs 229, 237 chickens 97, 107, 109, 250 childbirth 203, 224–5 Chile 75–6, 81, 86–7, 98, 308 cloud-spraying 66 guano 108 see also Patagonia Chilean Friends of the Earth (CODEFF) 80 chimpanzees 3–4, 306 China/Chinese 20, 34, 49, 90, 114, 128, 321, 331, 340, 350 air-conditioning units 374 building methods 360 cars 372 cloud seeding 132 coal consumption 325, 331 desert see Gobi Desert electric megabuses (proposed) 372 fish farms 184–5 genetically modified crops 140, 141 hydrodams 83, 88–9, 96 IGCC power station 330 illegal trade in wildlife 245, 246 land bought in Africa 102–3 meltwater reservoirs 53 mining accidents 309 oil consumption 318 pollution 35–6, 37, 38, 133, 310, 312, 321, 330, 360–61 population 146, 359–60 rare earth production 315 rivers see Yangtze River; Yellow River and road-building 197–8, 290 slum populations 360 chocolate 138 cholera 195, 199, 204, 341 Choque, Juan Mamani 302–4, 305 Christian Aid 205 cities 9, 11, 71–2, 338–41, 344–5, 377–8 adapting buildings 374–5 and air pollution 34–6, 321 carbon emissions 345, 369 and cars 372, 373 diseases 349, 367 Eco-city see Tianjin efficient use of energy/resources 344--5, 363–5, 369, 371 electricity generation 361, 363–6, 371 flooding/inundation 373, 379–80 heatwaves 373–4 life expectancy 349 lighting 371 metro/underground systems 346, 353, 354, 357, 364, 372, 373 ‘online communities’/‘virtual’ cities 367–9 parks, gardens and farms 117, 351, 376–7 planning/designing 346–7, 358, 360, 370, 372, 374--6 public transport 345, 372–3, see also metro recycling 323, 324, 351, 363 skyscrapers 346, 370–71 ‘smart’ cities 365–6, 367 sustainability 324–5, 346, 369, 371, 375–6 underground space 369–70 wildlife 376, 377 see also slums civilisation(s) 3, 7, 12, 71, 107, 222, 339 clays 93, 281, 299 climate change 8, 42–4, 51, 61, 72, 123, 136, 192, 373–4 and mountains 46–7 cloning extinct animals 259–61 ‘closed-loop’ manufacture 319–20 cloud modifying/spraying with salt 65–6 cloud seeding 132 cluster bombs 90 coal 34–5, 263, 307, 308, 325, 326, 327, 331 cocaine 275, 288, 353, 357 coelentrates 165 coffee production 138 Colbun (energy company) 87 Colchani, Bolivia 334–5 collaborative mapping 366–7 Colombia 341–2 see also Medellín; Villa Hermosa Colorado River 77 commiphora (myrrh) tree 224 communication(s) 11, 13, 17, 18, 27–31, 34 community schemes 350–51 computers/laptops 12, 27, 30–32, 312, 314, 315, 335 Concone, Henrique 241–2 concrete 50, 53, 161, 166, 167, 168, 360, 370, 373 self-repairing 375 Condori, Damaso 303 condors 73, 74 conductors, transparent 316–17 Congo, Democratic Republic of 238, 246, 264, 305 conservation 187, 224, 229, 230, 235–7, 247–9, 251–8, 278 organic 149 conservationists 5, 8, 47, 171, 206, 244, 246 consumerism 300, 312, 313, 322, 323–4 cooking/stoves 36, 38–9, 41, 116 cooperatives, ‘microloan’ 130 Copernicus, Nicolaus 6–7 copper/copper mining 87, 305, 308, 315 coral reefs 5, 9, 42, 152, 153, 158, 159, 160, 161–2, 163, 164–5, 169, 334 artificial 13, 166–8 cold water 83 corn 133, 135, 144, see also maize Correa, Rafael, President of Ecuador 284 cotton 113, 141, 142 cows see cattle Coyhaique, Patagonia 75, 80, 81 Patagonia Ecosystem Research Centre 84 crabs 188, 256, 386 cradle-to-cradle manufacture see ‘closed-loop’ manufacture Cretaceous era 221, 264 crop rotation 127, 133 crowd-funding 29 crowd-sourcing 366 crustaceans 164, 168, 188, 256, 386 Crutzen, Paul 7, 68 Cruz, Abel 348 Cuba: Marabu weed 255 Cuervo river, Patagonia: dam 73, 75–6, 85 Daewood corporation 124 dams/hydrodams 72, 77–9, 98–9 Aswan Dam, Egypt 79 Belo Monte, Brazil 83, 278 Beni River, Bolivia 278 check-dams 112 Don Sahong, Laos 95–6, 99 glacial lake dams 52 Mekong River 83, 88, 89, 91, 92–4, 95–6, 99 Nam Theun II, Laos 92–4 Omo River 204 Patagonian 73, 74, 75–6, 77, 79–88 ‘run-of-river’ dams 85 sand dams 198, 216 Danang, Vietnam 92 Darwin, Charles 7, 151, 158–9, 252, 271, 285–6 Darwin Foundation 254 Datoogas, the 224, 227 Dawa, Skarma 58–9 deforestation 3, 5, 81, 89, 127, 128, 145, 146, 201, 240, 265, 266, 267--8, 275, 282, 284–5, 286–7 and logging 9, 267, 268, 270, 273, 274, 276, 277, 283, 288, 289–90 Delhi 115, 374 Children’s Development Khazana 350–51 deltas, river 71, 72 democracy 34, 110, 156 dengue fever 293, 341 Denmark 155, 325 desalination plants 102, 173, 216, 362 greenhouses 219–20 solar-powered 193, 216 Desertec 213 deserts 5, 9, 16, 191–3, 200–1, 214–15 see also Arabian, Atacama, Gobi and Sahara Deserts; Turkana, Lake Dhuvaafaru, the Maldives 160–61 diamonds/diamond mines 300, 305, 308 diarrhoea 20, 121, 367 diatoms 84 diesel 39, 76, 211, 214, 296, 331 generators 172, 209, 283 pumps 115 dik-diks 197, 200, 229, 231 dingoes 258 dinosaurs 1, 4, 71, 221, 239, 264 diseases 20–21, 224, 242, 243, 245, 250, 349, 367 see also dengue fever; ebola; HIV/Aids; malaria; tuberculosis DNA 108 crop 139 of extinct species 259--60 dogs 250 dolphins 95, 164, 323 Dominguez, Jaidith Tawil 342, 343 Don Det island, Laos 96 Don Khone island, Laos 95–6 Don Sahong, Laos: proposed hydrodam 95–6, 99 Dongtan Eco-city, China 360 droughts 5, 49–50, 72, 76, 122–3, 195–6, 285 drought-tolerant crops 138, 139, 141, 142, 143 Dubai 193, 310 Burj Khalifa 370 Dublin, Eire: ParkYa (app) 366 dung as biofuel 25, 36, 39, 129 as fertiliser 33, 129, 133–4, 145 paper 173 Durban, South Africa: waste-pickers 351–2 Dutch Docklands 162 Earth-orbiting space mirrors 64 earthquakes 73, 78, 79, 85–6, 299, 328 eBay 322 ebola (disease) 245, 276 Eco Bolivia Foundation 270, 278 eco-cities 360–63, 375 ecosystems 253, 254, 255, 256 EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered) species 257 education 26, 31, 55, 131–2, 204, 205, 206, 305 of girls/women 21, 26, 39, 113, 204–5 Edward I 34 Edward (Datoogan translator) 224, 225 Egypt 118, 213, 215, 245 see also Nile, River Ehrlich, Paul R.: The Population Bomb 146 Eight19 212 El Moro tribe 208, 210 El Niño 166, 179, 187 electricity 11, 27, 325, 326, 363–4 see also dams; hydroelectricity; solar energy; wind turbines electronic goods 311–16 see also mobile phones elephants 94, 173, 198, 200, 227, 228, 242, 245–6, 251, 258, 260, 282–3 Embrapa research institute, Brazil 260 energy 11, 323–4 see electricity; fossil fuels; solar energy; wind turbines Eolewater (company) 209 ‘erratics’ (boulders) 74 Escobar, Pablo 353–4 eskimos 182 Espirito Santo, Maria do 268 ETFE plastic film 374–5 eucalyptus trees 250, 290, 293 Euphrates River 71–2 extinctions 2, 9, 237, 238–40 see also cloning Eyasi, Lake (Tanzania) 223–4 Facebook 28–9, 367, 368, 369 farming see agriculture fashion industry 313, 323 favelas 354–8, 367 feed-in tariffs 323 Fernandez Piedade, Maria Tereza 292 fertilisers 8–9, 136 artificial/synthetic 108, 114, 133, 134–5 dung as 33, 129, 133–4, 145 organic 133, 134 Fiji 174, 175–6 University of the South Pacific 176 fish/fishing 5, 71, 78, 79, 83–4, 85, 95, 100, 151, 179, 182, 187, 190, 206–7, 291–2, 323 and acidification 168 and coral reefs 164, 165 and dams 78, 79, 83–4, 95–6 and overfishing 9, 101, 165, 169–70, 171–2, 183–4, 185 see also specific fish fish farms 101, 184–5 Fishtail Mountain, Nepal 19 flamingoes 228, 333, 336 flash floods 40, 52 Flattery, Martin 232–3, 235 floating islands 162–3, 189 of plastic 187–8 flooding urban 373, 379--80 see also glacial lake outburst floods fog-harvesting 217–19, 285 Foley, Jonathan 143 food prices 124, 145 production 3, 5, 11, 108–9, 143–4, 147 wastage 144, 147 see also agriculture; cereal; meat; vegetables forests 16, 42, 71, 262–5, 285–6 see also deforestation; rainforests Fossey, Dian 276 fossil fuels 3, 17, 42, 67, 300, 305, 324, 325, 326–7 see also coal; gas; oil fossil records 17, 94 fossil water 114, 117, 192, 215 Foster, Norman: ‘the Gherkin’ 374 foxes 229, 240, 258, 377 fracking 318 frankincense 202 Freecycle 322 frogs 239, 257, 262, 266 Fukushima: nuclear disaster 328 fungi 2, 143 FuteraGene 290 Galapagos Islands 151, 250, 251–5 Ganges, River 53, 71 Garbage Island, see Westpoint Island, Belize Gardner, Mark 251–2, 253, 255 gars 71 gas industry 86, 282, 308, 318, 326 Gates Foundation 139 Gayoom, Abdul, President of the Maldives 153, 155, 162 Gayoom, Abdulla Yameen, President of the Maldives 174 geckos 95, 200, 256 genetically modified (GM) animals 260 crops 64–5, 139–42 trees 290 Genghis Khan 59 geoengineering 56–61, 67–8, 84–5, 132, 180, 294--297 George V 17–18 geothermal energy 213 Gerrity, Sean 236 giraffes 225, 228 Givi, Gulab 113 glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) 52, 79–80, 86 ‘glacier grafting’ 59–60 glaciers 16, 74 artificial 53–4, 57–61 melting 4, 8, 10, 37, 47, 49, 51–3, 56–7, 76, 86, 151, 159, 216–17 glass light-reactive 375 photovoltaic 363 global warming 5, 10, 23, 24, 38, 40, 47, 49, 67, 138, 174, 196 GM see genetically modified goats 196, 198, 201, 231, 234, 235, 250, 253, 255 Gobi Desert, China carbon dioxide storage 330–31 mining 103 solar farms/solar panels 212, 331 wind turbines 209, 331 gold 298, 300, 304–5, 307, 312 see also gold mining Gold, Eduardo 63 gold mining 268, 269, 273, 277, 279, 283, 284, 288, 307, 309 Golmud, Gobi Desert: solar photovoltaic panels 212 Gomez, Martha 260 Gondwana 73 Gonzalez (J.)

The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
by Joseph Henrich
Published 7 Sep 2020

Thus, while the Industrial Revolution does indeed mark a striking acceleration, it was in fact part of a long-term trend that stretches back many centuries.19 Much of the economic growth prior to the 17th century probably derived from expanding commerce and trade—the “Commercial Revolution” of the 13th century—which was anchored in rising levels of impersonal trust, fairness, and honesty that developed along with market norms and competition among voluntary associations. However, some of this early growth also arose from innovation, including many technological developments. Early in the Middle Ages, agricultural production was gradually improved by the water mill (sixth century, Roman origin), heavy plow (seventh century, Slavic origin), crop rotation (eighth century), and both the horseshoe and the harness (ninth century, probably from China). Water mills were deployed to mechanize the production of beer (861, northwest France), hemp (990, southeast France), cloth (962, northern Italy; Switzerland), iron (probably 1025, southern Germany), oil (1100, southeast France), mustard (1250, southeast France), poppies (1251, northwest France), paper (1276, northern Italy), and steel (1384, Belgium).

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Nevertheless, while large kin-groups beat nuclear families in size and interconnectedness by tying more people together, nuclear families have the potential to be part of even larger collective brains if they can build broad-ranging relationships or join voluntary groups that connect them with a sprawling network of experts. Moreover, unconstrained by the bonds of kinship, learners can potentially select particularly knowledgeable or skilled teachers from this broader network. To see why this is important, consider the difference between learning a crop rotation strategy from the best person in your extended family (a paternal uncle, say) or the best person in your town (the rich farmer with the big house). Your uncle probably had access to the same agricultural know-how as your father, though perhaps he was more attentive than your father or incorporated a few insights of his own.

…

When newly married couples set up their own households—which they often did because the Church promoted neolocal residence—they could put into practice any tips, techniques, preferences, or motivations they had picked up during their time in this second household. These culturally-transmitted tidbits could have included anything from the use of crop rotation and horse collars to family planning or the centrality of self-restraint in household disputes. The need for newly married couples to set up their own independent households may also have encouraged experimentation. Within their respective domains (plowing, cooking, sewing, etc.), men and women became their own bosses at younger ages.

I'm a stranger here myself: notes on returning to America after twenty years away
by Bill Bryson
Published 6 Jun 2000

What was understood, and very much appreciated, was that crop rotation transformed agricultural fortunes dramatically. Moreover, because more animals lived through the winter, they produced heaps of additional manure, and these glorious, gratis ploppings enriched the soil even further. It is hard to exaggerate what a miracle all this seemed. Before the eighteenth century, agriculture in Britain lurched from crisis to crisis. An academic named W. G. Hoskins calculated (in 1964) that between 1480 and 1700, one harvest in four was bad, and almost one in five was catastrophically bad. Now, thanks to the simple expedient of crop rotation, agriculture was able to settle into a continuous, more or less reliable prosperity.

Let them eat junk: how capitalism creates hunger and obesity
by Robert Albritton
Published 31 Mar 2009

It could be argued that this invention was 58 L E T T H E M E AT J U N K important to the petrochemical revolution, and it is certainly the case that it eventually revolutionized agriculture. For after World War II, nitrogen fertilizers started to be used by farmers to dramatically increase their yields. The use of chemical fertilizers meant that crop rotation or leaving land fallow was no longer necessary, and that lands of very marginal fertility could be used for agriculture. The impact was such that recent scholars have written metaphorically of an agriculture that used land to convert petroleum into food. The resulting food commodities, then, can be referred to as “petrofoods”.24 Indeed, as time has passed our food has become more and more petroleum-intense, as it has taken more and more calories of petroleum to produce one calorie of food.

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But the cost of the home, the car, the television and all the other consumer durables needed to stock a single-family dwelling meant increasingly that both parents (in the still predominant dual-parent family) needed to work in order to pay off the increasing private indebtedness, which went from $73 billion in the early 1950s to $196 billion in the late 1950s.62 This created a need for convenience foods (typically more highly processed) and eventually for fast foods.63 Beyond the old standbys like Spam and corned beef hash, an early innovation in the area of convenience foods was the TV dinner. Since these frozen dinners only needed to be heated in the oven and could easily be eaten in front of the television, they made it possible to eat without missing any television. In agriculture the profits associated with homogenization often meant a move towards monocultures. Crop rotation, interplanting, green manure crops and returning organic matter to the soil, all of which preserved the fertility of the soil and foiled pests, could be dispensed with in favour of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as well as large combines for one type of crop. Farmers would generally gravitate to the breed of seed with the greatest yield, thus reducing the species of the particular type of crop.

Ten Technologies to Save the Planet: Energy Options for a Low-Carbon Future
by Chris Goodall
Published 1 Jan 2010

Conventional agriculture, both in developed and developing countries, does not emphasize the long-term maintenance of soil quality and the retention of soil carbon. This attitude has to change, both to increase food productivity and to prevent climate change. The agricultural practices in fifty years’ time will probably involve much more crop rotation (alternating different crops so as not to deplete the soil) and the mixing of different crops in the same field, combining plants grown for their energy value with those grown for food. The perfectly understandable push to increase food yields at almost any cost over the last few decades has produced monocultures that are highly susceptible to losses from disease and from pests.

…

These aspects of organic farming all put pressure on the world’s limited stock of high-quality farmland, increasing the incentives to cut down forests. However, organic farming also has substantial advantages. For example, it helps reduce nitrous oxide emissions because it avoids using artificial fertilizers. And the long crop rotations probably help restore the soil carbon losses caused by frequent plowing. The point I want to make is not that organic farming is bad but rather that zero-till techniques may be better at simultaneously providing high yields of foodstuffs and maintaining soil carbon levels. As a result of the large advantages zero-till farming offers on most soils, a large percentage of total arable land in some parts of the world has now been converted to zero-till cultivation.

The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind
by Jan Lucassen
Published 26 Jul 2021

Improving agricultural yields and urbanization in Europe The catching-up of Europe and India in relation to the Middle East and China began with an improvement in food supplies, initially as a result of larger agricultural yields.202 One of the first improvements we find, starting around 900 CE, is the transition from the two-field to the much more intensive three-field system. The three-field crop rotation system allowed for production on the same piece of arable land over a period of a year, with spring crops, such as barley, oats and leguminous crops (sown in spring, and harvested in summer or autumn), followed by a fallow period, then, in the next year, a third period of winter grain, mainly bread-grains like wheat or rye (sown in autumn or early winter and harvested in early summer), and then a fourth period of fallow, after which the same sequence started anew. Under the previous two-field crop rotation system, spring grains were planted in the first year, while the second year was fallow, followed by winter grains in the third year, and so on.

…

Under the previous two-field crop rotation system, spring grains were planted in the first year, while the second year was fallow, followed by winter grains in the third year, and so on. In both systems, fallow periods were necessary for the recovery of the soil, but, under the three-field crop rotation system, the addition of leguminous crops among the spring crops had the same function due to their capacity to fix nitrogen from the air and thus fertilize the soil. Moreover, cattle could be penned on fallow fields, also enriching the ground with manure. This shift to the new three-field rotation system substantially increased productivity per hectare (of course, provided that sufficient human and animal power was available).

…

Was the decline of slavery then a result of this? By no means: it was much more probably a cause, leading to a technical revolution, which was destined in its turn – we need hardly say – to have powerful repercussions on the structure of society’.203 Although it is difficult to disentangle cause and consequence in this shift of crop rotation systems, the final results become clear after a few centuries, as the average yield ratios (the ratio between grain seeded and harvested) rose substantially. France and England took the lead, certainly after 1250, with production gains of 60 to 70 per cent, later followed by the Low Countries.

The Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update
by Donella H. Meadows , Jørgen Randers and Dennis L. Meadows
Published 15 Apr 2004

(Sources: UN, FRB, FAO, G.M. Higgins et al.) In many areas soil is not eroding, land is not being abandoned, and agricultural chemicals do not pollute land and water. Farming methods that conserve and enhance soils-such as terracing, contour plowing, composting, cover cropping, polyculture, and crop rotation-have been known and used for centuries. Other methods particularly applicable in the tropics, such as alley cropping and agroforestry, are being demonstrated in experiment stations and on farms.22 On farms of all types, in both temperate and tropic zones, high yields are obtained sustainably without large applications of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, often without any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.

…

Insulating plastic foam is now injected with other gases; hamburgers are wrapped in paper or cardboard, not CFC-containing plastic; environmentally conscious consumers use washable ceramic coffee cups instead of throwaway plastic ones. Growers of cut flowers in Colombia discovered they could practice integrated pest management instead of sterilizing soil with methyl bromide. Kenyan farmers started using carbon dioxide instead of methyl bromide to fumigate stored grains. Zimbabwean tobacco growers tried crop rotation instead of methyl bromide. A UNEP study concluded that 90 percent of methyl bromide use could be replaced with other pest control measures, often at reduced cost. The Moral of the Story A report by 350 scientists from 35 nations, coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization in 1999 gives the consensus view about prospects for the ozone layer.

Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives
by Tim Harford
Published 3 Oct 2016

A third psychological benefit is that each project in the network of enterprises provides an escape from the others. In truly original work, there will always be impasses and blind alleys. Having another project to turn to can prevent a setback from turning into a crushing experience. The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard called this “crop rotation.” One cannot use the same field to grow the same crop indefinitely; eventually the soil must be refreshed, by planting something new, or simply taking a break.36 Gruber and Davis observe that a dead end in one project can actually feel liberating. If one business model founders, an entrepreneur can pivot to something fresh.

