Reports
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2013 Review: “Wake Up Before it is Too Late: Make Agriculture Truly Sustainable Now for Food Security in a Changing Climate”
United Nations Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food in Canada (and how this right is not being satisfied)
Canadian National Farmer’s Union 2005 Report: “The Farm Crisis: its Causes and Solutions”
Miguel A. Altieri: “Agroecology: Principles and Strategies for Designing Sustainable Farming Systems.”
Food & Water Watch: “Public Research, Private Gain: Corporate Influence Over University Agricultural Research”
Learning Resources
EMMO: The Folger Shakespeare Library’s Early Modern Manuscripts Online
Cornell University’s Core Historical Literature of Agriculture site
The Hartlib Papers (Digitized Collection of Samuel Hartlib’s Manuscripts)
University of Nottingham’s Laxton Medieval Village Learning Resource
University of Reading’s Museum of English Rural Life
University of Alberta Peel’s Prairie Provinces
Examples of Historical Texts (available through the Learning Resources above)
Rei Rusticae Scriptores, which incorporated the work of Cato, Varro, Columella and Palladius, as well as the full works of these classical writers.
Virgil’s Georgics (for practical information that can be gleaned from the poem, as well as for classical farming values)
Walter Blith’s The English Improver Improved (1649, 1642, 1653) contains much information on manures, crop rotation, convertible husbandry, and other practices for increasing soil fertility.
William Ellis’s various books on growing hops, raising sheep, farrier work, making cider, improving soils, and other topics.
Anthony Fitzherbert’s The Book of Husbandry (1523, 1534) and The Book of Surveying and Improvements (1523, 1539), both of which offer diverse information on crops, animal husbandry, the building of fences and hedges, the digging of ditches, etc.
Gervase Markham’s A Discourse of Horsemanship (1593) and Hunger’s Prevention, or the Whole Art of Fowling by Water and Land (1621)
Samuel Trowell’s A New Treatise of Husbandry (1739) offers good general information on farming and husbandry.
Organizations
La Via Campesina (and an article on their twentieth anniversary: Provost, Claire. “La Via Campesina Celebrates 20 Years of Standing up for Food Sovereignty.” The Guardian. June 17, 2013.)
Common Ground, a UK eco-arts group that advocates for local distinctiveness, which goes hand-in-hand with holistic farming
CUESA (U.S.) whose vision should be shared: “We envision a healthy world nourished by environmentally sound, humane, economically viable, and socially just food systems.”
Marin Agricultural Land Trust as an excellent example of an agricultural land protection society in the U.S.
Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service which hosts an annual conference on organic farming in the U.S.
National Farmers Union in Canada
Our Food Future in the UK
Permaculture Research Institute in Australia
Pesticide Action Network North America, which raises awareness on the dangers of pesticides and corporate, industrial food production
Post-Carbon Institute in the U.S.
Plunkett Foundation: “Improving Rural Lives Together” in the UK
Rodale Institute, “Organic Pioneers Since 1947” in the U.S.
Sustainable Food Trust in the UK
UW-Madison’s Centre for Integrated Agricultural Systems
Young Agrarians, “Growing the Next Generation of Farmers and Food” in Canada
News and Other Articles
Carrington, Damian. “Warning of ‘Ecological Armageddon’ After Dramatic Plunge in Insect Numbers.” The Guardian. Oct. 18, 2017.
Carrington, Damian. “Neonicotinoids Linked to Recent Fall in Farmland Bird Numbers.” The Guardian. July 9, 2014.
Kimmerer, Robin. “Speaking of Nature.” Orion. March/April, 2017. (So good and important in helping us to recognize and hopefully begin to overcome the narrative of separation that exists in what we call modern western culture.)
Monbiot, George. “We’re Treating Soil Like Dirt. It’s a Fatal Mistake, as our Lives Depend on it.” The Guardian. March 25, 2015.
Montenegro, Maywa. “Banking on Wild Relatives to Feed the World.” Gastronomica. March 14, 2017.
Philpott, Tom. “New Research: Synthetic Nitrogen Destroys Soil Carbon, Undermines Soil Health.” Grist. February 24, 2010.
Pollan, Michael and Debbie Barker. “A Secret Weapon to Fight Climate Change: Dirt.” The Washington Post. December 4, 2015.
Snipstal, Blain. “Agroecology and the People’s Struggle for Land and Freedom.” Ecologist. April 23, 2015.
Tucci, Ricardo. “John D. Liu Interview: It is Possible to Rehabilitate Large-Scale Damaged Ecosystems.” June 29, 2016.
Union of Concerned Scientists: “Growing Economies: Connecting Local Farmers and Large-Scale Food Buyers to Create Jobs and Revitalize America’s Heartland.” 2016.
University of Sheffield. “Restoring Soils Fit for Future Generations.” November 27, 2015.
Weingarten, Debbie. “Quitting Season: Why Farmers Walk Away from Their Farms.” Civil Eats. February 12, 2016.
Weingarten, Debbie. “Why Are America’s Farmers Killing Themselves in Record Numbers?” The Guardian. Dec. 6, 2017.
Websites and Videos
Agenda Gotsch: “Life in Syntropy”
All of the posts on this regenerative systems design blog by Daniel Christian Wahl
Brad Lancaster: “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond”
Jean-Martin Fortier: “The Market Gardener”
John D. Liu: “Green Gold”
Riverford Farm on Organic Agriculture: “Nature, not Nasties”
Sheldon Frith: “The Nine Most Important Techniques in Regenerative Agriculture”
Modern Books on Good Farming Today and in the Past
Dan Barber’s The Third Plate
Anything and everything by Wendell Berry; one recommendation is Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
Ben Falk’s The Resilient Farm and Homestead: An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach
Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac
Anything and everything by Joan Thirsk, pioneering food and agriculture historian