The Agri-Environment

An academic textbook and practical guide to farm conservation, based on the authors' extensive teaching experience.

John Warren (Author), Clare Lawson (Author), Kenneth Belcher (Author)

9780521849654, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 December 2007

232 pages, 35 b/w illus. 19 tables
25.3 x 17.6 x 1.5 cm, 0.612 kg

'…easy to read. … a very balanced view of a number of topics that tend to polarise people, such as organic agriculture and the potentials for GM technology. …I enjoyed reading this book…' Bulletin for the British Ecological Society

The application of ecological theory and conservation biology to agricultural ecosystems has become an important and growing research field and undergraduate course component in recent years. This book is both an academic textbook and practical guide to farm conservation, and has evolved from the authors' extensive teaching experience. It covers the ecology of farmed land, how agricultural practices influence the environment, how agriculture has changed over time and how the species that inhabit the agri-environment have adapted. It also covers the history of agricultural policy and subsidies and the development of agri-environment schemes. A number of different farming systems are discussed, as are the difficulties in determining their relative merits. Guidance is offered on how to produce a workable farm conservation plan, and the final chapters look to the future and the development of new, greener farming systems.

1. An introduction to agro-ecology
2. Agricultural support and environmentalism
3. Environmental impacts of agriculture
4. Principles behind agri-environment schemes
5. Farm conservation planning
6. Habitat management
7. The management of agricultural wastes
8. Low impact farming systems
9. Landscape and farmscape ecology
10. The future of agri-environmental systems.

Subject Areas: Agriculture & farming [TV], Conservation of the environment [RNK], Environmental management [RNF]