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See Heart attacks Cortés, Hernán, 34 Costco, 126 Crandall, Christian, 53–54 Creativity, 1–5, 7–32, 47, 76, 83, 259, 264 collaborative, 7–9, 20–22, 30–32, 41, 45, 58, 260 distractions and disturbances as source of, 9–19 improvisation and, 1–4, 95–101, 108–11, 114–15 project-switching approach to, 23–30 workplace design intended to foster, 69–73, 80, 87, 88 Crichton, Michael, 25 Crop rotation, 28 Cross-fertilization, 214n Crump, Dave, 244 Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 26 Cuba, 34 Cubicles, workspace, 64, 69, 72, 84 Cummings, Mary “Missy,” 200 Cushing, Robert, 217 Customer service, 101–5, 110, 184, 258 Cyclists, 13, 58, 203–4 Czerny, Carl, 109 Darwin, Charles, 27 Dating websites, 243–51, 255, 256 Davis, Erin, 261 Davis, Miles, 95–98, 100, 105, 110, 112, 257, 264 Davis, Sara, 27, 29 de Botton, Alain, 62 de Vann, Mathijs, 40–41, 57, 58 Death and Life of Great American Cities, The (Jacobs), 212–13 Decision making, 134, 166, 192, 194 Decision trees, 167 Declaration of Independence, 232, 234 Deepwater Horizon disaster, 168 Dementia, 106–7 Denmark, 259 Detroit, 214 Devo, 17n Diamond, Jared, 263–64 Diemand-Yauman, Connor, 22 Difference, The (Page), 48 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), 76 Dilbert cartoons, 71 Dilnot, Andrew, 172, 279n24 Dioula, 120n Disclosure (Crichton), 25 Disruptions, 5, 39, 52, 218 conversational, 255, 258 creative responses to, 12–14, 18–20 Distractions, 4–5, 64, 200–201 blocking out, 4, 15–16, 34, 35, 39 creativity and, 16–18, 22, 28, 30 Diversity, 4, 52, 208–18 of cities, 212–15, 217–18, 229 cognitive, 41, 46–50, 58 ecological, 155, 157, 205–7 economic, 215–16 of friendship networks, 54, 56 of microbiome, 208–11 social, suppression of, 227–30 DNA, 25 DNA (band), 17n Dodd-Frank Act (2010), 164 Dragnet (TV show), 44 Dranove, David, 154–55, 158 Drew, Dick, 26, 28 Dubois, Marc, 177–79, 183–86 Duffy, Frank, 70 DuPont, 26 Edgerton, Harold, 75 eHarmony, 250 Eicher, Manfred, 1 Eiduson, Bernice, 24–25 Einstein, Albert, 226 El Alamein, Battle of, 147 Elevator to the Gallows (film), 97n Emancipation Proclamation, 92 Emmy Awards, 26 Empowerment, workplace, 66–67, 72, 84, 86 Eno, Brian, 8–10, 14–17, 19–23, 28, 157, 202.

Grow Green: Tips and Advice for Gardening With Intention
by Jen Chillingsworth
Published 31 Mar 2021

In the organic garden, prevention is key: look after your soil as healthy, fertile growing conditions help plants to thrive and diseases to wane. Give plants room to breathe as good air flow helps to prevent disease. Choose plants that work with your soil type as those that struggle to thrive will be more susceptible to pests and diseases. Keep your plants well-watered and avoid over-fertilizing. Crop rotation is also vital in preventing pests and diseases from taking hold, so rotate annual vegetable crops each growing season. Choose pest- and disease-resistant varieties for planting. Be vigilant; check netting is securely fixed and that there are no holes. After periods of rainfall, check traps and barriers for slugs and snail invasions.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson
Published 8 Sep 2010

What was understood, and very much appreciated, was that crop rotation transformed agricultural fortunes dramatically. Moreover, because more animals lived through the winter, they produced heaps of additional manure, and these glorious, gratis ploppings enriched the soil even further. It is hard to exaggerate what a miracle all this seemed. Before the eighteenth century, agriculture in Britain lurched from crisis to crisis. An academic named W. G. Hoskins calculated (in 1964) that between 1480 and 1700, one harvest in four was bad, and almost one in five was catastrophically bad. Now, thanks to the simple expedient of crop rotation, agriculture was able to settle into a continuous, more or less reliable prosperity.

Arrival City
by Doug Saunders
Published 22 Mar 2011

Other reports have blamed the financial cost and declining productivity of genetically engineered crops and the commercial fertilizers they require. But the problem predates these technologies and is rooted in more basic costs of modern agriculture. Soil exhaustion has become almost universal: The over-fertilization and lack of crop rotation caused by the application of Green Revolution techniques to unsustainably small crops, without proper knowledge, has turned the huge yields of a decade before into a permanent famine. The farmers here have watched their crop yields plummet over the past decade and their expenses rise. Desperation, indebtedness, and suicide are the result.

…

Beginning as early as the sixteenth century, but transformed into an almost universal practice in England and northwestern Europe between 1750 and 1870, farming became a high-productivity business by means of several innovations: large-scale drainage, irrigation, and use of fertilizers; new technology, such as steel tills, seed drills, and threshers; better animal feed and selective breeding; crop rotation, buoyed by new fallow and fodder crops; and high-yield food crops, like potatoes, turnips, and sugar beets. In many ways the perfect complement to Europe’s population boom, high farming required far more labor per hectare, sometimes by a factor of three, and therefore increased rural employment; it also produced many times more food, ending the Malthusian trap in which the land had seemed insufficient to support a growing population and making its host countries far less vulnerable to food shortages and famines.

Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love
by Simran Sethi
Published 10 Nov 2015

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates over one-third of all soils are degraded, meaning they are eroded, compacted, polluted or less fertile.41 This is due to a changing climate and the relentless pressure we put on our land; heavy-tillage agriculture with limited, if any, crop rotation is one of our biggest problems. According to the 2015 Soil Atlas, “We are using the world’s soils as if they were inexhaustible, continually withdrawing from an account, but never paying in.”42 We are wearing the soil out. It’s impossible to grow good food in bad soil. Unless we extend our cares about food all the way down to roots in the soil, our global, per person amount of productive agricultural land, by 2050, will be one-fourth of what it was in 1960.43 “The Earth’s ‘skin’ is not one soil, but many soils—each with its own story,” Smithsonian experts tell us.

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AGRICULTURAL SHIFTS •Consolidation of food and agricultural supply chains •Reduced and/or changing political clout and lobbying power of the agricultural sector •Decrease in extension programs and other educational support services for farmers •Replacement of heirloom and landrace crops with HYV seeds and breeds (such as hybrids, crossbred varieties) and transgenic (genetically engineered) crops that are not adapted to local habitats and/or are infertile, do not render true, and/or are patented, therefore increasing dependence on commercialized plant and animal resources •Preference for high-output and/or single-productivity traits in varieties and breeds, which replaces diverse landraces in breeding programs and cultivation •“Path dependence”—a construct in which decisions on future crops are determined by a small pool of currently commercialized crops (e.g., food and agricultural choices in developing countries are determined by choices in more developed ones)1 •Emphasis on improving only one or a few breeds, varieties or species through genetic technologies •Breeding programs and methods that prioritize “genetic response,” changes in plant or animal populations from one generation to the next, over biodiversity •Emphasis on standard agricultural practices that breed and/or harvest plants and animals uniform in size and shape •Mechanization, resulting in or contributing to: –Erosion of indigenous knowledge and agricultural traditions –Increased size of farms –Homogenization of breeds and crops (monocropping of uniform breeds and varieties, reduction of crop rotation) –Degradation of soil –Reduced use of animal species and breeds for transportation –Increased application or overuse of inputs (including water for irrigation and petrochemicals for fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides) •Expansion of biofuels 3. HABITAT LOSS AND LAND-USE CHANGES •Deforestation •Overgrazing •Conversion of ecosystems •Restrictions on the use of traditional grazing and cropping areas •Large-scale land acquisitions (known as “land grabbing”) •Mining •Logging •Other destruction of natural habitats (due to floods, tsunamis, fires) 4.

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet
by Jeffrey Sachs
Published 1 Jan 2008

Thus, until the rise of agricultural productivity in the eighteenth century in the North Atlantic (England, Holland, Flanders), almost all regions of the world at all times were 90 percent or more rural, with a mere sliver of the population living in the cities. The rise of scientific farming—including modern seed varieties, chemical fertilizers, modern irrigation, mechanization, and innovations in farm management (crop rotations, tillage, pest control, and more)—has enabled a de-cling share of the world’s population to feed all the rest and, therefore, has enabled a rising share of the world to live in cities. From less than 10 percent in 1800, the urban share rose to around 13 percent in 1900, 29 percent in 1950, 47 percent in 2000, and 50 percent in 2007.

…

In addition to the exchange of crops, other crucial technologies supported the expansion of the human population. Better plows after about AD 1000 allowed Europeans to settle the heavy soils of Northern Europe, which centuries earlier had posed a barrier to the expansion of the Roman Empire. Better axes allowed the felling of thick forests. Newly applied crop rotations, such as rotating nitrogen-fixing legumes and alfalfa with grass crops, allowed the restoration of nitrogen in soils and thereby a higher average crop yield. Other advances included improved irrigation, transport, water power, wind power, cookstoves, and cloth making. Human populations tended to expand to the carrying capacity of each ecological niche.

Extreme Economies: Survival, Failure, Future – Lessons From the World’s Limits
by Richard Davies
Published 4 Sep 2019

And it is hard to question Mr Lepp’s motives as he sets out his case: Click and Grow recently opened an operation in the US, a country where a staggering 40 per cent of food is lost or wasted through transportation and storage. As well as being local, growing food in your home requires 40 times less water than farmland does and no pesticides. Hundreds of years after the crop rotation system and the threshing machine, there are clearly still big gains to be made from getting farming right. A related fear for our economic future is that while the quantity of jobs may hold up, their quality will be eroded: robots will do all the valuable work, while humans will be left doing repetitive, dull and cheap tasks.

…

Abercrombie, Sir Patrick 203 Aceh 2–39, 10, 331, 332, 333, 334, 335 ‘building back better’ 24–5, 29–31, 42 civil war 32–3 education 13, 31 financial system 20–22 history 17–18 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) 32, 33 tsunami 2–3, 6, 12–14, 15, 16, 18–19, 23 ageing populations 6, 212–49, 331 agglomeration see industrial agglomeration AI see artificial intelligence Akita, Japan 212–49 ageing population/ low birth rate 7, 213–25, 227–49, 331 suicides 225–6 Allende, Salvador 296–8, 301 amoral familism 196, 202 Anglo-Dutch wars 25 Angola: Kongo people 83 Angola (Louisiana penitentiary) 5, 76–104, 331, 335, Angolite, The 80 Argentina 110, 144, 291, 303 Arkwright, Richard 267 Arrol, Sir William 191 artificial intelligence (AI) 245, 268–9, 270, 284, 286, 287, 378 automation: and job losses 253 see also technology Azraq refugee camp 57–67, 71, 72, 144, 334, 340, 348–9 Bajo Chiquito, Panama 106, 108–9, 1112, 133, 136, 139 Banda Aceh 13, 16, 18, 20, 26–7, 34–5 Bandal, Kinshasa 144, 162 Bandudu, Congo 164, 165 banks 97, 99 in Aceh 19, 21, 22 Chilean 296, 297, 302 in Kinshasa/ Congo 151, 158 online 99, 278 Panamanian 131 Barbour, Mary 203, 366 barter economy, prison 89–90 Bevan, Aneurin 201 birth rates, falling 215–16, 226–7, 233, 247 Blockbuster Video 97 blood circulation (William Harvey) 3–4 borders: and conservation of common resources 126–7 Borland, Francis: History of Darien 107 Brazil: ageing population 213, 214 Brazzaville, Congo 174–5 Bruce, Robert 203 Brumberg, Richard 218 buccaneers and Darien 112–14 business start-up rates 54 Calabria, negative social integration 195–6 Calton, Glasgow 179, 190, 191, 192 Cambridge University 26, 182 Cameron, Verney Lovett 141, 143, 149 cannabinoids, synthetic 93–4, 95–6, 352 cartels, Chilean 321–3 Casement, Roger: on Congo Free State 150 cash vs. barter 89–90 Castro, Fidel 298 Castro, Sergio de 301 centenarians, Japanese 215, 216 Chesterton, George Laval 77 Chicago Boys 294–5, 296, 300, 301, 314, 325 El Ladrillo (economic plan) 301–5, 315–16, 317, 323–4, 325–6 protests against 305, 317 Chile Allende period 296–8, 301 education 294, 295, 302, 304–5, 310, 311–12, 312, 313–17, 318, 324, 326, 327 national income 291–3 nationalization 296–7 Pinochet dictatorship 298, 300–1, 305, 322, 383 tsunami 15 see also Chicago Boys ‘Chilean Winter’ 317–18 Clyde shipyards 178–9, 181, 183–4, 185 Cold Bath Fields prison 91 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 113 Colombian peace accord (2016) 111, 134 common resources and conservation 124–5 depletion paradox 122–39 overgrazed land 122–3 and self-regulation 125, 126–8 Confucian ethics 220 Congo, Democratic Republic of ‘Crisis’ 151–8 GDP per capita 153, 173 independence (1960) 151 unemployment 142–3 see also Kinshasa; Mobutu, Sese Seko; Zaire consumerism as slavery 319 copper mining 143, 151, 156, 296, 323–4 corruption 133 in Kinshasa 143, 145–6, 148, 159–61, 168, 333, 361 credit: and poverty 308–10 Crompton, Samuel 267 crop rotation 279 Cunard Line 185 currencies cacao beans 91 cigarette papers 91 cigarettes/tobacco 92, 95 coffee 77, 96, 100 commodities 90–91 ‘dot’ payment system 97–100 dual-currency system 166–7 ‘EMAK’ (edible mackerel) 92 postage stamps 92 in prisons 91–101 ramen noodles 92 roles played (Jevons) 90 on Rossel Island 91 salt 91 Yoruk people 91 Cut Nyak Dhien 35 Dael, Syria: refugees 42–4 Dagahaley settlement, Kenya 45, 46 Dampier, William 113, 114 Daraa: and Syrian civil war 44 Darien Gap 6, 106, 107–39, 332, 333, 334 borders and common resource conservation 126–7 buccaneers’ accounts 112–14 eco-tourism 132 environmental damage 6, 120–21, 129–31 ethnic rivalry 126–8 externalities 131, 138, 183, 186, 332 illegal immigrants 132–7 market failure 109–10, 122–3, 129, 138 Scottish disaster 114–15, 133, 137–8 Darien National Park 126, 132 deaths lonely 225, 226, 236, 237, 248 premature (‘Glasgow effect’) 192–3 suicide 194, 213, 224, 225–6, 236, 248, 366 see also life expectancy digital divide 254, 281, 377 digital ID 277, 279 digital infrastructure, Estonian 259 drugs in Angola (prison) 81, 82, 88, 93–4, 95–6, 97, 99, 100, 101, 352 in Chile 306, 310, 322 in Darien 110, 111, 128, 134, 135 in Scotland 191–2, 193 in Tallinn 206 Dunlop, John Boyd 150 Durkheim, Emile: La Suicide 194, 196, 206 e-democracy (Estonia) 284, 287 e-Residency (Estonia) 277–8, 279, 283, 287, 379 education in Aceh 13, 31 in Chile/Santiago 295, 302, 304–5, 310, 311–12, 312, 313–17, 326, 327 in Italy 195 in Japan 220, 223, 229 in Louisiana 81 in Zaatari camp 67, 71, 349 see also universities Embera tribe 108, 109, 111, 119, 127, 128, 129, 133, 136, 137, 138–9, 357 entrepreneurs 331 in Aceh 19, 22, 23, 24, 27, 30, 39 in Akita, Japan 236–7, 238 in Angola (prison) 89, 102–3 Chilean 295, 296 in Darien 5, 114 Estonian 270, 275, 278–9, 281 in Glasgow 181, 182 in Kinshasa 162, 171 in Zaatari camp 43, 46, 54, 55–8, 62–3, 71 environmental damage see Darien Gap Estonia 256–7, 259 Ajujaht competition 252, 260, 275, 276, 278, 283–3 companies 281 economic revival 275–87 e-Government services 254–5 as ESSR 257–9, 272–4 labour shortage 280 Russia border 271–2 Russian population 272–4, 281–3 technology 252–6, 259–87 externalities 183, 206 Darien Gap 131, 138, 183, 186, 332 Glasgow 183–4, 186, 189–90, 333 and markets 332 extractive economy 122–39 Fairfield Heritage 349 Fairfield shipyard 178, 186, 189, 200, 206 FARC guerrillas 111, 132, 133, 134–5, 137, 355, 357 Ffrench-Davis, Ricardo 302 Foljambe, Joseph 265–6 Force Publique 150 foreign aid 23, 27–9, 54, 170 foreign exchange traders 166–7 Franklin, Isaac 83 free markets 128, 131, 174, 296, 300–3, 316, 320, 326–7, 331–2, 356 Frente Amplio coalition 318, 384 Friedman, Milton 289, 295, 303, 319, 326, 383, 384 GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) freedom fighters 18, 32, 346 Gbadolite 159 GDP see Gross Domestic Product Gécamines 155–6 Geddes, Reay: report 189–90 gender roles, Japanese 223–4, 232 Germany 187, 195, 222, 227, 247, 249, 292, 302, 360 Glasgow 6–7, 176, 177–207, 333 culture 180 drug users 191–2 externalities 183–4, 186, 189–90, 333 population density 197 shipbuilding 178–9, 181, 184–6, 187–8, 189, 190–91, 199–200, 206–7, 333, 334 tenement homes and social capital 196, 197–202, 205, 335 unemployment 190 see also Calton; Gorbals; Govan and below Glasgow City Council (GCC) 202–4 Glasgow City Improvement Trust 202–3, 366 ‘Glasgow effect’, isolation 205–6 Glassford, John 181 Glenlee 179 gold in Aceh 17, 20–22, 37, 332, 334 in the Congo 143 in Darien 109, 113, 117, 120, 356 Golden Island 114–15 Good Neighbor Policy (USA) 294, 383 Goodyear, Charles 150 Gorbals, Glasgow 176, 191, 192, 204, 205, 367 Govan, Glasgow 176, 178, 184, 186, 192, 197–8, 201–3, 206, 207 Great Depression 26 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 26 Aceh 27, 37–8 Chile 316 Congo 153, 173 Estonia 259 Hagadera refugee camp, Kenya 45 Han, Byung-Chul 319 Harberger, Arnold ‘Alito’ 295, 305, 326 Hargreaves, James 266, 267 Harris, Walter 115 Harvey, William 1, 3–4, 5, 6, 329, 330, 336 Heinla, Ahti 263–4, 268, 282, 284, 285 Hinohara, Shigeaki 211 housing 90 Aceh 12–13, 16, 19, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29–30, 26, 38, 39 Akita, Japan 223, 228, 229, 230, 232, 233, 236–7, 239, 248 Azraq and Zaatari camps 44, 45, 48, 54, 55, 59, 61, 63, 70, 71 Chile 296, 297, 300, 302, 204, 306, 207, 308, 326 Darien 118, 139 Glasgow 197–9, 202–6 Kinshasa 142 Louisiana 95, 102 human capital 38–9, 168, 305, 335, 346–7 human rights abuses 300–1 Hyakumoto, Natsue 235 ID cards, personal data 260–61 Ifo refugee camp, Kenya 45 incarceration rates, USA 76–7, 78 industrial agglomeration 182–6, 200, 206, 330–31, 333, 365 inequality 6, 18, 254, 331, 337 in Chile 6, 291–2, 292, 293, 297, 298, 304, 308, 311, 317, 318, 324–7 intergenerational (Japan) 221–3, 238, 248 informal economies 122–5, 214–15, 331, 333–4, 336 Aceh 21–2, 24, 30, 31, 34, 37 Akita 233, 248 Chile 297, 306–7, 310, 323 Darien 122, 128, 129 Estonia 258 and Glasgow 204, 206, 334 Italy 196, 336 Kinshasa 142, 146, 148, 163–6, 167–8, 170, 173–5, 334 in prisons 77, 78–9, 86–7, 91, 93, 96, 99, 100–1, 102 in Zaatari camp 43, 45, 47, 57, 61, 64, 71, 72, 86 Innophys 245 innovation in Chile 315 and currency 97, 99–100 and economies 43, 79, 80, 87, 100, 122, 162, 333, 334 in Estonia 252, 256–7, 258–87 in Glasgow 179, 180, 182, 185, 188, 192, 201 technological 97–8, 183, 187, 252, 256–7, 258–87 intergenerational inequality (Japan) 221–3, 238, 248 International African Association (IAA) 149 International Cooperation Administration (ICA) 294 International Monetary Fund 303 inventions 265–6 in Estonia 252–3, 260, 265, 275–6, 282–3 isolation, ‘Glasgow effect’ 205–6 Italy 195–6, 201, 202, 335–6, 366 ageing population 213, 220, 222, 243, 331 population decline 227, 230, 233, 249 ivory trade 149 Jackie Chan Village 35–7, 39 Jackson, Giorgio 317–20 Jadue, Daniel 322, 332 Japan ageing population 6, 213–25, 227–49, 331 common forest conservation 124, 125 education 220, 223, 229 shipyards innovation/ competition 187–8, 189 tsunamis 15 Japan Football Association (JFA) 212–13 Jendi, Mohammed 54–5, 56, 71 Jevons, William Stanley 75, 89–90, 99, 352 Kabila family 154, 161, 162, 173 Kajiwara, Kenji 238 Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya 45 Kalanick, Travis 57 Kasa-Vubu, Joseph 151 Katanga 143, 151 Katumba refugee camp, Tanzania 45 Kenya: refugee camps 45, 46 Keynes, John Maynard 5, 7 Kinshasa 6, 140, 141–75, corruption 143, 145–6, 148, 159–61, 168, 333, 361 informal economy 142, 146, 148, 163, 166, 167–8, 170, 173, 334 natural wealth 143 pillages 157–8 police 159–61 roads as informal markets 163–6 tax system 145–6, 147–8, 16 Kirkaldy, David 4, 5, 6, 330 Kuala Lumpur 293 Kuna tribe 126, 340 Laar, Mart 258 labour pools, industrial agglomeration 183, 184–5, 200 Ladrillo, El see Chicago Boys Lagos 293 Lampuuk 2–3, 6, 13, 14, 22–3, 26, 32, 33, 35, 37, 345 Lancashire 266, 267 Las Condes 288, 290, 293, 304, 306, 307, 308, 309, 321, 322, 325 Lasnamäe, Tallinn 272, 281 Le Corbusier: Cité radieuse 203 Leontief, Wassily: Machines and Man 251, 377 Leopold II, King of the Belgians 149–50 Lhokgna 10, 12–13, 14, 26, 27–8, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 38, 345 life-cycle hypothesis 218–19, 248 life expectancy Glasgow 179, 190, 191–3 Japan 215 Russia 273–4 Swaziland 179 Lima 293 Liverpool 89, 177, 192, 193, 205–6 Livingstone, David 148–9 Lloyd, William Forster 122–3 lonely deaths 225, 226, 236, 237, 248 Louisiana 74, 76, 81 Department of Public Safety and Corrections 83 Prison Enterprises 83–4, 85, 351 State Penitentiary see Angola Lüders, Rolf 293, 295, 304, 305, 325 Lumumba, Patrice 151 machine learning 268–70 Makarova, Marianna 272, 274 Malacca Strait 10, 17,. 18, 35, 39 Malahayati, Admiral Laksamana 34–5 Maluku steel mill, Kinshasa 155, 156–7 Manchester 192, 193, 205–6 market economies Chile 297, 302, 305, 317 prison 78, 79, 87, 89, 100, 101, 103 markets 71, 122, 332–3, 336 Aceh 20–22, 36–7, 38, 144, 331 Azraq camp 62–4, 71, 144 Chile 295, 296, 297, 298–9, 304, 309, 319, 320–23 Darien 122, 126–7, 128, 129, 131, 138 free 128, 131, 174, 296, 300–3, 316, 320, 326–7, 331–2, 356 Glasgow 181, 190 Japan 232, 233, 248, 249 Kinshasa 143, 145, 146–7, 162, 163–6, 167, 173, 174 Zaatari supermarkets 48–53, 64, 348 Marshall, Alfred 182–3, 184, 185, 186, 187, 189, 190, 194, 200, 206, 329, 330, 365 Maslow, Abraham 41, 65–7, 68, 71, 72, 286, 319, 326, 349 Meikle, Andrew 266 Melvin, Jean 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 205 ménage lending system 201, 334 Menger, Carl 90, 99, 352 Michelin brothers 150 military coup, Pinochet’s 298 Mill, John Stuart 11, 38, 335, 346–7 minimum wages 94, 267, 296, 307–8, 310 Mishamo refugee camp, Tanzania 45 Mississippi River 74, 76 Mobutu, Sese Seko (formerly Joseph-Désiré) 141, 151–2, 154–9, 161, 162, 166, 173, 297, 333, 360–61 Modigliani, Franco 218–19, 372 Mojo (synthetic cannabis) 92–4, 95–6, 97 monopolies, facilitated 319 Montgomery, Hugh 3–4 Moore, Gordon 269 Morgan, Henry 112–13 Narva, Estonia 250, 271, 272, 274, 283, 287, 378 National Health Service 201–2 nationalization 187, 296, 301–2, 383 natural disasters: and economic growth 24–5 New Caledonia 114, 356 New Orleans 74, 76, 79, 93, 101, 102, 103 Ninagawa, Yukio 234–5 norms, economics and 196, 200, 201, 323, 334, 336 obesity 81, 309, 326, 351 opportunism: and depletion of common resources 126–38 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 291, 316, 326, 377 Ostrom, Elinor 123–5, 137 Pan-American Highway 106, 110, 111, 115–17, 118–19, 121, 139, 355 Panama 106, 108-9, 110, 111, 113, 117, 118, 121, 130, 131, 356–7 see also Darien Gap; FARC guerrillas Panian refugee camp, Pakistan 45 Paro robot 243–5 Paterson, William: A Proposal to Plant a Colony in Darien 107 pawn shops 200, 334, 367 Penguins’ Revolution 317 pepper: global boom 17, 345 Pepper robot 246–7 personal data 260–61 Petty, William 25–6, 38n, 346 Piñera, Sebastián 309 Pinochet, General Augustine 298, 300–1, 305, 322, 383 pirate economies see informal economies population 122, 125, 330, 347 Aceh 14, 16, 18 Chile/Santiago 291, 324 China 76 Congo/Kinshasa 143, 150 Dael 42 Darien Gap 126, 128 Estonia 255, 256, 265, 272 Glasgow 179, 197 Greece 238 Japan 226–7, 229 Portugal 238 refugee camps 44, 45, 49, 57, 348 Sweden 238 US prisons 76–7 see also ageing populations Portugal 213, 227, 230, 233, 238, 243, 249, 291, 331, 351, 360 poverty Chile 291, 293, 300, 301, 303–4, 305, 208, 311. 15. 326 Congo/Kinshasa 143, 144, 160, 169, 11, 173 Glasgow 192 Italy 195 Japan 220, 226, 233, 248 Louisiana 81, 351 prices 147–8, 302 Pride of York 207 Prisoner’s Dilemma 174 privatization 169, 173, 301–2, 315, 326, 361 Pugnido refugee camp, Ethiopia 45 Putnam, Robert 195–6, 201, 202, 335–6, 366 Rahmatullah mosque, Aceh 14 rainforest destruction 121, 128–31 Rand, Rait 260, 275–6, 283, 284 Red Road Estate, Glasgow 203 refugee camps 45, 46, 55, 173 see also Azraq; Zaatari Reid, Alexander 180 resilience 3, 5, 6, 13, 16, 22, 31, 34, 35–9, 78, 103, 109, 122, 123, 146, 170, 248, 293, 325, 333–7, 384 Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia see FARC Rideau, Wilbert 79–80, 82, 87–8, 100, 351 Rio Chucunaque 117, 119 robotics/ robots and care 243–4, 245–7, 248 delivery robots 262–4 for egalitarian economies 284–5 human overseers/ minders 280 ‘last-mile problem’ 264 machine learning 268–70 Sony AIBO robotic dogs 245 trams, driverless 264 Roosevelt, Franklin D. 294, 356 rosewood trees 120, 128, 138 rubber trade 149–50 Russian-Estonians 272–4, 281–4, 286–7 salarymen, retired 223–4, 228, 248 Samuel, Arthur 269 Santiago 7, 288, 289–327 see also Chile schools/ schooling markets 165, 311–15 Scotland Darien disaster 114–15, 133, 137–8 see also Glasgow self-governance 125–8 shipbuilding 178–9, 181, 184–6, 187–8, 189–91, 199–200 Sikkut, Siim 259, 277, 284 Skype 254, 263, slavery 82–6 smuggling 42, 46–8, 68 social capital 195–6, 199, 200, 202, 323, 325, 335–6, 366 social inequality 142–3, 324–5 Somalia 15 South Korea 213, 214, 220, 227, 233, 247, 319, 373 Spain 115, 137, 213, 222, 227, 243, 331 Spice (synthetic cannabis) 352 Spice Islands 17 Spiers, Alexander 181 Spinning Jenny 267, 269, 274, 378 Sri Lanka 15, 17, 49 Stanley, Henry Morton 148–9 Stanyforth, Disney 266 Starship Technologies 262–4, 269, 280 stateless people 255 store cards, prepaid 97–8 students 81, 168, 218, 221, 223, 236–7, 238, 248, 282, 283, 294–5, 304–5, 311–14, 315–18 suicide 194, 213, 224, 225–6, 236, 248, 366 Sumatra 17-18, see also Aceh supermarkets, Zaatari 48–53, 64, 348 Swing Riots 266, 378 synthetic cannabis see Mojo; Spice Takahashi, Kiyoshi 235, 236 Tallinn 7, 250, 251–87 Russian population 272–4, 281–4, 286–7 start-up paradise 254 Tallinn, Harry 278, 282–3 Tanzania: refugee camps 45 taxation 25, 346 Aceh 32 Chile 295, 302, 307, 315–17, 325 Darien 111, 130 Estonia 256–7, 259, 273, 278, 287 Glasgow 190 Japan 220, 231 Kinshasa 145–6, 147–8, 151, 152, 158, 161–2, 165, 167–8, 169, 173–4 in Zaatari refugee camp 48, 56 Tay Bridge collapse 5 teak trees 116, 130–31, 138, 333, 356, 357 technology and inequality 253–4 innovation 97–8, 183, 187, 256–7, 258–9 spill-overs 183, 189 and unemployment 253, 262, 270, 279, 286, 287, 377, 379 tectonic plates 13–14 tenement buildings, Glaswegian 196, 197–202, 205, 335 Thailand 15, 144, 213 tobacco 77, 85–6, 92, 95, 100, 143, 156, 181, 191, 202, 365 Tomaya, Yoichi 235 Törbel, Switzerland: forest conservation 124 towerblocks 203, 204, 205 trade in prison 97–100 in Zaatari camp 43–57, 67–70 see also markets traditions, economic resilience and 21, 22, 24, 34, 196, 336 trust 148, 150, 174, 196, 199, 201, 206, 248, 261, 295, 321, 323, 325, 335 Tshisekedi, Félix 154 tsunamis 2–3, 12–14, 15, 16, 18–19, 22–3, 25 Tull, Jethrow 266 Turkey 28, 58, 144, 213 Uber 57 Ukegawa, Sachiko 234 underground economies 77–9, 87–101 see also informal economies unemployment 64–5, 142–3, 190, 275 Chile 290, 297, 302, 307, 311 Congo 142, 359 Estonia 270, 273, 275, 279, 283, 379 Glasgow 179, 190, 191 and technology 253, 262, 270, 279, 286, 287, 377, 379 United Kingdom 4, 18, 26, 181, 187, 188, 199, 213, 223, 278, 335 agriculture 265, 267 housing 232 jails 86, 91, 96, 352 National Health Service 201, 203 population 226 and technology 253, 254, 257, 260, 262, 264 see also Glasgow; Scotland United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 44, 46, 48, 54, 57, 72, 348 World Food Programme (WFP), and Zaatari 48, 49–50 universities Aceh 13, 33, 34 Akita, Japan 221, 223 Chile 294, 305, 313, 314, 315, 316–17, 318, 324, 326 Congo/Kinshasa 151, 160, 166, 168 Estonia 275, 282, 283 Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) 189 urbanization: and agglomeration forces 330–31 United States 26, 54, 76, 83, 93, 213, 223, 253, 262, 279, 292, 294, 297–8 prisons 76–7, 78, 81, 91–2, see also Angola population 226 and technology 260, 262, 264, 267, 269, 276 USAID 28, 29 Valdez, Samuel 121, 128–9, 130 Vallejo, Camila 317–18, 384 Van Gogh, Vincent 180 Vatter, Ott 277, 278 Viik, Linnar 257, 258–60, 261–2 Wafer, Lionel 113–14, 134, 355 Waisbluth, Mario 313 Walpole, Sir Spencer: A History of England 177 Walsh, David: History, Politics and Vulnerability … 177 Watanabe, Hiroshi 234 wealth 4–5, 159, 218–19, 324–5, 329, 334–6 nation’s 25, 38n, 346–7 natural 109, 132, 143 workforce 184–5, 264–8, 275, 297 World Bank 303, 305, 346 World Health Organization (WHO) 63, 215 World Trade Organization 303 Wounan tribe 126, 127 X-Road data system 261, 274–5, 279, 283, 377 Y Combinator 252 Yamamoto, Ryo 236–7 Yaviza, Panama 110, 111, 116–20, 127, 132, 135, 138, 144, 356 Yida refuge camp, South Sudan 45 Zaatari Syrian refugee camp 6, 40, 41–73, 86, 89, 100, 163, 173, 308, 331, 332, 334, 335, 348, 349 declining population 57 education 67, 71, 349 informal economy 43, 45, 47, 57, 61, 64, 71, 72, 86 smuggler children 42, 46–8, 68 supermarkets 48–53, 64, 348 trade development 43–57, 67–70, 71, 72 UNHCR cedes control 44–6 Zaire 152, 154, 155–6, 159, 361 Zorrones 324 TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS 61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA penguin.co.uk Transworld is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

