Literature on Organic Agriculture

Organic agriculture has a rich history of farmers, researchers, and philosophers writing about holistic agriculture practices. As an introduction, five classic titles that provide historical perspective are listed below.

In addition, three resources are provided as access points for further reading: (1) Tracing the Evolution of Organic-Sustainable Agriculture, a bibliography from the National Agricultural Library, (2) the Soil and Health web library, an on-line collection of classic texts, and (3) Future Horizons, a literature review from University of Nebraska

An Agricultural Testament. 1943. By Sir Albert Howard. Oxford University Press, New York and London. 253 p.

The Living Soil. 1949. By Lady Eve Balfour. Faber and Faber, LTD., London, England. 270 p.

Soils and Men: Yearbook of Agriculture 1938. 1938. USDA. United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 1232 p.

Pay Dirt: Farming and Gardening with Composts. 1945. By J.I. Rodale. Devin-Adair Co., New York. 242 p.

Fertility Pastures: Herbal Leys as the Basis of Soil Fertility and Animal Husbandry. 1955. By Newman Turner. Faber and Faber, London.204 p.

Tracing the Evolution of Organic/Sustainable Agriculture: A Selected and Annotated Bibliography. 1988. By Jane Potter Gates.
National Agricultural Library, Bibliographies and Literature of Agriculture (BLA) No. 72.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/AFSIC_pubs/tracing.htm
The Alternative Farming Systems Information Center at the National Agricultural Library compiled this bibliography [above] in 1988, yet it is still one of the best collections of literature to draw from on the history of organic/sustainable agriculture.


The Holistic Agriculture Library
http://www.soilandhealth.org/ [Agriculture Library]


The Soil And Health Library, a web library compiled by Steve Solomon in Tasmania,
features full-text on-line versions of out-of-print organic agriculture classics.

Plowman's Folly (1943). By Edward Faulkner.

Chemicals, Humus and the Soil (1948). By Donald P. Hopkins.

Farming and Gardening For Health or Disease [later editions titled Soil and Health] (1945). By Sir Albert Howard.

An Agricultural Testament (1943). By Sir Albert Howard.

The Waste Products of Agriculture: Their Utilization as Humus (1931). By Sir Albert Howard and Yeshwant D. Wad.

Soil Microorganisms and Higher Plants (1958).
By N.A. Krasil'nikov, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow.

Fertility Farming (1951). By Newman Turner.


Future Horizons: Recent Literature in Sustainable Agriculture. 1997. Extension and Education Materials for Sustainable Agriculture, Volume 6. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems. 222 p.


The Center for Sustainable Agriculture Systems at the University of Nebraska compiled this resource guide as part of a USDA-SARE grant. It reviews more than 90 books on sustainable agriculture.

On-line and for-sale print versions are available on the Internet at:

Future Horizons: Recent Literature in Sustainable Agriculture
http://ianrwww.unl.edu/ianr/csas/extvol6.htm


The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture http://chla.library.cornell.edu/


Electronic collection of full-text agricultural books published between the early nineteenth century and the middle to late twentieth century. Dozens of classic titles!


geewhiz, this is getting to be so long, why didn't i just give you the link ;-)
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/vegetable-guide.html
WARNING, this page is "Part I". Click link at bottom for part 2

happy organic living!
tf

Tamara, I really appreciated your post - my book buying days are over, and finding some of these classics online is extremely helpful.

Thank you, Karen

:-) at your service!

for free printed info try www.attra.org great stuff, mailed to you FREE, no catch, from a govt agency

Tamara, that's a wonderful site - thank you. We try to practice sustainable living, but a major problem in growing some of our own vegies and herbs is that the 50' width of our property does not shield us from the herbicides and chemicals used by our neighbor. The laws around here seem to favor suburban neatness dependent upon chemicals over natural ecosystems and home organic production of food.

contact you rlocal soil conservation district to purchase hedgerow trees and plants as a windbreak against chmical drifts. attra also has info on that. http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/farmscape.html though it is more farm oriented you can adapt anything!

you can literally "fence in" your garden with the windbreaks, and it will also provide wildlife shleter and benefeical insect homes.

i have a farm to the north, NW, NE of me. and a natural gas plant to the W, SW. then neighbors to the S, SE, and E use chemicals too.

one year the sprayer for the farm decided to use a plane instead, and my mother (outside working all day) immediately was sick. she didn't "report" it, so the doctors looked for other things, even diagnosed her with something on the other side of where the immense pain was. 15 months later she had a hysterectomy because of uterine, ovarian, and cervical cancer. TCEQ (Texas Commission on Enviromental Quality) tells me that herbicides are known causes of reprodcutive cancers. we are just glad she is alive! and becasue other people reportred it and sued, there won't be anothe crop duster here.

i bet you wish you could move, sometimes so do I. but my neighbor farmer, who has lost crop due to emmittents from the gas plant says you just gotta protect what you have. the lady at TCEQ said she's right, because there is nowhere you can go and not have some pollution.

i found some signs that can be purchased. they wouldn't do me any good, my nieghbors wouldn't see or read them or would be offended. but eventually when my windbreaks are up good, i will post them.
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/sprayingpro.html

if we each do what we can, things will get better. the tide is turning, ever so slowly it seems...

So sorry to hear about your mother, but very glad you and your community stopped the overhead spraying by plane.

We do have an old, thick yew hedge that helps, but the fumes from chemical drift are still powerful in our garden when some of our neighbors spray - they seem quite removed from the significance of what they do.

But I believe you're right about each of us doing what we can - we may not see results immediately, but over time, if we continue living by our ideals and keep trying to cultivate awareness in people around us, I agree that things are bound to come around.

:-)

Thanks for this link.

Very informative. I have bookmarked it.