Automation and the Future of Work
by Aaron Benanav
Published 3 Nov 2020

More often, it is because technical innovations allow firms to overcome long-standing impediments to raising labor productivity in specific industries. Agriculture, for example, was one of the first sectors to be transformed by modern production methods: in the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century English countryside, new forms of animal husbandry on enclosed farms were combined with crop rotation to raise yields. Yet farming remained difficult to mechanize, due to the uneven terrain of fields and seasonal cycles, and for centuries it continued to be a major source of employment.41 In the 1940s, advances in synthetic fertilizers, the hybridization of crops, the mechanization of farming implements, and the development of pesticides finally made it possible to develop industrialized forms of agricultural production and animal husbandry, causing operative logics to shift.42 Labor productivity took off, as farms came to resemble open-air factories.

The Dream of the Iron Dragon
by Robert Kroese
Published 6 Dec 2017

He thinks we know where he can get more guns, or how to make them. And he’s right. Any one of us has enough knowledge in our heads to reshape Europe.” “I’m a biologist,” Slater said. “How do you figure I’m going to reshape Europe?” Gabe ticked off items on his fingers. “Crop rotation. Germ theory. Evolution.” Slater was dubious. “If Vikings torture me for my knowledge of the twenty-third century and I start talking about crop rotation and natural selection, they’re going to cut my head off just to make me stop talking.” “Point is,” Gabe said, “Harald is right, although maybe not in exactly the way he thinks. O’Brien could teach them how to refine iron into steel.

In a Sunburned Country
by Bill Bryson
Published 31 Aug 2000

What was understood, and very much appreciated, was that crop rotation transformed agricultural fortunes dramatically. Moreover, because more animals lived through the winter, they produced heaps of additional manure, and these glorious, gratis ploppings enriched the soil even further. It is hard to exaggerate what a miracle all this seemed. Before the eighteenth century, agriculture in Britain lurched from crisis to crisis. An academic named W. G. Hoskins calculated (in 1964) that between 1480 and 1700, one harvest in four was bad, and almost one in five was catastrophically bad. Now, thanks to the simple expedient of crop rotation, agriculture was able to settle into a continuous, more or less reliable prosperity.

The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis
by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
Published 25 Feb 2020

For most people, the new way has turned out to be a better recipe for happiness. Food production and procurement are a big part of the communal effort. When it became clear we needed to revolutionize industrialized farming, we transitioned quickly to regenerative farming practices, mixing perennial crops, sustainable grazing, and improved crop rotation on large-scale farms, with increased community reliance on small farms.9 Instead of going to a big grocery store for food flown in from hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away, you buy most of your food from small local farmers and producers. Buildings, neighborhoods, and even large extended families form a food purchase group, which is how most people buy their food now.

Collapse
by Jared Diamond
Published 25 Apr 2011

Above all, they are a huge pain in the neck for farmers, because they cannot be controlled by any single measure alone but require complex integrated management systems. They force farmers to change many practices simultaneously: pulling out weeds, applying herbicides, changing fertilizer use, releasing insect and fun-gus enemies of weeds, lighting controlled fires, changing mowing schedules, and altering crop rotations and annual grazing practices. All that because of a few small plants whose dangers were mostly unappreciated at the time, and some of whose seeds arrived unnoticed! Thus, seemingly pristine Montana actually suffers from serious environmental problems involving toxic wastes, forests, soils, water, climate change, biodiversity losses, and introduced pests.

…

They dug ditches around fields to lower the watertable and prevent waterlogging, and transferred the organic muck dug out of those ditches onto the soil surface. Legume food crops that fix atmospheric nitrogen, such as beans, were rotated with other crops—in effect, an independent New Guinean invention of a crop rotation principle now widespread in First World agriculture for maintaining soil nitrogen levels. On steep slopes New Guineans constructed terraces, erected soil retention barriers, and of course removed excess water by the vertical drains that aroused the agronomist's ire. A consequence of their relying on all these specialized methods is that it takes years of growing up in a village to learn how to farm successfully in the New Guinea highlands.

…

I N D E X Aboriginal Australians, 307, 389-90 Mesa Verde site, 136,137,140, 154-55 Adenauer, Konrad, 440 Africa, packrat midden study of, 145-47 slaves from, 334 age of exploration, population of, 141,143, 147,148-49,150 275 agriculture: regional supply network of, 147-50,155 and climate, 141,164 survival of, 155 composting, 281 water management by, 144-45 crop rotation, 281 Anatolia, 180 and deforestation, 108-9,163,176, Andre, Catherine, 320,323,325, 326 382-83,473,487 Angkor Wat, 14 Antei, Miyazaki, 302 and drought, 50,153,366,369,400 Anuta Island, 286 Apollo Gold mine, economics of, 58-60,69, 71,413-14 456 aquaculture, 376,408,483,488 fallow land in, 48 aquifers, 49,52-53, 364 Arawak flexible cropping, 49 Indians, 333 ARCO, 36, 38- and food shortages, 6 40,461,465 Arctic: and greenhouse gases, 415,493 climate changes in, 273 irrigation for, see irrigation disappearing societies in, 218-19,255 lithic mulches, 92 hunting in, 218 Army Corps of and Malthusian problems, 312, 320,327, Engineers, U.S., 407 ASARCO (American 508 Smelting and Refining and population growth, 181, 312-13 Company), 37-38,458 and salinization, 47-49, 383, 393,402, Asian long-horned beetle, 371 414,424,489,502 Australia, 378-416 and soil, see soil Aborigines in, 307, 389-90 in stratified societies, 164 agriculture in, 381-85,394, 395-96,398, swidden (slash-and-burn), 163 399-402,410-15 and weeds, 55-56,400-401,502 Anzac Day in, 394-95 see also specific locations Ainu people, bottom-up management in, 307,412-15 299, 300 air quality, 53,492,493,501, 511, British cultural identity of, 14,193, 246, 523 Akkadian Empire, 174 Alaska 379, 390,391-92,393, 394, 395,432 Department of Fish and Game, 482 Alcoa, Calperum Station, 411-12 461 climate in, 379,383-85,402 Aloysius (pseud.), 470-71 Amundsen, cotton crop in, 403,414-15 Roald, 275 Anaconda Copper Mining deforestation of, 382, 392-93,399,401, Company, 36, 404-5,409 38-39,461,463,464-65 distance problems of, 380, 385, 387-88, Anasazi, 136-56 408 agriculture of, 140-42, 143,144,437 droughts in, 387-88,400 architecture of, 147,148-50 ecological fragility in, 379,409 cannibalism of, 151-52 economy of, 378-79, 396,413 Chaco Canyon site, 136,137,143-56,422 fisheries of, 382,383,404,405-7,482 complex society of, 143,149-50,152, Great Barrier Reef, 399,400,414 155-56 human impact on, 379, 398-410 disappearing culture of, 136,137,143, immigration into, 371,388-89,396-98 147, 152-56 Kakadu National Park, 400 Kayenta people, 153-54 kangaroos in, 390-91,412 map, 142 Kanyaka farm, 398 merged into other societies, 137 Table of Contents Part Three: MODERN SOCIETIES PART ONE PART TWO PART T H R E E PART FOUR Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapters 6-8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16

A Short History of Progress
by Ronald Wright
Published 2 Jan 2004

The number of mouths an acre of land can support, and the length of time it can go on supporting them, does not depend only on natural fertility. Civilization did get better at farming as it went along. The mixed farm, with the use of animal and human dung on ploughed land, proved endlessly sustainable on the heavy loams of northern Europe. Crop rotation and use of “green manure” (the ploughing under of nitrogen-fixing plants) raised yields considerably in early modern times. The Asian development of wet rice cultivation was highly productive, and its precisely levelled paddy fields encouraged sustainable tillage of hillsides. The Islamic civilization of Spain not only handed down Classical learning to late-mediaeval Europe, it also repaired the eroded landscape Rome had left by building olive terraces and advanced irrigation schemes.

Team Human
by Douglas Rushkoff
Published 22 Jan 2019

Worse, medical professionals were incentivized to develop ever more tightly focused medicines and treatments that could be monopolized for profit. The discovery that a common but unpatentable substance such as olive leaf extract has antiviral properties doesn’t benefit the pharmaceutical industry any more than soil-enriching crop rotation benefits chemical companies. Science must again become a holistic, human pursuit. 78. Our common sense and felt experience contradict too much of what we’re being told by scientific authorities. That’s a problem. Research scientists’ willingness to play along with industry and accept grants to prove the benefits of tobacco or corn syrup doesn’t encourage us to place more trust in them either.

More: The 10,000-Year Rise of the World Economy
by Philip Coggan
Published 6 Feb 2020

They developed a sophisticated system of agriculture, with terracing on the uplands and canals in the lowlands; corn supported a high population density. But they lacked draught animals or the wheel.1 In Europe, along with technical advances like the iron plough and heavier horse collar, there was a systemic change from a two-course to a three-course crop rotation, which reduced the proportion of fallow land from 50% to 33%. More land was also brought into cultivation from forest and wilderness, particularly in the eastern half of the continent. Europe was at this stage an exporter of raw materials to the rest of the world, and an importer (when it could afford them) of luxury goods.

…

The collar made it easier for horses to pull heavy objects, like iron ploughs. The compass made it possible to navigate. And innovation does not depend purely on physical objects. The limited liability company was a legal development that allowed companies to expand, and grow the economy. As we have seen, moving from a two-field crop rotation system to a three-field approach was an idea that lifted output by up to 50%. In the remote past, innovations spread fairly slowly as humans passed on their knowledge while migrating, or when trading with each other. In some cases, such as farming, the same idea seems to have occurred to people in different places at roughly similar times.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by Jared Diamond
Published 2 Jan 2008

Above all, they are a huge pain in the neck for farmers, because they cannot be controlled by any single measure alone but require complex integrated management systems. They force farmers to change many practices simultaneously: pulling out weeds, applying herbicides, changing fertilizer use, releasing insect and fungus enemies of weeds, lighting controlled fires, changing mowing schedules, and altering crop rotations and annual grazing practices. All that because of a few small plants whose dangers were mostly unappreciated at the time, and some of whose seeds arrived unnoticed! Thus, seemingly pristine Montana actually suffers from serious environmental problems involving toxic wastes, forests, soils, water, climate change, biodiversity losses, and introduced pests.

…

They dug ditches around fields to lower the watertable and prevent waterlogging, and transferred the organic muck dug out of those ditches onto the soil surface. Legume food crops that fix atmospheric nitrogen, such as beans, were rotated with other crops—in effect, an independent New Guinean invention of a crop rotation principle now widespread in First World agriculture for maintaining soil nitrogen levels. On steep slopes New Guineans constructed terraces, erected soil retention barriers, and of course removed excess water by the vertical drains that aroused the agronomist’s ire. A consequence of their relying on all these specialized methods is that it takes years of growing up in a village to learn how to farm successfully in the New Guinea highlands.

…

Gilman D’Arcy Paul, 3rd ed. (Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1993); and Zhou Daguan, A Record of Cambodia: The Land and Its People, ed. Peter Harris (Chiang Mai: Selkivorin Books, 2007). INDEX Aboriginal Australians Adenauer, Konrad Africa, slaves from age of exploration agriculture: and climate composting crop rotation and deforestation and drought economics of fallow land in flexible cropping and food shortages and greenhouse gases irrigation for, see irrigation lithic mulches and Malthusian problems and population growth and salinization and soil, see soil in stratified societies swidden (slash-and-burn) and weeds see also specific locations Ainu people air quality Akkadian Empire Alaska Department of Fish and Game Alcoa Aloysius (pseud.)

Status Anxiety
by Alain de Botton
Published 1 Jan 2004

Famine was never far off, and disease was rife, among the most common conditions being rickets, ulcers, tuberculosis, leprosy, abscesses, gangrene, tumours and cankers. 3. Then, in early-eighteenth-century Britain, the great Western transformation began. Thanks to new farming techniques (including crop rotation, scientific stock breeding and land consolidation), yields began to increase sharply. Between 1700 and 1820, Britain’s agricultural productivity doubled, releasing capital and manpower that flowed into the cities to be invested in industry and trade. The invention of the steam engine and the cotton power loom modified not only working practices but social expectations.

The Passenger
by AA.VV.
Published 23 May 2022

CORIANDER / CILANTRO One crop that has expanded hugely in recent years, although still remaining far less important than alfalfa, is coriander/cilantro (depending where you come from): in 2019 over 42,000 tonnes were produced, almost double the figure of 25,000 in 2006. Grown mainly in Monterey and Ventura counties, the herb requires moderate temperatures to thrive – otherwise it will flower too quickly and produce few leaves – but it grows year-round and is thus used in crop rotations. For the same reason, in some years growers decide to double their earnings by taking in more than one harvest. But, above all, the boom has come about following a strong growth in demand: in the last decade not only has the Golden State seen significant growth – by 11 and 25 per cent respectively – in its Latino and Asian populations, whose recipes frequently call for the leaves, but it also seems that consumers of all stripes are starting to add it to their dishes.

Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing
by Kevin Davies
Published 5 Oct 2020

The growing competition for resources leads inevitably to a Malthusian collapse caused by war, famine, or pestilence. In her book The Age of Living Machines, MIT president emerita Susan Hockfield argues that Malthus was wrong because of the repeated invention of new technologies that have increased agricultural productivity. One example was the introduction of four-field crop rotation, which succeeded (you guessed it) three-field crop rotation in the 18th century. Another is the extraordinary story of William Vogt and guano. Vogt was an ecologist, ornithologist, and environmentalist, profiled in Charles Mann’s book The Wizard and the Prophet.10 Vogt (the prophet) discovered a natural resource—mountains of guano, or bird excrement, as birds roosted on the Chincha Islands off the coast of Peru.

Elsewhere, U.S.A: How We Got From the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms,and Economic Anxiety
by Dalton Conley
Published 27 Dec 2008

In fact, the average number of children started declining in the West well before modern contraception was available. We have seen demographic transitions—coupled with economic development—in other areas of the globe such as Asia and Latin America of late. Meanwhile, in the effort to produce more food on limited land, technologies like crop rotation and the seed drill soon led to industrial technologies, which, in turn, led to urbanization (the agglomeration of human populations in cities to work in factories) and the gradual end of the agrarian lifestyle. 7. Marx, for example, didn’t anticipate the rise of antitrust regulation that would break up the inevitable monopolies that formed from time to time.

Thinking in Systems: A Primer
by Meadows. Donella and Diana Wright
Published 3 Dec 2008

Sometimes the withdrawal can be done gradually. Sometimes a nonaddictive policy can be put in place first to restore the degraded system with a minimum of turbulence (group support to restore the self-image of the addict, home insulation and high-mileage cars to reduce oil expense, polyculture and crop rotation to reduce crop vulnerability to pests). Sometimes there’s no way out but to go cold turkey and just bear the pain. It’s worth going through the withdrawal to get back to an unaddicted state, but it is far preferable to avoid addiction in the first place. The problem can be avoided up front by intervening in such a way as to strengthen the ability of the system to shoulder its own burdens.

Programming Computer Vision with Python
by Jan Erik Solem
Published 26 Jun 2012

This chapter introduces the basic tools for reading images, converting and scaling images, computing derivatives, plotting or saving results, and so on. We will use these throughout the remainder of the book. 1.1 PIL—The Python Imaging Library The Python Imaging Library (PIL) provides general image handling and lots of useful basic image operations like resizing, cropping, rotating, color conversion and much more. PIL is free and available from http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/. With PIL, you can read images from most formats and write to the most common ones. The most important module is the Image module. To read an image, use: from PIL import Image pil_im = Image.open('empire.jpg') The return value, pil_im, is a PIL image object.

Protecting Pollinators
by Jodi Helmer
Published 15 Nov 2019

The cotton bloom often fails to coincide with the most active times for honeybees, which are among the most common pollinators in cotton fields; attracting a diversity of pollinators increases pollen distribution and efficiency, significantly increasing cotton yields. Texas farmers are responsible for an estimated 25 percent of total US cotton production. Planting wildflowers between rows of cotton or on the edges of cotton fields, introducing flowering crops into the crop rotation, and reducing pesticide spraying during daylight hours can all have positive impacts on pollinator diversity and crop yields. Cotton growers who add pollinator habitat can increase annual revenues upwards of $108 per acre; at this rate, cotton farms in the South Texas region alone could generate an additional $1 million on an annual basis.

Plot 29: A Memoir
by Allan Jenkins
Published 15 Mar 2017

September is only four weeks away, the sun is starting to dip, sap is beginning to slow. By teatime Sunday, I am sitting, hands a bit torn, shirt a bit sticky, when I hear my name behind me. Mary’s standing there, a little tired. I show off the beds like a proud schoolboy handing in his homework. She smiles. We talk about her crop rotation. She has a plan at home she says she will send me. We admire the runner beans and the sweet peas I have just finished tying (the sweetest-smelling job). The pumpkin bed is thriving. Her courgettes are flowering and the rest not far behind. She gathers herbs and rocket and beans. I press her to take some of our chard and red-hearted lettuce.

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
by Cal Newport
Published 5 Mar 2024

As with growing crops, the key idea was to measure the amount of output produced for a given amount of input and then experiment with different processes for improving this value. Farmers care about bushels per acre, while factory owners care about automobiles produced per paid hour of labor. Farmers might improve their metric by using a smarter crop rotation system, while factory owners might improve their metric by shifting production to a continuous-motion assembly line. In these examples, different types of things are being produced, but the force driving changes in methods is the same: productivity. There was, of course, a well-known human cost to this emphasis on measurable improvement.

A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy
by Joel Mokyr
Published 8 Jan 2016

But he went beyond that: his belief that skillful naturalists could help transform farming was widely shared, and it inspired the establishment of agricultural societies and farm improvement organizations throughout Europe. By the second half of the eighteenth century, botany, horticulture, and agronomy were working hand-in-hand through publictions, meetings, and model gardens to introduce new crops, adjust crop rotations, and improve tools and farm management.11 The empirical work of naturalists, such as Linnaeus, and eighteenth-century agricultural experts, such as Arthur Young and John Sinclair, were very widely read, if perhaps rarely with direct results on agricultural productivity. But there is no question that these scientists had recast their role in human society.

…

Whatever is meant by “theory” here, the gap in propositional knowledge was becoming wider. By 1700, Europeans had already vastly expanded the horizons of their useful knowledge in geography, hydraulics, optics, the manipulation of dom esticated animals, graphical representation, astronomy, scientific instruments, crop rotations, and so on. Propositional knowledge and prescriptive knowledge mutually reinforced each other. This coevolution created a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle that created the rapidly growing gap between West and East in technology in a relatively short time in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.46 We will never know whether without the rise of the West, the Orient would have been able to replicate something similar, given enough time.

Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson
Published 15 May 2023

And anyway, why resist these advances? ALL OF THIS optimism notwithstanding, the last thousand years of history are filled with instances of new inventions that brought nothing like shared prosperity: • A whole series of technological improvements in medieval and early modern agriculture, including better plows, smarter crop rotation, more use of horses, and much improved mills, created almost no benefits for peasants, who constituted close to 90 percent of the population. • Advances in European ship design from the late Middle Ages enabled transoceanic trade and created massive fortunes for some Europeans. But the same kinds of ships also transported millions of enslaved people from Africa to the New World and made it possible to build systems of oppression that lasted for generations and created awful legacies persisting today

…

Even in eighteenth-century Britain, employees were prohibited from seeking alternative employment and were often jailed if they tried to take better jobs. When your outside option is prison, employers do not typically offer you generous compensation. History provides plenty of confirmation. In medieval Europe, windmills, better crop rotation, and increased use of horses boosted agricultural productivity. However, there was little or no improvement in the living standards of most peasants. Instead, most of the additional output went to a small elite, and especially to a massive construction boom during which monumental cathedrals were built throughout Europe.

Africa: A Biography of the Continent
by John Reader
Published 5 Nov 1998

All the strategies for intensifying food production developed during the agricultural history of temperate zones were also developed in Africa, independently. Archaeological evidence affirms that the building of terraces and irrigation canals in sub-Saharan Africa pre-dates external influence; 16 and there can be little doubt that crop rotation and the manuring of land has an equally ancient history.17 Wherever appropriate conditions prevailed, Africa's farmers exploited the opportunity of intensifying food production. The opportunities were few, however, and always circumscribed by the prevalence of disease, but in at least one notable instance – on Ukara, an island in Lake Victoria – a community of sub-Saharan farmers built terraces and irrigation canals, rotated their crops, manured the land, stall-fed their cattle (and even grew forage to maximize manure production).

…

The clover was especially fine, being knee high and standing very thick. It will be very useful for the horses during the dry season when there is hardly any grazing for them. As in the fatherland, hay will be collected annually for that purpose.18 Van Riebeeck was introducing European methods of crop rotation to Africa. Clover was a key ingredient, in that its capacity to fix nitrogen restored the fertility of worked-out land as well as providing feed for livestock. The settlement had acquired a herd of 230 cattle from the Khoisan by January 1653 (less than nine months after landing in Table Bay).

…

B., 493 charcoal, 179, 182, 188, 192, 258, 406 Charter of African Unity, 659 Cheng Ho, 322 – 3 Chesowanja, 70 chiefs/chieftaincy, 258, 412, 611 children, 118 – 19, 246f, 428, 452, 487; see also birth rate chimpanzees, 23f, 53, 61, 77, 84, 103, 104f, 108ff, 129; see also primates China/Chinese, 3, 76, 78, 90f, 164, 195, 198, 210f, 219, 233, 312, 319, 322 – 3, 344, 519 Christianity, 202, 211, 213, 215 – 16, 324, 333, 341, 342f, 353, 359, 365f, 375, 628, 644 chrome, 16 – 17 chronometer, invention of, 324 Chungwa, chief, 461 Churchill, Winston, 633f, 636 cities/urban centres, 217–32, 233, 234 – 5, 241 – 2, 314 – 19, 393 – 4, 620, 625 – 6 claim-limitation law, repeal of, 504 Clarkson, John, 418f Clarkson, Thomas, 417f Classe, Bishop Leon, 628f Clay, Henry, 420 Clement V, Pope, 343 climate, 37 – 42, 98, 130 – 31, 132 – 44, 151, 205, 209 – 10, 277 – 8, 306, 429 – 37, 442, 464f, 580 – 81; see also rainfall clothing, 140 clove plantations, 424 clover, 447 Clow, Mr, 378f cobalt, 16, 645 coffee, 206f, 469, 612 – 13, 615 Coillard, François, 552f, 554f, 559f coinage, 202, 211, 214, 278 – 9 Cold War, 643, 653 Colombia, 168 Colonial Development and Welfare Act (1940), 635 colonies/colonial period, 441 – 636; see also under names of individual countries and colonies Columbus, Christopher, 324, 326, 372, 374 Comintern, 624f Communism, 624f Comoros, 425 Company of Merchants, 391 competition, 412, 54, 62, 132, 142, 143 – 4, 152, 254 competitive exclusion, principle of, 254, 255 – 6 Conakat (Confédération des Associations Tribales du Katanga), 649 concentration camps, 595 – 6 Confédération des Associations Tribales du Katanga (Conakat), 649 Congo, the, 65, 113, 176, 409, 556, 570, 604, 607, 615, 626, 633, 636, 665; history of, 517 – 18, 521f, 525, 527 – 42, 601, 613f, 631, 642, 643 – 56; renamed Zaire, 701; see also Zaire Congo craton, 10 Congo Free State, 517 – 18, 533, 536 – 42, 556 Congo Reform Association, 540 Congo Republic, 626 Congo River (now Zaire River), 521, 526ff, 529f, 535, 542, 613f, 651; see also Zaire River Conrad, Joseph, 518, 542 conservatism, 257, 260 continental-drift hypothesis, 21 – 4 Convention People's Party, 640 conversation groups, 110 convicts, 445, 456, 510 cooling system, body, 81 – 89, 105 Coppens, Yves, 64 copper, 16, 179 – 80, 188, 262, 281, 385f, 556, 644 Coptic Christianity, 324, 342 corn, 195 cotton, 244, 334, 590 – 91 Covilhã, Pero de, 345f cowrie shells, 383, 386 – 90, 396 – 7, 427 Cradock, Sir John, 454 cratons, 10, 491 – 2, see also under name of individual craton Crete, 519 Cro-Magnon Man, 90 crop rotation, 447 Cross River estuary, 385, 393 Cross River State, 393 Cuba, 374, 519 cultural change in relation to climate, 132 – 44 Curtin, Philip, 370, 373 Cushitic languages, 176 customary law, 608 Cuvier, Georges, 32 Cyprus, 326, 343, 388 DNA, 20, 30, 91 – 2, 93, 156 Dahomey (later Benin), 329, 413 – 14, 448, 578, 587, 660; see also Benin Daily Telegraph, 526 Dakar, 373, 567, 607, 622 Dakhleh (Dakhla) Oasis, 170 Dalzell, Archibald, 413 Danakil desert, 211 Danish see Denmark/Danish Dar es Salaam, 197, 323, 591, 599 Dart, Raymond, 59f Darwin, Charles, 30, 58f, 254, 326 David, King of Ethiopia, 344 De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, 504 –5, 510f death rate, 133f, 429 debt bondage, 270 deforestation, 193, 213; see also forest clearance dehydration, 86f Delagoa Bay, 349, 434, 466ff, 469f, 471f, 478, 485, 520 democracy, 664 – 5 Denmark/Danish, 141, 372, 417, 519, 534 dependency ratio, 117 Derby, Lord, 570 DeVore, Irven, 115 Diamond Trade Act (1882), 509 diamonds, 12f, 220, 489f, 491 – 511, 520, 644, 665 Dias, Bartolomeu, 338ff, 345f, 348f, 441 Dick, Thomas, 21 – 2 Dicksonia, 20 Diepkloof rock shelter, 130 diet, 65 – 6, 69, 114 – 15, 119 – 21, 146, 158, 166f, 208, 263 digging-stick weights, 140ff Dillon, Douglas, 653 Dingane, 480, 485ff dinosaurs, 25 – 7, 28 disease, 205, 232, 233 – 42, 358, 431, 573, 582 – 5 District Commissioner, 605 – 6 Dithakong, 473ff, 477 diversification, 225, 244 – 5 Djenne/Jenne, 219, 228 – 9, 232, 271 Dobson, 393 – 4, 408 Dobzhansky, Theodosius, 113 documentary evidence, 354 – 5, 356, 363 Doering, Major H.

Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit
by Barry Estabrook
Published 6 Jun 2011

“There’s a huge amount of organic matter there.” Conventional farmers allow their fields to grow up in weeds during the off season, which they then kill with herbicides. Beddard simply disks his cover crops into the soil. And where a conventional farmer would grow tomatoes in the same field year after year, Beddard practices crop rotation—tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, salad greens. He says that his yields are lower than his chemically dependent colleagues, sometimes significantly, but he more than recoups the differences in yields through the higher prices he can command for organic produce. “I go down there to Immokalee and I envy those guys with their plants just hanging with tomatoes,” he said.

The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse
by Mohamed A. El-Erian
Published 26 Jan 2016

Individuals today have access to mobile productivity tools that not so long ago were deemed unlikely if not unthinkable. Agile innovators can disrupt whole sectors using core competencies that come from “another world” to the one being disrupted, and do so with amazing impact. From the ability of farmers to better time crop rotation, to cost-effectively customizing uses of productive capital, this is also a notably productivity-enabling world. It is also one that facilitates timely price discovery and technological leapfrogging, particularly in some developing countries. It enhances “winner-take-all” tendencies and is inseparable from rapidly changing consumer behaviors that seek more self-directed lives.

Tails I Lose: The Compulsive Gambler Who Lost His Shirt for Good
by Justyn Rees
Published 25 Jun 2014

The price she was asking was very reasonable and only a little more than we had just sold our house for. It should have been very affordable. For a few minutes, as we explored the garden, I was lost in the excitement of the moment. I noted the best trees for a swing for the boys; I even planned the crop rotation. And then I remembered the reality of the situation. I felt as though I’d just fallen out of one of the apple trees and landed in chicken poo. Emma talked of little else over the next few days, and went back to visit Distant Point with her parents, who, unsurprisingly, loved it at first sight.

Dreams of Leaving and Remaining
by James Meek
Published 5 Mar 2019

It’s amazing how people will get through years where other companies would have folded up. But if you take subsidies out that will not go on very long.’ I remember my school history curriculum bigging up Turnip Townshend and Coke of Norfolk, the great landowner reformers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, who did such clever things, and raised yields, with crop rotation and clover and rationalising peasants off their bitty fragments of the commons. This narrative of the agricultural revolution has come under attack in recent years. The most frequent line of criticism is that the likes of Townshend and Coke weren’t innovators, but brilliant publicists and proselytisers who worked out how to systemise and promote much older ideas.

Age of the City: Why Our Future Will Be Won or Lost Together
by Ian Goldin and Tom Lee-Devlin
Published 21 Jun 2023

The influential theologian St Augustine presented the human story as a conflict between the iniquitous ‘City of Man’ and the heavenly ‘City of God’, observing that it was Cain, murderer of his brother Abel, who according to the biblical narrative founded the first human city.9 Later, Jean-Jacques Rousseau would declare cities to be ‘the abyss of the human species’,10 while Thomas Jefferson would dismiss them as ‘pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man’.11 The essayist William Hazlitt feared that the city engendered ‘a puny, sickly, unwholesome, and degenerate race of beings’.12 Nevertheless, cities began to grow rapidly in size following the onset of the industrial revolution in Europe in the eighteenth century. A succession of advances in agriculture, from crop rotation to the mechanical reaper, created a much larger agricultural surplus in the countries where they were adopted. In Britain, the enclosure movement, under which lands that were previously communal and accessible to all were appropriated for private landowners, displaced a sizeable share of the rural population.

A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
Published 5 May 2003

What was understood, and very much appreciated, was that crop rotation transformed agricultural fortunes dramatically. Moreover, because more animals lived through the winter, they produced heaps of additional manure, and these glorious, gratis ploppings enriched the soil even further. It is hard to exaggerate what a miracle all this seemed. Before the eighteenth century, agriculture in Britain lurched from crisis to crisis. An academic named W. G. Hoskins calculated (in 1964) that between 1480 and 1700, one harvest in four was bad, and almost one in five was catastrophically bad. Now, thanks to the simple expedient of crop rotation, agriculture was able to settle into a continuous, more or less reliable prosperity.

The botany of desire: a plant's-eye view of the world
by Michael Pollan
Published 27 May 2002

I had assumed that organic farmers used Bt and the other approved pesticides in much the same way conventional farmers use theirs, but as Mike Heath showed me around his farm, I began to understand that organic farming was a lot more complicated than simply substituting good inputs for bad. A whole different metaphor seemed to be involved. Instead of buying many inputs at all, Heath relies on a long and complex crop rotation to avoid a buildup of crop-specific pests. He’s found, for instance, that planting wheat in a field prior to potatoes “confuses” the potato beetles when they emerge from their larval stage. He also plants strips of flowering plants on the margins of his potato fields—peas or alfalfa, usually—to attract the beneficial insects that dine on beetle larvae and aphids.

$2.00 A Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America
by Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer
Published 31 Aug 2015

Martha’s front porch is so close to these fields, in fact, that on days when the fluorescent-yellow-and-black planes come at dawn to dust the crops with pesticides, they shower her building, too. On those mornings, the sky remains dark long after sunrise. On some early summer days like today, she can sometimes see dirty plumes of smoke rising from red flames all across the horizon as planters burn their fields in preparation for crop rotation. All through the growing season, Martha, her two daughters, and their neighbors complain of a unique local ailment—an upper-respiratory condition folks refer to as “Delta crud,” which many believe is brought on by these farming practices. The symptoms are wheezing and nausea, sometimes followed by chronic congestion.

An Edible History of Humanity
by Tom Standage
Published 30 Jun 2009

And what potatoes did in the north of Europe, maize did in the south: the populations of Spain and Italy almost doubled during the eighteenth century. As well as adopting the new crops, European farmers increased production by bringing more land under cultivation and developing new agricultural techniques. In particular, they introduced crop rotations involving clover and turnips (most famously, in Britain, the “Norfolk four-course rotation” of turnips, barley, clover, and wheat). Turnips were grown on land that would otherwise have been left fallow, and then fed to animals, whose manure enhanced the barley yields the following year. Feeding animals with turnips also meant that land used for pasture could instead be used to grow crops for human consumption.

The Autonomous Revolution: Reclaiming the Future We’ve Sold to Machines
by William Davidow and Michael Malone
Published 18 Feb 2020

By 900 BCE, the Phoenicians had established themselves as a great trading power throughout the whole Mediterranean region and as far afield as Britain in the north and India in the southeast.11 A continual stream of inventions powered the ongoing revolution. Though the medieval era witnessed much technological backsliding, the principles of crop rotation were discovered during this time. The heavy plow was invented as well, and improved versions of the harness made it possible for draft animals to pull them.12 The Second Agricultural Revolution coincided roughly with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, around the 1700s. It was powered by new crops like corn and potatoes from the New World; new forms of organization, such as large single-owner holdings; mechanical equipment that replaced muscle power; and, later, railroads, which transported harvests.13 The so-called green revolution that began in the middle of the twentieth century (also called the Third Agricultural Revolution) used genetic science, pesticides, and new methods of cultivation to vastly increase yields.

The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth
by Jeremy Rifkin
Published 9 Sep 2019

Farmers are also joining together in the creation of electricity cooperatives and beginning to install solar, wind, and biogas energy technologies.63 Some of the green electricity is being used on the farm, and the rest is being sold back to the Energy Internet, creating a second source of income. Farmers might also enjoy a third source of income by “carbon farming.” Cover crops, crop rotation, and no-till farming are all simple, long-proven ways to keep carbon sequestered in the soil. For example, a simple planting of cover crops—rye, beans, oats—between rows of vegetables helps hold carbon, nitrogen, and other organic nutrients in the soil. Carbon farming provides a double benefit.

The Globotics Upheaval: Globalisation, Robotics and the Future of Work
by Richard Baldwin
Published 10 Jan 2019

This drove people out of the agricultural sector since raising and sheering sheep commercially required far fewer workers than raising food for families. But it wasn’t just switches in ownership that put the revolution in the agricultural revolution. Enclosure firmed up property rights and thus encouraged adoption of more efficient farming techniques. One of the agricultural revolution’s red-letter innovations was a switch to the four-crop rotation system that heightened the productivity of land. Improved farm machinery also accelerated productivity. The classic examples include automatic threshing machines for grain; seed drills for planting; and improvements in farming tools, like the switch from wooden to iron ploughs. The upgraded tools and techniques made food cheaper and more abundant—an outcome that helped with a third impulse—a population explosion.

Two Kitchens: Family Recipes from Sicily and Rome
by Rachel Roddy
Published 12 Jul 2017

His grandfather Orazio, who had begun farming at the age of ten, cultivated two varieties of tomatoes: the round, deeply fluted fleshy variety known as nostrani (ours), and cherry tomatoes with thick skins and almost dry, acidic but sweet flesh that grew al grappolo (in bunches). Wheat was his most important harvest, and artichokes and broad beans were vital in the crop rotation, but tomatoes were at the heart of it all. There was an agricultural crescendo building up to tomato season in the summer months, when the sun and volcanic Sicilian soil joined forces to produce legendary quantities of tomatoes that seemed as much a part of Sicily as vines and olives, even though they are relative newcomers, having arrived in only the sixteenth century, and remaining a mere curiosity until the early nineteenth century.

Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
by Jason Hickel
Published 12 Aug 2020

Fortunately, there’s another way. Intrepid farmers around the world, from Virginia to Syria, are experimenting with more holistic methods called regenerative agroecology. They’re planting multiple crop species together to build resilient ecosystems, while using compost, organic fertilisers and crop rotation to restore life and fertility to the soils. In areas where these methods have been used, crop yields have improved, earthworms have returned, insect populations have recovered and bird species have rebounded.31 And perhaps best of all, as dead soils recover they are sequestering enormous quantities of CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Supertall: How the World's Tallest Buildings Are Reshaping Our Cities and Our Lives
by Stefan Al
Published 11 Apr 2022

“As with a gas, the very pressure of the molecules within that limited space produced more social collisions and interactions within a generation than would have occurred in many centuries if still isolated in their native habitats, without boundaries,” he wrote.46 From their very beginnings, cities accelerated innovation and social experiments. Ideas prosper in city centers. They condense people and offer them spontaneous and possibly fruitful encounters with others. A thousand years ago, after new plow mechanisms and crop rotations managed to sustain European towns, arrived the art of the Renaissance followed by the technological advancement of the Enlightenment. Today, we still pick the fruits of cities. Urban areas are known to exceed rural ones in innovation and economic output. US metropolitan areas alone generate 75 percent of the national GDP.47 In the United States, large cities produce twice as many patents per person as small cities—plus those patents have more impact.48 Cities capture the economic and knowledge benefits of agglomeration and physical proximity in a super linear way.

The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
by Tim Harford
Published 1 Jan 2008

By 1800, the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, with a billion people in the world, the innovation rate would have risen to one stunning idea every year. By 1930 it would be one world-changing idea every six months. With six billion minds on the planet we should now be producing this kind of idea every two months; such ideas could be anything from double-entry bookkeeping to crop rotation. It’s an absurd, grotesquely oversimplified model; it also fits the data perfectly. Kremer suggests simply taking population growth as a measure of technological progress: The faster the human population is able to grow, the more advanced technology must have become. It turns out that these eminently Malthusian assumptions fit very nicely indeed, at least until 1960 and the pill.

Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity
by Douglas Rushkoff
Published 1 Mar 2016

Besides, it’s less their religious faith informing their recommendations than their memory of the wheels of commerce that preceded the engines of the industrial age. They are in many ways medievalists, after all, who can help us retrieve lost economic sensibilities the same way the Amish can remind us how to implement technology in a more considered fashion, or an aboriginal farmer can teach us how preindustrial crop rotation practices preserve soil nutrients. They remember. A form of networked distributism may just be our last best hope for peace in the digital economy today. The conscious application of more distributist principles into the digital economic program could yield an entirely more prosperous and sustainable operating system.

Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy
by Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake
Published 7 Nov 2017

If the farmer has only brought in more tractors (not changing other inputs), then multi-factor productivity growth will have stayed the same and any productivity growth in the economy as a whole will be due to improvements in the tractor industry. If the farmer has improved the efficiency of operations, maybe innovated in crop rotation or improved work practices on the farm, then multi-factor productivity growth in farming will have risen. As a matter of fact, researchers have found that world agricultural multi-factor productivity growth is about 45 percent of productivity growth over this long period. That is, improved machines and fertilizer account for about 55 percent of productivity growth and better farming practices 45 percent of it.

Emergence
by Steven Johnson

As Mumford writes, “Wooded areas in Germany, a wilderness in the ninth century, gave way to plowland; the boggy Low Countries, which had supported only a handful of hardy fishermen, were transformed into one of the most productive soils in Europe.” The result is a positive feedback loop: the plow and the crop rotation makes better soil, which supplies enough energy to sustain towns, which generate enough fertilizer to make better soil, which generates enough energy to sustain even larger towns. We sometimes talk about emergent systems “bootstrapping” themselves into existence, but in the case of the Middle Ages, we can safely say that the early village residents shat themselves into full-fledged towns.

The Enigma of Capital: And the Crises of Capitalism
by David Harvey
Published 1 Jan 2010

The owner of the property right to the land has a vested interest in the user improving its productivity. In the successful period of ‘high farming’ in nineteenth-century Britain, before the long agricultural depression that began in 1873, owners favoured long leases since this encouraged tenants to undertake long-term improvements (such as drainage, fertilisation and crop rotation techniques) that improved fertility rather than degraded it. In this case differential rent would accrue to the user during the time of the lease as a return on capital investment in long-term improvements. But how do we account for the extremely fertile land that was drained or reclaimed from the sea in the sixteenth century?

Leading From the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies
by Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer
Published 14 Apr 2013

SEEING OUR FUTURE: CULTIVATING OUR COMMONS There is a whole landscape of emerging examples that embody these principles: the Slow Food movement; community-supported agriculture (CSA); local food; local living economies; and sustainable sourcing practices.15 Biodynamic (organic) farming is one of these examples and close to our hearts because Otto grew up on a biodynamic farm in Germany.16 A biodynamic farm is based on the principles of zero importing (a closed-loop cycle), zero waste (every output of one sector is an input for another), diversity (crop rotation and diverse eco-systems instead of monoculture), and a symbiotic relationship among all these elements of the larger living system (the idea that each farm has a unique living individuality). On a very small scale, a biodynamic farm embodies many of the principles identified above. But how can we scale up these practices to the level of the whole food system, and eventually the whole economy?

How to Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong
by Elizabeth Day
Published 3 Apr 2019

So I chose to study Russian, as opposed to Spanish or German, and started learning the Cyrillic alphabet by rote at my school in Belfast. We were taught by a man with a sandy red beard who looked exactly as one would imagine a fictional Russian character from Tolstoy to look – perhaps one of the semi-prosperous farmers who spend a lot of time talking about agrarian crop rotation while, elsewhere, women are busy throwing themselves in front of trains and pining after soldiers. When I left that school after the incident with Siobhan and the school photo, it was halfway through the spring term of my third year. This meant I had six months free before I joined my sister at boarding school in England and re-did the year.

EcoVillage at Ithaca Pioneering a Sustainable Culture (2005)
by Liz Walker
Published 20 May 2005

Part of the secret of the farm’s success has to do with the way that Jen and John nurture the soil. The couple literally feeds the soil by Mary Webber Jen and John Bokaer-Smith at the Ithaca Farmers’ Market. West Haven Farm 41 applying green and composted manure, planting nitrogen-fixing cover crops, and practicing crop rotation. Their efforts are restoring land previously depleted by years of poor farming practices. And healthy land produces healthy crops. The land now produces veggies with exceptionally high nutrient values. In fact at EVI a popular folk remedy for colds calls for soup made from Jen and John’s fresh produce.

The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity
by Byron Reese
Published 23 Apr 2018

Fortunately, with technology, like AI and robots, we can do a great deal to lower the price of food and end hunger. AI will give us amazing new insights in what to grow where, and where to sell it. Beyond that we can make better seeds and can disseminate empowering information on irrigation, fertilizing, and crop rotation. Armed with a smartphone, every farmer can become better at farming than anyone who lived more than a decade ago. Yields will rise and costs will fall, all thanks to technology. If you think about it, we haven’t really applied technology to farming as much as it might seem. The way we grow food hasn’t fundamentally changed in the ten thousand years we have had agriculture.

The Wood Age: How One Material Shaped the Whole of Human History
by Roland Ennos
Published 18 Feb 2021

Instead, many broad-leaved species, including oak, ash, chestnut, hazel, and willow, and the conifer yew, resprout from dormant buds in their trunk. They throw up a number of fast-growing shoots that grow straight upward, lengthening and thickening rapidly. The shoots can be harvested repeatedly in crop rotations that can be designed to produce a supply of rods of a consistent diameter and length. Coppicing has several advantages over allowing trees to grow to maturity before killing them, grubbing out the stump, and planting new trees. First, since the coppice stools already have a root system to supply them with water, the shoots grow rapidly, even in their first year after the cutting.

Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World
by Gaia Vince
Published 22 Aug 2022

For thousands of years, farmers relied mainly on recycling biological matter to make up for the shortfall in the nitrogen and other essential nutrients available to crops in the soil. They left the stalks and silage in the fields to rot, added whatever other organic material they could, including animal and human manure, and practised crop rotation. But as populations grew, more crops had to be provided from the same area. Then, in 1909, the German chemist Fritz Haber invented a way of turning the nitrogen in air into a form that plants can absorb; his colleague Carl Bosch scaled it into an industrial process. The era of artificial fertilizers was born: the effect on population growth was immediate.

A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet
by Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore
Published 16 Oct 2017

HOW FOOD MADE THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD By 1700, most English peasants had been either reduced to cottagers, pushed into agricultural wage work, or forced off the land and into cities—61 percent of England’s working population was doing something other than growing food. The proportion of city dwellers had doubled over the previous century.10 The enclosures of the previous two centuries had made agriculture a competitive business, and a cluster of innovations—new ploughs, crop rotations, and drainage systems especially—had made it biologically productive. While historians debate the precise timing of its agricultural revolution, it’s clear that by 1700 England was doing the two big things that every great capitalist power must: increasing the agricultural surplus and expelling labor from the farm.11 It could expel labor from the farm because it was productive in a new sense: labor productivity advanced rapidly, rising nearly 46 percent between 1500 and 1700.12 English agriculture was so robust at the dawn of the eighteenth century that it was able to rescue a rapidly proletarianizing Europe from hunger.

The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis
by Jeremy Rifkin
Published 31 Dec 2009

While draught horses were used in a very limited way as far back as antiquity, it wasn’t until the invention of the shoulder harness, iron horseshoes, and the harnessing of horses, one behind the other, that horses could be effectively utilized for plowing and other chores. Horses proved far superior to human labor or oxen. The invention of the moldboard plow, in turn, with its share and coulter, allowed farmers to plow the heavy soils of northern Europe, opening up vast new lands for cultivation. The shift from a two-field to three-field system of crop rotation greatly increased agricultural yields. Together, those inventions spawned a massive increase in agricultural yields in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that would go unrivaled for another five hundred years. Agricultural yields in many regions rose by one-third and human productivity by half.2 The new farming practices not only increased yields but also the diversity of crops under cultivation—especially legumes—which provided a more balanced diet.

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Britain Etc
by Mark Easton
Published 1 Mar 2012

In March 1669, the diarist Samuel Pepys reflected the caution with which foreign fruit and veg were met in Britain, when presented with a glass of fresh orange juice. ‘I was doubtful whether it might not do me hurt,’ he wrote. Vegetables won an improved status in the rural economy when it was realised that including legumes like beans and peas in crop rotation dramatically improved soil fertility and yields. During the British agricultural revolution in the eighteenth century, the Whig Parliamentarian Lord Charles Townshend became convinced of the central role for the turnip in this new agricultural system, earning both the inevitable nickname Turnip Townshend and a reputation for boring the pants off anyone who engaged with him on the subject.

Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
by John de Graaf , David Wann , Thomas H Naylor and David Horsey
Published 1 Jan 2001

Big-pattern flaws in design and production often cause the worst impacts: the way our cities and suburbs are designed, the way we purify wastewater, the way agriculture is practiced, the way energy is generated, and the way industry designs and manufactures chemicals, computers, and cars. While consumer choices don’t directly affect these production systems, informed choices do result in substantial hidden benefits that can speed the earth’s recovery. When we buy organic produce, for example, we are also buying farming techniques—such as crop rotation—that prevent erosion, insect damage, and other impacts. When we buy a fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle, we become rolling advertisements for a cool climate and clean air. When we reduce our consumption of meat, we also dramatically reduce our impact on land, water, air, and atmosphere. Compared with a nutritionally equivalent intake of whole grains, red meat is responsible for twenty times the land use (because of cattle grazing), seventeen times the common water pollution (because of animal wastes), five times the toxic water pollution and water use (from chemicals applied to feed grains and water for irrigation and livestock), and three times the greenhouse gas emissions (from greater energy use), Brower and Leon contend.

The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch
by Lewis Dartnell
Published 15 Apr 2014

The incorporation of this fertility-pumping capability of legumes transformed agriculture and set Britain on course for the Industrial Revolution. Varying between legumes and other crops on a plot of land will therefore maintain the productivity of the soil. But rather than simply swapping back and forth between two—from clover to wheat, say—a far better option is a crop rotation with several stages, as it also breaks the cycle of diseases and pests. These are often very specific to the plant they can attack, and so annually shifting, and not growing the same crop on a plot for several years, means that you can exert natural control without pesticides. The Norfolk four-course rotation is the most successful of these historical systems and became widespread only in the eighteenth century, spearheading the British agricultural revolution.

The Hidden Family
by Charles Stross
Published 2 May 2005

“You’re telling me that we don’t trade? That the Clan has the wrong idea about how to make money—” “Yes, but that’s only part of it. The Clan doesn’t add value, it simply moves it around. But another important factor is that a peasant farmer is less good at creating value than, say, a farmer who knows about crop rotation and soil maintenance and how to fertilize his fields effectively. And a man who can sit down all day and make nails is less productive than an engineer who can make a machine that takes in wire feedstock at one end and spits out nails at the other. It’s more productive to make a machine to make nails, and then run it, than to make the nails yourself.

Why It's Still Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions
by Paul Mason
Published 30 Sep 2013

The Grapes of Wrath begins with the Joad family losing their land to drought and debt; it follows their journey southwest to California, where, like 350,000 others, they end up as exploited farm labourers living in squatter camps. Today’s situation looks different. The Porter ranch is not small—Brett farms 3,500 acres. And the problems of land misuse that caused the Dust Bowl have been solved by sixty years of applied agronomy: Brett’s generation no longer tills the land, but uses crop rotation—cattle, wheat, alfalfa, barley and cotton—to keep the soil nourished. For there is no river water here, only rainfall. And now the rain has stopped. As for debt, though Brett borrows half a million dollars a year to run the farm, the Federal government underwrites his loans, so instead of 5 per cent interest he’s paying 2 per cent.

The English
by Jeremy Paxman
Published 29 Jan 2013

Firstly, they showed early symptoms of that urge to smash things which seizes the country from time to time, whether in the destruction of the monasteries or the levelling of town centres in the 1960s. In the case of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, it was the demolition of the cities built during the Roman occupation, when they tore down stone dwellings and threw up wooden buildings organized around feudal clan structures. Their advances in agriculture – the development of ploughing and crop-rotation – must count as worthwhile achievements. But the fairy tale of Pope Gregory’s appreciation of the handsomeness of the English when he saw captured slaveboys on sale in a Rome street-market (‘They are not Angles but angels’) does nothing to disguise the fact that Augustine and the fellow missionaries given the mission to convert these ‘angels’, thought they were travelling to the end of the civilized world.

Red Flags: Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy
by George Magnus
Published 10 Sep 2018

China’s position in the world, measured by its share of world GDP, fell especially quickly during the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, not reaching a trough until the 1950s. Let us take a look back in time and map some of the contours which these measures describe. Connections Long ago, China was a pioneer. Its claim to economic fame included the use of farm cattle, horses and implements, the exploitation of crop rotation, irrigation, the production of iron and salt, textiles, the application of water-powered spinning machines, and the development of private ownership structures and, albeit for the gentry only, basic property rights. It adopted paper as a replacement for silk and bamboo as early as the second century, and invented movable type printing technology in the eleventh century, some four hundred years before Gutenberg introduced it to Europe.

We Are Data: Algorithms and the Making of Our Digital Selves
by John Cheney-Lippold
Published 1 May 2017

The resulting classifications become the discursive terrain from which we, and others, compose our digital selves. Consider two seemingly separate, but algorithmically connected, examples. If I smile, a computer doesn’t see a cheerful man like a human would. A computer can “see” my smile only upon interpreting the discrete pixels forming the shapes believed to be my ‘eyes.’29 It then crops, rotates, and scales the image to produce a standardized ‘face.’ Next, it encodes that modified image, using several algorithmic filters according to prototypical ‘smiling’ photos, into a single number that evaluates me as either ‘smiling’ or ‘not smiling.’30 Voilà, a data-‘smile.’ Figure I.1. Face.com’s software analyzed photos according to a predefined set of attributes: ‘face,’ ‘gender,’ ‘glasses,’ ‘lips,’ ‘mood,’ ‘smiling,’ and ‘age.’

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
by Steven Pinker
Published 13 Feb 2018

It was only at the time of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution that people figured out how to bend the curve upward.15 In Jonathan Swift’s 1726 novel, the moral imperative was explained to Gulliver by the King of Brobdingnag: “Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before, deserves better of humanity, and does more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together.” Soon after that, as figure 7-1 shows, more ears of corn were indeed made to grow, in what has been called the British Agricultural Revolution.16 Crop rotation and improvements to plows and seed drills were followed by mechanization, with fossil fuels replacing human and animal muscle. In the mid-19th century it took twenty-five men a full day to harvest and thresh a ton of grain; today one person operating a combine harvester can do it in six minutes.17 Machines also solve an inherent problem with food.

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People discover a way of growing more food, and the population ratchets upward. The method fails to keep up with the demand or develops unpleasant side effects, and the hatchet falls. People then pivot to a new method. At various times, farmers have pivoted to slash-and-burn horticulture, night soil (a euphemism for human feces), crop rotation, guano, saltpeter, ground-up bison bones, chemical fertilizer, hybrid crops, pesticides, and the Green Revolution.20 Future pivots may include genetically modified organisms, hydroponics, aeroponics, urban vertical farms, robotic harvesting, meat cultured in vitro, artificial intelligence algorithms fed by GPS and biosensors, the recovery of energy and fertilizer from sewage, aquaculture with fish that eat tofu instead of other fish, and who knows what else—as long as people are allowed to indulge their ingenuity.21 Though water is one resource that people will never pivot away from, farmers could save massive amounts if they switched to Israeli-style precision farming.

The new village green: living light, living local, living large
by Stephen Morris
Published 1 Sep 2007

“Is tillage the lesser evil, or reduced pesticides the lesser evil?” Hepperly asks. He argues that a combination of no-till for some crops and tillage for others will help reduce both damage to soil structure and use of synthetic chemicals. Pesticide use can be greatly reduced by adopting an integrated pest management system, which relies on such practices as crop rotation (which deters plant-specific pests from taking up long-term residence in soil) and natural biological controls. Planting marigolds around tomato plants in gardens to discourage pests is one such example. Many other plants or insects have similar beneficial pest-deterring properties when intermixed with agricultural crops.

Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane
by Brett King
Published 5 May 2016

The mechanisation of farming had a direct impact on employment patterns as we can see from the graph overleaf. Ironically, preceding the industrial age, there was a massive boom in agriculture in the economies of countries like the United States and the United Kingdom. In fact, technology was at play here too. The agricultural revolution led to improvements such as crop rotation, improvements in plowing implements, more intensive farming techniques with higher labour inputs, better breeding and animal husbandry, along with increases in farm size. Figure 1.5: The correlation between tractors and reduced employment in farming The disruptions in the next age were perhaps a little subtler, although the news of such changes tended to be more dramatic.

Paper Promises
by Philip Coggan
Published 1 Dec 2011

The movement of people from the land to the new industrial cities also required an agrarian revolution. Those remaining on the land had now to produce a surplus, enough to feed the industrial workers as well as themselves. Fortunately, this happened, thanks to the consolidation of smallholdings, new farm machinery, crop rotation and a host of other small reforms. In turn, these improvements allowed the population to grow. So we now had economic growth and population growth. The next stage emerged as workers gathered in factories. Initially, the conditions were terrible – long hours, low pay (albeit better than a farm labourer’s income) and non-existent safety standards.

The Map That Changed the World
by Simon Winchester
Published 1 Jan 2001

And when William Smith was born, the rate and scale of alteration to society was such that even those in so small and isolated a settlement as Churchill, Oxfordshire, would be bound to notice. Parliament, for example, was in the last decades of the eighteenth century passing enclosure acts at the rate of one a week. The formerly common-held land was now gradually being fenced and hedged, and farmed in a way—with the use of new machines and according to the principles of crop rotation—that led to the creation of the English countryside that we still see today, mannered, orderly, and inordinately pretty. The village of Churchill itself was still unenclosed in 1769. The local farmers worked the fields as most of England had for centuries, taking for themselves alternating strips of the common-held land and on each strip growing crops, or setting each to pasture, or leaving each fallow, as individual mood and season suggested.

The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
by Simon Winchester
Published 1 Jan 2008

—JOSEPH NEEDHAM, 1993, PUBLISHED 2004 From Science and Civilisation in China, Volume VII, Part 2 Abacus AD 190 Acupuncture 580 BC Advisory vessels 3rd century BC Air-conditioning fan AD 180 Alcohol made from grain by a special fermentation process 15th century BC Algorithm for extraction of square and cube roots 1st century AD Anatomy 11th century AD Anchor, nonfouling, stockless 1st century AD Anemometer 3rd century AD Antimalaria drugs 3rd century BC Arcuballista, multiple-bolt 320 BC Arcuballista, multiple-spring 5th century AD Asbestos woven into cloth 3rd century BC Astronomical clock drive AD 120 Axial rudder 1st century AD Ball bearings 2nd century BC Balloon principle 2nd century BC Bean curd AD 100 Bell, pottery 3rd millennium BC Bellows, double-acting piston-tuned bronze 6th century BC Belt drive 5th century BC Beriberi, recognition of AD 1330 Blast furnace 3rd century BC Blood, distinction between arterial and venous 2nd century BC Blood, theory of circulation 2nd century BC Boats and ships, paddle-wheel AD 418 Bomb, cast-iron AD 1221 Bomb, thrown from a trebuchet AD 1161 Book, printed, first to be dated AD 868 Book, scientific, printed AD 847 Bookcase, vertical axis AD 544 Bookworm repellent Bowl, bronze water-spouting 3rd century BC Bread, steamed Bridges, releasable 4th century BC Bridges, iron-chain suspension 6th century AD Bridges, Li Chhun’s segmental arch AD 610 Bronze, high tin, for mirror production Bronze rainbow teng (camphor still) 1st century BC Calipers AD 9 Camera obscura, explanation of AD 1086 “Cardan” suspension 140 BC Cast iron 5th century BC Cast iron—malleable 4th century BC Cereals, preservation of stored 1st century BC Chain drive AD 976 Chess 4th century BC Chimes, stone 9th century BC Chopsticks 600 BC Clocks, sand AD 1370 Clocks, Su Sung’s AD 1088 Clockwork escapement of Yi Xing and Liang Lingzan AD 725 Coal, as a fuel 1st century AD Coal, dust, briquettes from 1st century AD Coinage 9th century BC Collapsible umbrella and other items 5th century BC Comet tails, observation of direction of AD 635 Compass, floating fish AD 1027 Compass, magnetic needle AD 1088 Compass, magnetic, used for navigation AD 1111 Cooking pots, heat economy in 3rd millennium BC Crank handle 1st century BC Crop rotation 6th century BC Crossbow 5th century BC Crossbow, bronze triggers 300 BC Crossbow, grid sight for 1st century AD Crossbow, magazine 13th century AD Dating of trees by number of rings 12th century AD Decimal place value 13th century BC Deep drilling and use of natural gas as fuel 2nd century BC Diabetes, association with sweet and fatty foods 1st century BC Dial and pointer 3rd century AD Differential pressure Disease, diurnal rhythms in 2nd century BC Diseases, deficiency 3rd century AD Dishing of carriage wheel Distillation, of mercury 3rd century BC Dominoes AD 1120 Downdraft 1st century BC Dragon kiln 2nd century AD Draw loom 1st century AD Drum carriage 110 BC Diked/poldered fields 1st century BC Ephedrine 2nd century AD Equal temperament, mathematical formulation of AD 1584 Equilibrium, theory of 4th century BC Erosion and sedimentary deposition, knowledge of AD 1070 Esculentist movement (edible plants for time of famine) AD 1406 Ever-normal granary system AD 9 Fertilizers 2nd century BC Firecrackers AD 290 Firelance AD 950 Flame test Flamethrower (double-acting force pump for liquids) AD 919 Folding chairs 3rd century AD Free reed 1000 BC Fumigation 7th century BC Furnace, reverberatory 1st century BC Gabions 3rd century BC Gauges, rain and snow AD 1247 Gear wheels, chevron-toothed AD 50 Ginning machine, hand-cranked, and treadle 17th century AD Gluten from wheat AD 530 Gold, purple sheen 200 BC Grafting AD 806 Gravimetry AD 712 Great Wall of China 3rd century BC Grid technique, quantitative, used in cartography AD 130 Guan xien system 240 BC Gunpowder, formula for 9th century AD Gunpowder, firecracker and fireworks 12th century AD Gunpowder, government’s department and monopoly on 14th century AD Gunpowder, used in mining Ming Handcarts 681 BC Handgun AD 1128 Harness, breast strap 250 BC Harness, collar AD 477 Helicopter top AD 320 High temperatures, firing of clay at 2nd millennium BC Hodometer 110 BC Holing-irons AD 584 “Hot streak” test AD 1596 Hygrometer 120 BC Indeterminate analysis 4th century AD Interconversion of longitudinal and rotary motion AD 31 Kite 4th century BC Knife, rotary disk, for cutting jade 12th century AD Lacquer 13th century BC Ladders, extendable 4th century BC Leeboards and centerboards AD 751 Lodestone, south-pointing ladle AD 83 Magic mirrors 5th century AD Magic squares AD 190 Magnetic declination noted AD 1040 Magnetic thermoremanence and induction AD 1044 Magnetic variation observed AD 1436 Magnetism, used in medicine AD 970 Malt sugar, production of 1st millennium BC Mangonel 4th century BC Maps, relief AD 1086 Maps, topographical 3rd century BC Masts, multiple 3rd century AD Matches (nonstriking) AD 577 Melodic composition AD 475 Metal amalgams used to fill cavities AD 659 Metals, to oxides, burning of 5th century BC Metals, densities of 3rd century AD Mill, wagon AD 340 Mills, edge-runner 200 BC Mills, edge-runner, water-power applied 4th century AD Mining, square sets for 5th century BC Mining, differential pressure ventilation 5th century BC Mirror with “light penetration surface” 11th century BC Mold board 2nd century BC Mountings, vertical and horizontal 1st century AD Mouth-organs 9th century BC Moxibustion 3rd century BC Multiple-spindle silk-twisting frame AD 1313 Negative numbers, operations using 1st century AD Noodles (filamentous) including bread AD 100 Nova, recorded observation of 13th century BC Numerical equations of higher order, solution of 13th century AD Oil lamps, economic 9th century AD Paktong (cupronickel) AD 230 Paper (invention of) 300 BC Paper, money 9th century AD Paper, toilet AD 589 Paper, wall 16th century AD Paper, wrapping 2nd century BC Parachute principle 8th century AD “Pascal” triangle of binomial coefficients AD 1100 Pasteurization of wine AD 1117 Pearl fishing conservancy 2nd century AD Pearls in oysters, artificial induction of AD 1086 “Pi,” accurate estimation of 3rd century AD Piece molding for casting bronze 2nd millenium BC Place-value number system 13th century BC Placenta used as source of estrogen AD 725 Planispheres AD 940 Plant protection, biological AD 304 Planting in rows 3rd century BC Playing cards AD 969 Polar-equatorial coordinates 1st century BC Polar-equatorial mounting of astronomical instruments AD 1270 Porcelain 3rd century BC Potassium, flame-test used in identifying 3rd century AD Pound-lock canal gates AD 984 Preservation of corpses 166 BC Printing, bronze type AD 1403 Printing, movable earthenware type on paper 11th century AD Printing, multicolor 12th century AD Printing, with woodblocks 7th century AD Propeller oar, self-feathering AD 100 Prospecting, biogeochemical 6th century AD Prospecting, geological 4th century BC Qin and sezither Recording of sun halves, parhelic specters, and Lowitz arcs AD 635 Reel on fishing rod 3rd century AD Refraction 4th century BC Rocket arrow 13th century AD Rocket arrow launchers AD 1367 Rocket arrows, winged AD 1360 Rockets, two-stage AD 1360 Roller-harrows AD 880 Rotary ballista AD 240 Rotary fan 1st century BC Sailing carriage 16th century AD Sails, mat and batten 1st century AD Salvage, underwater AD 1064 Seawalls AD 80 Seed, pretreatment of 1st century BC Seed drill, multiple-tube AD 155 “Seedling horse” 11th century AD Seismograph AD 132 Ships, construction principle of 1st century BC Ships, paddle-wheel 5th century AD Silk, earliest spinning of 2850 BC Silk reeling machine AD 1090 Silk warp doubling and throwing frame 10th century AD Sluices 3rd century BC Sluices, riffles added to 11th century AD Smallpox, inoculation against 10th century AD Smokescreens AD 178 Snow crystals, six-sided symmetry of 135 BC Soil science (ecology) 5th century BC South-pointing carriage AD 120 Soybean, fermented 200 BC Sprouts, for medicinal and nutritional purposes 2nd century BC Spindle wheel 5th century BC Spindle wheel, multiple spindle 11th century AD Spindle wheel, treadle-operated 1st century AD Spooling frame AD 1313 Square pallet chain pump AD 186 Stalactites and stalagmites, records of 4th century BC Stars, proper motion of AD 725 Steamers, pottery 5th millenium BC Steel production, cofusion method of 6th century AD Sterilization by steaming AD 980 Steroids, urinary AD 1025 Still, Chinese-type 7th century AD Stirrup AD 300 Stringed instruments 9th century BC Tea, as drink 2nd century BC Thyroid treatment 1st century BC Tian yuan algebraic notation AD 1248 Tilt-hammer, water-powered spoon AD 1145 Toothbrush 9th century AD Trebuchet (simple) 4th century BC Trip hammers 2nd century BC Trip hammers, water-powered AD 20 Vinegar 2nd century BC Water mills, geared 3rd century AD Waterwheel, horizontal AD 31 Weather vane 120 BC Wet copper method 11th century AD Wheelbarrow, centrally mounted 30 BC Wheelbarrow, with sails 6th century AD Windlass, well 120 BC Windows, revolving 5th century BC Winnowing machine 1st century BC Wu tong black palatinated copper 15th century AD Zoetrope AD 180 Appendix II: States, Kingdoms, and Dynasties of China (Principal Unified States in Capitals) Xia Kingdom 2000–1520 BC Shang Kingdom 1520–1027 BC Western Zhou 1027–771 BC Eastern Zhou 771–221 BC FIRST UNIFICATION QIN 221–207 BC WESTERN HAN 206 BC–AD 9 Xin interregnum AD 9–25 EASTERN HAN AD 25–220 First partition Three Kingdoms AD 220–265 SECOND UNIFICATION WESTERN JIN AD 265–316 EASTERN JIN AD 317–420 Second partition Southern Song AD 420–478 Southern Qi AD 479–501 Southern Liang AD 502–556 Southern Chen AD 557–588 Northern Wei AD 386–553 Eastern Wei AD 534–549 Western Wei AD 535–557 Northern Qi AD 550–577 Northern Zhou AD 577–588 THIRD UNIFICATION SUI AD 580–618 TANG AD 618–907 Third partition Five Dynasties AD 907–960 Ten Kingdoms AD 907–979 FOURTH UNIFICATION SONG AD 960–1279 LIAO AD 916–1125 WESTERN XIA AD 1038–1227 JIN (Tartar) AD 1115–1234 YUAN (Mongol) AD 1279–1368 MING AD 1368–1644 QING AD 1644–1911 REPUBLIC OF CHINA AD 1911–1949 PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC AD 1949–PRESENT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My first thanks must go to Mike McCabe of Salisbury, Connecticut, who in 1995 sold me my first book from the Science and Civilisation in China series.

The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World―and Globalization Began
by Valerie Hansen
Published 13 Apr 2020

This continued to be true of farmers in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, who followed their herds of pigs, goats, sheep, cattle, and horses. But first in France, England, and Germany, and later in Eastern and Northern Europe, farmers began to build houses and settle down in villages, thanks to crop rotation and other agricultural advances. Europe’s population nearly doubled, from less than 40 million in 1000 to 75 million in 1340 (before the Black Death struck in 1347). This increase in population coincided with the Medieval Warm Period, which began in 1000, peaked around 1100, and had ended by 1400.

Origins: How Earth's History Shaped Human History
by Lewis Dartnell
Published 13 May 2019

Over time we have increased the agricultural output either by expanding the area under cultivation–by clearing forest to make way for farmland and developing new tools and techniques, such as the heavy plough, to cultivate previously marginal land–or by selective breeding of higher-yielding crops and animals, and crop- rotation schemes. We have become increasingly adept at this through history, and consequently our population has boomed. Felling forests has also provided the firewood we need for cooking our food and heating our homes. And timber provided the heat energy needed to convert the raw materials we gathered from the natural environment into products like pottery, bricks, metals and glass.

The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and Its Solutions
by Jason Hickel
Published 3 May 2017

Forty per cent of agricultural soil is now classed as ‘degraded’ or ‘seriously degraded’.34 In fact, industrial farming has so damaged our soils that a third of the world’s farmland has been destroyed in the past four decades.35 And as our soils degrade, they are losing their ability to hold carbon, releasing enormous plumes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Fortunately, there is a solution emerging. Scientists and farmers around the world are pointing out that we can regenerate degraded soils by switching from intensive industrial farming to more ecological methods – not just organic fertiliser, but also no-tillage, composting and crop rotation. And here’s the brilliant part: as the soils recover, they not only regain their capacity to hold CO2, they begin to actively pull additional CO2 out of the atmosphere. The science on this is quite exciting. A recent study published by the US National Academy of Sciences claims that regenerative farming can sequester 3 per cent of our global carbon emissions.36 An article in Science suggests it could be up to 15 per cent.37 And new research from the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania, although not yet peer-reviewed, says sequestration rates could be as high as 40 per cent, and if we apply regenerative techniques to the world’s pastureland as well, we could capture more than 100 per cent of global emissions.38 In other words, regenerative farming may be our best shot at actually cooling the planet.

On Grand Strategy
by John Lewis Gaddis
Published 3 Apr 2018

He may doze off, but he never forgets what he’s set out to do. And so, Tolstoy writes, despite the tsar’s doubts, “widespread approval . . . accompanied the people’s election of Kutuzov as commander in chief.”51 IX. Long before Virgil took Dante through Hell, he was tutoring Octavian on the fundamentals of beekeeping, cattle breeding, crop rotation, and vine cultivation.52 Leaders, he seemed to be saying, must keep their feet on the ground. Clausewitz thinks similarly. He’d avoided no logical conclusions in his writings, he explains, “but whenever the thread became too thin I have preferred to break it off. . . . Just as some plants bear fruit only if they don’t shoot up too high, so in the practical arts the leaves and flowers of theory must be pruned and the plant kept close to its proper soil—experience.”53 How, though, do you “prune” theory?

A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity and a Shared Earth
by Chris Smaje
Published 14 Aug 2020

Cropping and rotations: These eight categories of people would produce a huge variety of foodstuffs, but I decided not to fully simulate this diversity and micro-specify exactly what they would produce. Instead I’ve restricted production in each category to a limited number of indicator crops that give an idea of how the producer might go about his or her business; in most cases, this is in the form of standard organic crop rotations. While the actual food produced would be more diverse than I’ve modelled, it doesn’t make a great deal of difference to overall nutritional outcomes. Non-food needs: In addition to food, the land would need to support textile and medicinal crops, as well as timber for construction and fuel. I’ve made some provision in the modelling for textile crops, but not medicinal ones – in both cases, the land-take is likely to be low relative to food, but the land-take for constructional timber and firewood is potentially high and the margin for producing it in the United Kingdom is tight.

Around the World in 80 Plants
by Steven Barstow
Published 6 May 2015

Please read on… Skirret is one of the better-known unusual vegetables that had its heyday in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, before the potato established itself. It can be traced back to 1548 in Britain. In France, Olivier de Serres (1651), who was incidentally one of the first to advocate planting several varieties to mitigate the risk of crop failure and also crop rotation, states that it was commonly grown in France in his day. Worlidge (1682) in his Art of Gardening describes it as having ‘the sweetest, whitest and most pleasant of roots’. Skirret reached North America in the late 18th century, but never really became popular there. I can’t find evidence for it being widely used in the Far East as sometimes claimed.

Gene Eating: The Science of Obesity and the Truth About Dieting
by Giles Yeo
Published 3 Jun 2019

Some plants, however, like legumes, can ‘fix’ atmospheric nitrogen into usable form through symbiosis with the bacteria in their root nodules, for themselves initially, but then becoming available to neighbouring or subsequent plants over time, through root dieback or fallen leaves and other material. Soybeans are one of these nitrogen-fixing plants, and for that reason, they play a key role in crop rotation, helping to ‘fix’ nitrogen into the soil, for other crops to benefit from. While the earliest historical record for soybean use comes from the Shang dynasty, sometime between 1700–1100 BC, archaeological evidence dates its domestication in China to between 6,000 and 9,000 years ago, although where exactly is still unclear.15 Certainly the charred plant remains of wild soybean have been recovered from Neolithic Jiahu, the same place where the remains of the first domesticated pigs were found.

Strange Sally Diamond: A BBC Between the Covers Book Club Pick
by Liz Nugent
Published 2 Mar 2023

I told her that I’d never look at them and I respected her privacy. She could draw or write or do whatever she wanted with them. The same week, I was returning her library books. She liked books by women. I wasn’t much of a reader. I had grown out of the adventure stories of my boyhood. All the books I had now were non-fiction, how-to books on crop rotation, DIY, marketing, entrepreneurship and occasional biographies of important men. On the way to the library, I leafed through the books, out of suspicion, and there I found her notes written in the margins of the pages and in the blank pages at the back, giving her name and my name and my father’s name, detailing what he had done to her, the date on which she had been kidnapped and a haphazard description of the route from the lake to our house.

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
by David S. Landes
Published 14 Sep 1999

Strong, quick animals could make all the difference, and cultivators pooled resources to get the right livestock. Along with these superior techniques went, as both cause and effect, a more intensive cultivation, in particular, a shift from a two-field (one half left fallow every year) to a three-field system of crop rotation (winter grain, spring grain, and one third fallow). This yielded a gain of one third in land productivity (one sixth of total cultivable land, but one third of the half previously under cultivation), which further contributed to the ability to support livestock, which increased the supply of fertilizer, which nourished yields, and so on in ascending cycle.

…

The spread of market gardening (fruits and vegetables) around London in the sixteenth century and the pursuit of mixed farming (grain and livestock and grain-fed livestock) testify to the responsiveness of both landowners and tenants. This development made for richer and more varied diets, with an exceptionally high proportion of animal protein.2 Further contributing was the adoption of new techniques of watering, fertilizing, and crop rotation—many of them brought by immigrants from the Low Countries. The Netherlands were then the seat of European agricultural improvement, a land that man had created (won from the sea) by effort and ingenuity and had cherished accordingly. Dutchmen were already teaching farming in the Middle Ages—to the Slavic frontier.

Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance
by Ian Goldin and Chris Kutarna
Published 23 May 2016

Seaworthy ships were made bigger, tougher, with more versatile sails and rudders—and became ocean-worthy. Compasses and other navigating devices became more accurate and made it possible for pilots to sail on headings they’d never dared before. Agriculture began to adopt new practices (like stall-fed cattle and crop rotation) that raised farm output for the next three centuries. Mining, having exhausted Europe’s shallow ore bodies, plumbed new depths and began to confront (and overcome) the technical challenges of doing so: draining water, venting air, hauling ore vertically, and preventing floods and explosions. Metallurgical engineers built the first blast furnaces (which produced more and better iron) and developed new alloys.

Cities Are Good for You: The Genius of the Metropolis
by Leo Hollis
Published 31 Mar 2013

Amsterdam ship builders led the way in new maritime technology ensuring their vessels, the Fluyt, could carry the largest cargo safely by reducing the number of cannon aboard while employing block and tackle hydraulic systems to ease operations and reduce labour costs. The return of novel goods from the New World incentivised sciences such as sugar-refining and metallurgy. Meanwhile the expansion of the cities demanded innovations in crop rotation and dairy farming to feed all the citizens. Being masters of the oceans encouraged a mushrooming of legal ingenuity, in which, for example, Amsterdammer Hugo Grotius set out the tenets of international law as he attempted to establish Holland’s primacy over foreign lands. Maritime science also engaged scientists to think about astronomy, horology and nautical innovation, resulting in the development and improvement of telescopes and microscopes, star charts and celestial predictions, lens grinding and time pieces as engineers hoped to find a mechanical solution to the longitude problem.

Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions
by Temple Grandin, Ph.d.
Published 11 Oct 2022

The ability to think like an animal inevitably leads to a greater empathy with animals and—in the brain of an object visualizer, especially—a determination to create and promote ways of furthering their welfare. And it doesn’t stop with animal welfare. Looking back on a long career, I have thought deeply about how using animals for food affects the environment. When grazing is done correctly, with either good pasture management or effective crop rotation, it can improve soil health and sequester carbon. Grazing animals such as sheep, cattle, and goats can also be raised on land that is too arid for crops. I know family ranchers who are good stewards of the land and run cattle operations that are truly sustainable. I’ve often been asked how I can love animals and be involved in designing slaughterhouses.

The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
by Mustafa Suleyman
Published 4 Sep 2023

What he hadn’t accounted for was the scale of human ingenuity. Assuming favorable weather conditions and using the latest techniques, in the thirteenth century each hectare of wheat in England yielded around half a ton. There it remained for centuries. Slowly the arrival of new techniques and technologies changed all that: from crop rotation to selective breeding, mechanized plows, synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, genetic modifications, and now even AI-optimized planting and weeding. In the twenty-first century, yields are now at about eight tons per hectare. The very same small, innocuous patch of ground, the same geography and soil that was reaped in the thirteenth century, can now deliver sixteen times the crop.

American Foundations: An Investigative History
by Mark Dowie
Published 3 Oct 2009

Unlike supporters of the Green Revolution, most of these newcomers acknowledge that agricultural science should be based on the farmer's experience, because that is where all of agriculture's best innovations have come from. Moreover, they believe that ecologically sound agriculture is not, as many of its critics contend, a return to unproductive hardscrabble subsistence farming. Agroecology applies new agricultural science to traditional farming methods: small-scale production, multicrop farming, crop rotation. Rather than increased production, the goal of agroecology is the enhance ment of biodiversity and protection of the ecological neighborhoods in which humans live and farm. In the long run, of course, the success of sustainable agriculture depends on humanity's ability to control it own fertility.

The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset That Drives Extraordinary Results
by Andrew McAfee
Published 14 Nov 2023

The interplay between how and why happens in all fields. Antonio Stradivari worked for decades on how to make string instruments sound better. Since his death in 1737, we’ve learned a great deal about why his creations sound so wonderful, and we can now make violins that sound even better than a Stradivarius. Farmers were experimenting with crop rotation for centuries before George Washington Carver used chemistry to show why it was such a good idea. He got planters in the American South to improve their yields by alternating nitrogen-depleting cotton with nitrogen-providing peanuts or soybeans. We’re at a fascinating point in time right now.

Europe: A History
by Norman Davies
Published 1 Jan 1996

There is a school of thought which holds that ‘an agricultural revolution’ in northern Europe at this time was ‘equally decisive in its historical effects’ as ‘the so-called Industrial Revolution’ of the nineteenth century.40 The argument centres on new sources of power such as the water-mill and the windmill, on expanded mining activities, on the impact of the iron plough and horsepower, and on crop rotation and improved nutrition. New techniques sometimes took centuries to be widely applied, but the chain effect over time was decisive. Agriculture moved into the heavier but more fertile soils of the valleys. The increased food supply fuelled a demographic explosion, especially in northern France and the Low Countries.

…

Second was the horse-collar, not noted before AD 800, which enabled the draught animal to haul maximum loads without being throttled. Third was the horseshoe, adopted c.900. Fourth was the cultivation of oats, the workhorse’s staple food. Most important of all was the introduction of the three-field system of crop rotation. The change from the two-field to the three-field plan greatly improved crop yields whilst increasing the peasant family’s productivity by at least 50 per cent. It permitted the growing of all four cereals, and effectively distributed the peasant’s toil between spring and autumn sowing. But it demanded a marked rise in ploughing capacity.

…

The Europeans re-introduced horses; in return they received two foods of capital importance, potatoes and maize, as well as the turkey, the most substantial and nutritious of domestic poultry. Potatoes were adopted in Ireland at an early date, and moved steadily across northern Europe, becoming the staple of Germany, Poland, and Russia. Maize, which was variously known as ‘American corn’ and ‘American fallow’, enriched exhausted soil and greatly facilitated both crop rotation and livestock farming. It was well established in the Po valley in the sixteenth century. It was inhibited from crossing the Alps until climatic conditions improved some hundred years later, but its long-term impact was enormous. There is good reason to count American additions to the food supply as one of the major factors underlying the dramatic growth of Europe’s population at the end of the early modern period.23 [SYPHILUS] Descriptions of the arrival of Europeans in America have recently undergone fundamental revision.

Swindled: the dark history of food fraud, from poisoned candy to counterfeit coffee
by Bee Wilson
Published 15 Dec 2008

There is also plenty of food made with real integrity and taste that is not technically “organic”: is a perfect jar of Scottish heather honey, unctuous and jellylike in its sweet richness, rendered inedible by the fact that it is not offi cially “organic”? A more serious problem is that the organic standard can mean many different things. In Britain, organic food certified by the Soil Association has to meet stringent requirements for crop rotation, the kind of manure used to enrich the soil, the way chickens and pigs are housed, fed, and looked after, and so on. Organic food without the Soil Association logo may be less exactingly produced. If you buy an organic chicken or organic eggs on the understanding that the animals who produced them led happy free-ranging lives, you may be sorely mistaken.

Salt: A World History
by Mark Kurlansky
Published 28 Jan 2003

The Celts, or their central European ancestors known as the Urnfield people, because they cremated their dead and buried them in urns, had many innovations besides those in salt mining. They developed the first organized agriculture in northern Europe, experimenting with such revolutionary ideas as fertilizer and crop rotation. They introduced wheat to northern Spain. They were sophisticated bronze casters, skilled iron miners and forgers. They introduced to much of western Europe iron and their many iron inventions, including chain armor and the feared Celtic sword, which was three feet long. But they also invented the seamless iron rim for wagon wheels, the barrel, and possibly the horseshoe.

Innovation and Its Enemies
by Calestous Juma
Published 20 Mar 2017

Organic farming also uses approved oil-based pesticides. The now-discontinued rotenone pesticide was considered safe because it was derived from plants. But research showed that it caused in rats symptoms similar to those associated with Parkinson’s disease. Organic farmers prefer a more holistic integrated pest management strategy,24 including crop rotation and labor-intensive crop husbandry. The divergent approaches helped to pave the way for the clashes that would follow when transgenic crops using Bt genes were introduced, especially in the United States in the new millennium. Transgenic crop development was made possible by the scientific community’s better understanding of genes in general.

The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant From Two Centuries of Controversy
by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
Published 16 May 2011

In 1919, few jobs were available in statistics or eugenics but Fisher landed a position analyzing fertilizers at Rothamsted Agricultural Experiment Station. Other statistical pioneers worked in breweries, cotton thread and light bulb factories, and the wool industry. Fisher’s job was analyzing volumes of data compiled over decades about horse manure, chemical fertilizers, crop rotation, rainfall, temperature, and yields. “Raking over the muck-heap,” he called it.27 At first, like Karl Pearson, Fisher used Bayes. But during afternoon teas at Rothamsted soil scientists confronted Fisher with new kinds of literally down-to-earth problems. Fascinated, Fisher worked out better ways to design experiments.

The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter
by Peter Singer and Jim Mason
Published 1 May 2006

Crops must be grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, and most synthetic pesticides and all herbicides are also banned, although biological and botanical methods of control can be used. Soil fertility is to be maintained by the use of animal and plant waste (but not sewage sludge, which can contain toxic heavy metals), crop rotation, and growing "cover crops" like clover between other crops. (Cover crops are plowed into the soil to restore nitrogen and organic matter.) Animals used for meat, eggs, or milk must eat organic grains or other organic food and must not be given growth hormones or antibiotics. (Sick or injured animals may be treated with antibiotics, but then their meat, milk, or eggs cannot be sold as organic.)

The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution
by Charles R. Morris
Published 1 Jan 2012

Crucially, as their forests shrank, Britons learned how to use coal as their primary energy source, a process that took a full century. As talented people were drawn to the cities and into business, agricultural markets expanded, pressuring agricultural productivity. Town records show common-field smallholders actively experimenting with plant varieties and crop rotation schemes to improve output. A British empirical, scientific style of thinking became a norm. And wages rose. By 1800, British wages, measured by both exchange rates and purchasing power, were the highest in Europe by a wide margin. Processes that moved at a glacial creep in the sixteenth century, coalesced and accreted in the seventeenth, and finally exploded in the eighteenth.j6 Cotton textile manufacture was the quintessential industry of the British Industrial Revolution.

Building and Dwelling: Ethics for the City
by Richard Sennett
Published 9 Apr 2018

In the early modern era, landscape designers had split into two camps about how to create a balanced environment. One was through geometric discipline. In the late seventeenth century wide ploughs and drum-seeders allowed crops to be grown in long, even rows, matching the straight lines of Le Nôtre’s gardens in Versailles. Against this disciplining geometry, the advocates of crop rotation and overplanting created fields that looked unstable or anarchic, but whose shifts were carefully controlled – just as the eighteenth century pleasure gardeners contrived the English-style gardens in which, as we have seen in Olmsted’s work, nature seems to run wild but is in fact a calculated environment.

The Human Tide: How Population Shaped the Modern World
by Paul Morland
Published 10 Jan 2019

With the arrival in his native Britain of the agricultural revolution followed by the industrial revolution, food production and trade were transformed, enabling the population to grow way beyond any previous bounds.4 Population size was no longer constrained by what could be produced locally. An industrialised country could sell its products on world markets and buy its food from around the globe. New agricultural techniques meant that more could be produced; for example, in the eighteenth century new sowing and crop rotation techniques boosted yields and in the nineteenth century agriculture was increasingly mechanised. Yields per acre rose around 50% in the early nineteenth century, and in the second half of the century huge new acreages in Canada, the United States and Australia fell under European farming techniques and their produce became available for purchase by people back in Europe.

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
by Steven Pinker
Published 14 Oct 2021

But hunger today has been decimated in most of the world: undernourishment and stunting are in decline, and famines now afflict only the most remote and war-ravaged regions, a problem not of too little food but of barriers to getting it to the hungry.11 The calories did not come in heavenly manna or from a cornucopia held by Abundantia, the Roman goddess of plenty, but from advances in agronomy. These included crop rotation to replenish depleted soils; technologies for high-throughput planting and harvesting such as seed drills, plows, tractors, and combine harvesters; synthetic fertilizer (credited with saving 2.7 billion lives); a transportation and storage network to bring food from farm to table, including railroads, canals, trucks, granaries, and refrigeration; national and international markets that allow a surplus in one area to fill a shortage in another; and the Green Revolution of the 1960s, which spread productive and vigorous hybrid crops.

The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor
by William Easterly
Published 4 Mar 2014

Cell, Hailey, 220–21. 20. Lord Hailey, An African Survey (Oxford University Press: London, 1938), xxiv-xxv. 21. Ibid., vi. 22. Ibid., 962. 23. Natasha Gilbert, “African Agriculture: Dirt Poor,” Nature 483 (29 March 2012): 525–27. 24. Food and Agriculture Organization, “Green Manure/Cover Crops and Crop Rotation in Conservation Agriculture on Small Farms” Integrated Crop Management 12 (2010). 25. Hailey, African Survey, 1662. 26. The Lord Hailey, “A New Philosophy of Colonial Rule,” United Empire XXXII (1941): 163–69; quote is page 165. 27. Ibid., 165. 28. Ibid., 166. 29. Ibid., 166. 30. Quoted in Wolton, Lord Hailey, 108–9. 31.

Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
by Charles Eisenstein
Published 11 Jul 2011

King’s fascinating 1911 book, Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan, which explains how these regions sustained enormous populations for millennia on tiny amounts of land, without mechanization, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers. Instead, they relied on sophisticated crop rotation, interplanting, and ecological relationships among farm plants, animals, and people. They wasted nothing, including human manure. Their farming was extremely labor-intensive, although, according to King, it was usually conducted at a leisurely pace. In 1907 Japan’s fifty million people were nearly self-sufficient in food; China’s land supported, in some regions, clans of forty or fifty people on a three-acre farm; in the year 1790 China’s population was about the same as that of the United States today!

First Friends: The Powerful, Unsung (And Unelected) People Who Shaped Our Presidents
by Gary Ginsberg
Published 14 Sep 2021

These dynamics foreshadowed the nature of their alliance for the next two decades, with Madison often working behind the scenes and Jefferson trying to float above the fray. Still, Jefferson could not avoid the emotional wear of statecraft. By December 1793, he had grown so worn out from constantly battling Hamilton that he resigned from Washington’s Cabinet and retired to Monticello. There, he focused on developing a crop rotation system and also established a nail factory operated by his teenage slaves. But just as in the past, Jefferson’s quasi-farmer life masked the fact that one foot still remained in politics—with Madison as his vital link. In fact, Jefferson now found it even more advantageous to exert influence from outside the administration, and Madison as always was his willing accomplice.

Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
by Simon Winchester
Published 19 Jan 2021

Through the early part of the eighteenth century, this unease showing itself was born from more than just the simple freelance acts of enclosure that so troubled the peasantry of the day: rather there was a distinct feeling of an inchoate unease, a gathering impression that the country had become awash in newfangled ideas, part of what we now know to have been the beginning of the Enlightenment. There were new and unsettling developments in farming techniques, the introduction of machinery and of four-crop rotation methods, which we in retrospect now recognize as the Agricultural Revolution. There were hints of the coming of the Industrial Revolution too, a revolution that would soon sweep like a gale through all of English society and would massively enhance the rise and role of cities, which would lure workers in vast numbers away from the countryside.

Multitool Linux: Practical Uses for Open Source Software
by Michael Schwarz , Jeremy Anderson and Peter Curtis
Published 7 May 2002

It is provided as a shared library and a set of binaries, and supports even more image formats than the GIMP (if that's possible!). The commands can be combined with shell or another scripting language to perform batch processing on large numbers of images. The convert command can be used to convert between image formats, scale, crop, rotate, or merge images, add borders to an image, adjust brightness and contrast, and perform many other operations. Not surprisingly, you can check the man page to get an idea of all the available options. ImageMagick also includes commands to display images to the screen (display), create photo montages (montage), and create animations (animate; can you see a pattern in the command names?).

The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism
by Jeremy Rifkin
Published 31 Mar 2014

Peasants combined their individual plots into open fields and common pastures and farmed them collectively. The commons became the first primitive exercise in democratic decision making in Europe. Peasant councils were responsible for overseeing economic activity, including planting and harvesting, crop rotation, the use of forest and water resources, and the number of animals that could graze on the common pastures. The feudal notion of property relations was completely different from ours today. We think of property as an exclusive personal possession that can be held or exchanged in the marketplace.

Aurora
by Kim Stanley Robinson
Published 6 Jul 2015

Molds resulted from wet conditions. Smut was fungal. Nematode invasions caused reduced growth, wilting, loss of vigor, and excessive branching of roots. They tried to reduce the nematode populations by solarizing the soil, and this worked to a certain extent, but the process took the soil involved out of the crop rotation for at least one season. Identification of viral infections in plant tissues was often accomplished, if that was the word, only by the elimination of all other possible causes of a problem. Leaf distortions, mottling, streaking: these were usually viral diseases. “Why did they bring along so many diseases?”

Venice: A New History
by Thomas F. Madden
Published 24 Oct 2012

Unlike the colleganza merchant, the commission agent did not care whether a transaction made a profit, since he received no share in it. Instead, the commission agent sought to maximize his volume by acquiring a reputation for efficient, fair, and timely execution of all instructions received. During the Middle Ages, Europeans developed a number of agricultural innovations, such as new plow designs and crop rotation methods, which added to their overall prosperity. In just the same way, the people of Venice, who neither sowed nor did they reap, developed new financial instruments to expand their own wealth. In both cases, the tools of daily life were significantly improved. For Venice, where capitalism grew and flourished, the results were astounding.

Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making for an Unknowable Future
by Mervyn King and John Kay
Published 5 Mar 2020

In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.’ 2 Like many forecasters, Ehrlich responded to the failure of his predictions by deferring the date. He was right, but not yet. 3 For the professional doomster, apocalypse is always postponed but never averted. With more attention to ‘what is going on here’, Malthus might have recognised the revolution around him in the English countryside. Crop rotation, new machinery and selective breeding were the precursors of improvements in agricultural productivity which falsified his gloomy expectations. Malthus considered the possibility, canvassed by his contemporary William Godwin, that ‘the passions’ might be dampened by economic growth, intellectual enlightenment and better education, which would lead men to focus their minds on higher things.

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
by Paul Stamets
Published 14 Apr 2005

The addition of wood chips cools the ground, increases moisture retention, and provides delayed-release nutrients as they decompose. Our experiment serves to prove how significant this practice is. When brush is burned from the land—the second sudden massive withdrawal from the forest’s carbon bank after first removing the trees—long-term ecological recovery is impaired. My sense is that continual 40-year tree crop rotations thin the soil faster than it can be built, with ever-diminishing returns. Such practices accelerate premature decline—trees climax in their life cycles prematurely—as the root wads cannot support the trees above them. As a matter of common sense, I do not believe you can harvest 3 generations of trees from the same land within 100 years, burn the brush each time, and not thin the soils.

Year's Best SF 15
by David G. Hartwell; Kathryn Cramer
Published 15 Aug 2010

Strange, isn’t it, how people cling most desperately to a thing when it becomes least useful to them?” My mother’s dream, and Mrs. Stowe’s, for that matter, had never been achieved. No Abolition by federal statute had ever been legislated. Slavery had simply become unprofitable, as its milder opponents and apologists used to insist it inevitably would. Scientific farming killed it. Crop rotation killed it. Deep plowing killed it, mechanized harvesters killed it, soil fertilization killed it. Embarrassment killed it, once Southern farmers began to take seriously the condescension and disapproval of the European powers whose textile and tobacco markets they craved. Organized labor killed it.

The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism
by Joyce Appleby
Published 22 Dec 2009

For moralists, community farming was worth maintaining because it taught men and women their duties to one another. But by the mid-seventeenth century advocates of new farm techniques had vigorously challenged this argument. They were impressed by the productivity gains achieved when the farmer had the flexibility to lay down pasture or plant grain, flood meadows, and follow his own crop rotation. The disputants evoked different ideals. Cherishing the poor and cultivating brotherly love were pitted against using one’s own wits, foresight, discipline, and intelligence to enhance the bounty of nature. Two ministers in the 1650s traded pamphlets that explored with great passion these options.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It
by Arthur Herman
Published 27 Nov 2001

The fertile river valleys in the middle Lowlands, from Ayrshire and Lanarkshire in the Clyde Valley across the Lothians to Berwick and Roxburgh, fit the agrarian stage, as lairds and tenants labored as they always had to produce the annual harvest. In fact, the Scottish version of “fixed” agriculture was anything but fixed: a prodigious wave of agricultural improvement was about to sweep over the Lowlands. One of the most enthusiastic improvers was Lord Kames himself. He constantly experimented on his family estate with new crops, crop rotation, and different manures and fertilizers—all in order to make his land more productive. Kames even dubbed agriculture “the chief of the arts,” and wrote an influential book on the subject. In it he admonished his fellow landlords and their tenants for their “stupid attachment to ancient habit and practices,” and pushed them to embrace the new.

Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies
by Geoffrey West
Published 15 May 2017

The original argument of Malthus was wrong because of the unforeseen technological advances in agriculture stimulated by the spirit and discoveries of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. These led to inventions such as the thresher, the binder, the cotton gin, the steam tractor, and the wrought iron plow with steel cutting edges, as well as advances in crop rotation and the increasing use of commercially produced fertilizer. These contributed enormously to the greater efficiency of production by increasing yields and mechanizing processes that for the previous ten thousand years had primarily been done by hand. In 1830 it took almost three hundred hours of human labor to grow one hundred bushels of wheat; by 1890 this was reduced to less than fifty hours.

Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech
by Jamie Susskind
Published 3 Sep 2018

The effect of the internet, they argue, is to destroy the market for goods that are cheap to copy. Propertarians disdain the idea that resources could be left to the commons.With sombre faces they tell of the ‘tragedy of the commons’, when land was held colectively and nobody bothered to put in place the flood protections, drainage systems, or systems of crop rotation needed to preserve its value. Everyone hoped that someone else would do it and no one did.59 The only solution, they say, is for the state to step in with the ‘marketmaking’ device of intellectual property law, i.e. rights excluding others from using the goods unless they pay.60 Intellectual property law encloses information goods into discrete items of property, such that each individual patent- or copyright-owner is incentivized to do the best they can with what they have.

The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions
by Greta Thunberg
Published 14 Feb 2023

While a shift to plant-based diets is the single largest change we could make to lower the impact food has on the environment, there are many other opportunities to create food systems that contribute to both environmental sustainability and human well-being. These include changing how food is produced, through new fertilizer management regimes or crop rotations, and reducing how much food is lost or wasted throughout the food supply chain – a third of all food produced is not consumed. However, even if many of these strategies are rapidly implemented at a global scale, it is unlikely that we will meet the 1.5°C climate target unless a shift to plant-based diets occur, simultaneously.

An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan
by Jason Elliot
Published 1 Aug 2011

Lack of fuel led to the over-cutting of wood and deforestation, leading to soil depletion, leading to landslides and the choking of the irrigation systems, leading to further neglect … like all wars it had left a legacy of different battles. It was a pleasure to talk to such a devoted and experienced man. Having just emerged from the wildest territory I had ever seen, the terminology was as impressive as it was incongruous; suddenly the room was full of talk about crop rotation, erosion management, seed hybridization, community development, income generation and instruction programmes. And would I like to see the model nursery tomorrow? * * * We drove out in the morning to inspect the young trees and vegetables growing on an experimental plot on the outskirts of the village.

The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI
by Ray Kurzweil
Published 25 Jun 2024

As more settlers poured into the young nation and moved west of the Appalachians, the percentage of Americans employed in farming actually rose, peaking at over 80 percent.[40] But in the 1820s this proportion began a rapid decline as improved agricultural technology made it possible for fewer farmers to feed more people. Initially this was the result of a combination of improved scientific methods of plant breeding and better crop rotation systems.[41] As the Industrial Revolution progressed, mechanical farming implements became major labor-saving devices.[42] The year 1890 marked the first time a majority of Americans did not work on farms, and the trend was accelerating sharply by 1910 as tractors powered by steam or internal combustion engines replaced slow and inefficient work animals.[43] During the twentieth century the advent of improved pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and genetic modification led to an explosion in crop yields.

Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West--One Meal at a Time
by Stephen Fried
Published 23 Mar 2010

The sun’s rays were so distorted that Manhattan was cast in an obscure half-light, which observers likened to a partial solar eclipse. When it was over, the topsoil that made America’s Midwest the most abundant source of grain in the world was gone—dried out and loosened by summers of drought and improper crop rotation—and the “Dust Bowl” era had begun. It decimated American agriculture and triggered one of the largest migrations in the nation’s history—nearly half a million people driving, riding, hitching, walking, hopping freight trains west. They came from Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, Missouri, Kansas, and New Mexico, mostly by Santa Fe trains or on Route 66.

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
by Nancy Isenberg
Published 20 Jun 2016

His decision to raise wheat so as not to be completely dependent on tobacco, coupled with his plan to introduce merino sheep into every Virginia county in order to produce better wool, were attempts to correct what his fellow improver George Washington lambasted as the “slovenly” habits in farmers of their state. Virginians were far behind the English in the use of fertilizers, crop rotation, and harvesting and ploughing methods. It was common for large planters and small farmers alike to deplete acres of soil and then leave it fallow and abandoned. “We waste as we please,” was how Jefferson gingerly phrased it.5 Jefferson knew that behind all the rhetoric touting America’s agricultural potential there was a less enlightened reality.

The Art of UNIX Programming
by Eric S. Raymond
Published 22 Sep 2003

A Large Python Case Study: PIL PIL, the Python Imaging Library, supports the manipulation of bitmap graphics. It supports many popular formats, including PNG, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, PPM, XBM, and GIF. Python programs can use it to convert and transform images; supported transformations include cropping, rotation, scaling, and shearing. Pixel editing, image convolution, and color-space conversions are also supported. The PIL distribution includes Python programs that make these library facilities available from the command line. Thus PIL can be used either for batch-mode image transformation or as a strong toolkit over which to implement program-driven image processing of bitmaps.

Owning the Earth: The Transforming History of Land Ownership
by Andro Linklater
Published 12 Nov 2013

When persistent farmers finally evolved a design tough enough for the job, they discovered that Tull had been right: sowing the seed in rows, rather than scattering them broadcast, and plowing the weeds in between, increased wheat yields by almost 25 percent, or four to five hushels per acre. Tull’s invention remains famous as the first of a succession of eighteenth-century innovations in crop and livestock production that were sometimes dubbed the “Agricultural Revolution.” In reality, many supposed novelties, such as the selective breeding of livestock, four-year crop rotation, and the addition of lime or marl to increase wheat yields, had already been introduced in the sixteenth century. Mechanical developments like the horse-powered threshing machine that flailed and winnowed the ear from the wheat, suffered the same long development gap as the drill, with the first patent being issued in 1756, but no widespread use until the early nineteenth century.

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
by Daniel Immerwahr
Published 19 Feb 2019

But farmers, in their own way, had comprehended it for millennia. All agricultural traditions, in order for them to last long enough to be traditions, require methods for managing nitrogen flows. These are intricate ballets between farmer and earth, choreographed by folk wisdom and danced to the rhythm of the seasons. Nitrogen-rich manures are spread, crops rotated, forests burned, fields left fallow, or lentils planted. Each locale offers its own complicated variation on an enduring theme. These complex systems faltered, however, in the nineteenth century. Industrialization required raw materials to feed the factories and grain to feed the workers. Farms that used to grow a rotating variety of crops for local consumption started focusing on the most profitable crops and grew them for distant markets.

The Rough Guide to Sweden (Travel Guide eBook)
by Rough Guides
Published 1 Nov 2019

Meanwhile, the nobility had come to constitute a military class, exempt from taxation on the understanding that they would defend the Crown. In the country, the standard of living was still low, although an increasing population stimulated new cultivation. The forests of Norrland were pushed back, more southern heathland was turned into pasture, and crop rotation was introduced. Noticeable, too, was the increasing German influence within Sweden as the Hansa traders spread. Their first merchants settled in Visby and, by the mid-thirteenth century, in Stockholm. The fourteenth century – towards unity Magnus died in 1290, power shifting to a cabal of magnates led by Torgil Knutsson.

The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning With the Myth of the Good Billionaire
by Tim Schwab
Published 13 Nov 2023

Many African farmer groups endorse a different model of agriculture, which trades under the academic-sounding name “agroecology.” A complex, systems-based approach to farming, agroecology depends, for example, on local, low-impact solutions like using manure for fertilizer instead of buying synthetic chemicals from foreign manufacturers. Farmers can also improve soil nutrition through crop rotation and crop diversity. And instead of buying hybrid or GMO seeds before each growing season, farmers can save seeds and replant them year after year—as humans have been doing for millennia. The Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania has been running side-by-side comparisons between agroecological farming and conventional, input-intensive farming for four decades, reporting similar yields between the two models, but major environmental and financial benefits to well-run agroecological farms.

Flight of the WASP
by Michael Gross

Clark’s first choice as ghostwriter was Thomas Jefferson, who had commissioned the expedition, but after the ex-president, then sixty-five, declined, Biddle, who was only twenty-four, accepted, and undertook the job without pay. h In 1835, Biddle would add fourteen acres to the property, and in 1838, another fifty-three acres, which he later gave to a son on his marriage. A cottage was added that same year. Biddle took Andalusia’s farming business seriously, studying irrigation, crop rotation, and fertilizer, speaking on those subjects, and serving as president of the Agricultural Society. Seven full-time farm workers and added help in summer tended to the farm, where he grew a wide range of fruits and vegetables. He also had an interest in breeding thoroughbred horses, which a Craig brother-in-law raced.

The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
by Walter Isaacson
Published 6 Oct 2014

Somerville’s son, Woronzow Greig, aided Ada’s efforts to settle down by suggesting to one of his former classmates at Cambridge that she would make a suitable—or at least interesting—wife. William King was socially prominent, financially secure, quietly intelligent, and as taciturn as Ada was excitable. Like her, he was a student of science, but his focus was more practical and less poetic: his primary interests were crop rotation theories and advances in livestock breeding techniques. He proposed marriage within a few weeks of meeting Ada, and she accepted. Her mother, with motives that only a psychiatrist could fathom, decided it was imperative to tell William about Ada’s attempted elopement with her tutor. Despite this news, William was willing to proceed with the wedding, which was held in July 1835.

Hunger: The Oldest Problem
by Martin Caparros
Published 14 Jan 2020

Some machines work better than others; no ideology has ever worked that didn’t convince the hungry that they were to blame for their hunger: mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. During those same years in more prosperous regions, the Islamic kingdoms spread, occupying most of the north of Africa, the south of Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. They improved agricultural production with new techniques of crop rotation, large irrigation projects, mills, and the incorporation of cultivars they brought from all over the world. Sugar cane, rice, bananas, citrus fruits, eggplants, coconut palms, and melons fed the largest cities of the time, such as Baghdad and Córdoba, with their million inhabitants, this at a time when London had only ten thousand, and most of them ate poorly.

The Taste of War: World War Two and the Battle for Food
by Lizzie Collingham
Published 1 Jan 2011

During the war, it seemed politic to adopt a more conciliatory approach which minimized the extent of social and economic disruption.60 Thus, rather than evicting landlords, they set about redistributing wealth by reducing the amount of rent landlords could demand and the interest which could be charged on loans. By giving the peasantry greater access to potential profits these measures provided them with an incentive to work hard and produce more food. A number of schemes which introduced labour teams, crop rotation, increased manuring of crops, as well as irrigation projects, all improved agricultural productivity. The great achievement of the communists was to use their only resource – labour – most effectively within the limits of agricultural under-development.61 Like the Nationalists, the communists relied on the villages for manpower for the army but they took care to minimize the potential alienation and labour shortages which were caused by military recruitment.

The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
by Richard Dawkins
Published 1 Jan 2004

The subsequent removal of the scaffolding, so that it no longer appears in the visible picture, does not entitle us to a mystified and obscurantist attribution of supernatural powers to the masons. The flagellar motor is common among bacteria. Rhizobium was chosen to tell the tale because of a second claim to impress us with the versatility of bacteria. Farmers sow plants of the pea family, Leguminosae, as a part of most good crop-rotation schemes for one very good reason. Leguminous plants can use raw nitrogen straight out of the air (it is by far the most abundant gas in our atmosphere) rather than having to suck up nitrogen compounds from the soil. But it isn't the plants themselves that fix atmospheric nitrogen and turn it into usable compounds.

This Sceptred Isle
by Christopher Lee
Published 19 Jan 2012

He wanted to avoid foreign ventures, especially those dear to the King and many of Walpole’s own ministers, including his brother-in-law Charles Townshend whom Walpole regarded as being dangerously adventurous in foreign affairs. Walpole could not be doing with opposition. So in 1730, Townshend had to go. He retreated to his Norfolk farm, developed a new system of root crop rotation and that was when he earned the nickname ‘Turnip’ Townshend. Walpole took over his portfolio. As unpopular as Walpole appeared to some in opposition, there was no one who could command enough support to truly threaten his position. Even Henry Bolingbroke, who had become a gathering point for opposition figures, was not so effectual as he might have been considering the wide range of political and literary figures who gathered at his house, including Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.

The Rough Guide to Wales
by Rough Guides
Published 14 Oct 2024

The Industrial Revolution Small-scale mining and smelting had taken place in Wales since the Bronze Age, but agriculture remained the mainstay of an economy centred on meat, wool and butter. The enormous rise in grain prices in the early nineteenth century forced Welsh farmers to diversify and adopt the more advanced English farming practices of crop rotation, fertilizing and stock breeding. Around the same time, acts of Parliament allowed previously common land to be “enclosed”, the grazing rights often being assigned solely to the largest landowner in the district. Inevitably, this forced smallholders to migrate to the towns where ever more workers were required to mine the seams and stoke the furnaces, fuelling the Industrial Revolution.

The Rough Guide to Wales
by Rough Guides
Published 24 Mar 2010

GE BUT AGRICULTURE REMAINED THE MAINSTAY OF AN ECONOMY WITH A DANGEROUSLY LIMITED DIVERSITY MEAT WOOL AND BUTTER BEING ABOUT THE ONLY EXPORTS7ITH THE ENORMOUS RISE IN GRAIN PRICES IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY 7ELSH FARMERS BEGAN TO DIVERSIFY AND ADOPTED THE MORE ADVANCED %NGLISH FARMING PRACTICES OF CROP ROTATION FERTILIZING AND STOCK BREEDING !ROUND THE SAME TIME ACTS OF 0ARLIAMENT ALLOWED PREVIOUSLY COMMON LAND TO BE hENCLOSEDv THE GRAZING RIGHTS OFTEN BEING ASSIGNED TO THE LARGEST LANDOWNER IN THE DISTRICT WHICH LEFT THE PREVIOUS OCCUPANT WITH FEW OR NO RIGHTS TO ITS USE )NEVITABLY THIS FORCED  # /.4% 843 \ (ISTORY SMALLHOLDERS TO MIGRATE TO THE TOWNS WHERE EVER MORE WORKERS WERE REQUIRED TO MINE THE SEAMS AND STOKE THE FURNACES FUELLING THE )NDUSTRIAL 2EVOLUTION )N THE NORTH *OHN 7ILKINSON STARTED HIS IRONWORKS AT "ERSHAM SEE P AND DEVELOPED A NEW METHOD OF BORING CYLINDERS FOR STEAM ENGINES WHILE IN THE SOUTH FOUNDRIES SPRANG UP IN THE VALLEYS AROUND -ERTHYR 4YDlL WHERE METHODS OF PURIFYING IRON AND PRODUCING HIGH QUALITY CONSTRUCTION STEEL WERE PERFECTED UNDER THE EYE OF %NGLISH IRONMASTERS 'RADUALLY THE UNDEREDUCATED IMPOVER ISHED CHAPEL GOING 7ELSH BEGAN TO BE GOVERNED BY RICH CHURCH GOING %NGLISH INDUSTRIAL BARONS )MPROVED MATERIALS AND WORKING METHODS ENABLED THE EXPLOITATION OF DEEPER COAL SEAMS MOST NOTABLY IN THE SOUTH 7ALES VALLEYS NOT JUST TO SUPPLY THE IRON SMELTERS BUT FOR DOMESTIC FUEL AND TO POWER LOCOMOTIVES AND STEAMSHIPS 3OUTH 7ALES WAS TRANSFORMED RURAL VALLEYS WERE RIPPED APART AND QUIET HAMLETS TURNED INTO LONG UNPLANNED ROWS OF BACK TO BACK HOUSES STRETCHING UP THE VALLEY SIDES ALL ROOFED IN NORTH 7ALES SLATE FROM QUARRIES DUG BY THE 0ENNANT AND !

Surfaces and Essences
by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander
Published 10 Sep 2012

Below are listed some concepts — just a minuscule subset of the concepts that our culture abounds in — the possession of which would seem to give us a substantial leg up on people from previous generations or centuries: Positive and negative feedback, vicious circle, self-fulfilling prophecy, famous for being famous, backlash, supply and demand, market forces, the subconscious, subliminal imagery, Freudian slip, (Edipus complex, defense mechanism, sour grapes, passive-aggressive behavior, peer pressure, racial profiling, ethnic stereotype, status symbol, zero-sum game, catch-22, gestalt, chemical bond, catalyst, photosynthesis, DNA, virus, genetic code, dominant and recessive genes, immune system, auto-immune disease, natural selection, food chain, endangered species, ecological niche, exponential growth, population explosion, contraception, noise pollution, toxic waste, crop rotation, cross-fertilization, cloning, chain reaction, chain store, chain letter, email, spam, phishing, six degrees of separation, Internet, Web-surfing, uploading and downloading, video game, viral video, virtual reality, chat room, cybersecurity, data mining, artificial intelligence, IQ, robotics, morphing, time reversal, slow motion, time-lapse photography, instant replay, zooming in and out, galaxy, black hole, atom, superconductivity, radioactivity, nuclear fission, antimatter, sound wave, wavelength, X-ray, ultrasound, magnetic-resonance imagery, laser, laser surgery, heart transplant, defibrillator, space station, weightlessness, bungee jumping, home run, switch hitter, slam-dunk, Hail Mary pass, sudden-death playoff, make an end run around someone, ultramarathon, pole dancing, speed dating, multitasking, brainstorming, namedropping, channel-surfing, soap opera, chick flick, remake, rerun, subtitles, sound bite, buzzword, musical chairs, telephone tag, the game of Telephone, upping the ante, playing chicken, bumper cars, SUVs, automatic transmission, oil change, radar trap, whiplash, backseat driver, oil spill, superglue, megachurch, placebo, politically correct language, slippery slope, pushing the envelope, stock-market crash, recycling, biodegradability, assembly line, black box, wind-chill factor, frequent-flyer miles, hub airport, fast food, soft drink, food court, VIP lounge, moving sidewalk, shuttle bus, cell-phone lot, genocide, propaganda, paparazzi, culture shock, hunger strike, generation gap, quality time, Murphy’s law, roller coaster, in-joke, outsource, downsize, upgrade, bell-shaped curve, fractal shape, breast implant, Barbie doll, trophy wife, surrogate mother, first lady, worst-case scenario, prenuptial agreement, gentrification, paradigm shift, affirmative action, gridlock, veganism, karaoke, power lunch, brown-bag lunch, blue-chip company, yellow journalism, purple prose, greenhouse effect, orange alert, red tape, white noise, gray matter, black list… Not only does our culture provide us with such potent concepts, it also encourages us to analogically extend them both playfully and seriously, which gives rise to a snowballing of the number of concepts.

The Pursuit of Power: Europe, 1815-1914
by Richard J. Evans
Published 31 Aug 2016

Instead, small farmers began to plant root crops that tapped deeper layers of the soil than wheat could do, or clover, which restored its value when ploughed back in. Even before emancipation, too, enterprising peasant communities had begun to consolidate holdings, overcoming the diseconomies associated with the strip-field system. Stock-breeding improved the quality of sheep, pigs and cattle, while crop rotation – changing the crops planted in any given field year by year so as not to exhaust the soil – further reduced the amount of fallow land and made animal fodder available during the winter, when previously many animals had to be slaughtered. Perhaps the most dramatic transformation of agriculture, in the areas where larger farms produced for a wider market and were thus able to invest, was in the use of fertilizers to replenish exhausted soil and improve crop yields.

Pandora's Star
by Peter F. Hamilton
Published 2 Mar 2004

That was around the time it began to trade with immotiles of surrounding territories. Metal ores were exchanged for the use of soldier herds to repel a territory that was starting to encroach the top of the valley ramparts. Food ferns were swapped for hardwood trunks that made better spears and clubs. Ideas were bartered, chief among them the concept of plows and crop rotation brought in from immotiles thousands of kilometers away. It was the start of true agriculture for the Prime civilization, and the associated revolution that the innovation always introduced. The amount of produce that could be grown by a motile doubled within a decade. Seeing the possibility of the concept, the immotiles began to experiment, studying how the plants grew, what soils were best.

Lonely Planet Brazil
by Lonely Planet

By the last few centuries of the pre-Christian era, the Amazon was home to numerous cohesive communities, numbering in the thousands and led by chiefs. They produced good-quality pottery and cultivated maize and manioc intensively. It was during this time that the techniques of agriculture still used today were first developed, including selective burning, crop rotation and allowing the land periodic ‘rest periods’ to regenerate. The Marajoara were among the most sophisticated pre-colonial Christian-era Amazonians, flourishing between 400 CE and 1350 on the wetlands of present-day Ilha de Marajó. They built massive earth platforms called aterros – the largest were 6m high and 250m long – to escape the annual floods.

California
by Sara Benson
Published 15 Oct 2010

But though ancestor incense now covers unsavory smells and banh mi (sandwiches) lure the lunch trade, the back alleys are strictly rough trade. The protesters out front of City Hall are another permanent presence, with a litany of causes – Tibet, healthcare, Iraq, education, Palestine, veteran’s benefits – but the crop rotation here is new. For the time being, the bleak formal garden has been upgraded by an artists’ collective with an edible, organic Victory Garden (Map; www.sfvictorygardens.org), modeled after WWII initiatives to inspire communities to grow their own food. The garden is a fitting counterpart to the Heart of the City Farmers Market (Click here) on United Nations Plaza, which on other days is an obstacle course of skateboarders, Scientologists and raving self-talkers, plus a few crafts stalls.

Southeast Asia on a Shoestring Travel Guide
by Lonely Planet
Published 30 May 2012

The Tribal Research Institute in Chiang Mai recognises 10 different hill tribes, but there may be up to 20 in Thailand. Hill-Tribe Groups The Karen is the largest hill-tribe group in Thailand and number about 47% of the total tribal population. They tend to live in lowland valleys and practise crop rotation rather than swidden agriculture. Their numbers and proximity to the mainstream society has made them the most integrated and financially successful of the hill-tribe groups. Thickly woven V-neck tunics of various colours are typically worn. There are four distinct Karen groups – the Skaw (White), Pwo, Pa-O (Black) and Kayah (Red).