Daniel Imhoff

The subject really should have top star rating, but I guess I'm judging based on readability, with a preference for fiction. Actually, since it's a collection, the entries vary considerably. One point I'm taking from it is that losses to predators can be seen as a "tithe" to nature--and one that is more cost effective, sustainable and healthier than the chemicals, traps, and poisons it would take to completely eliminate any predator presence.
I really enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's "A Forest's show more Last Stand" which makes us see the Mayans as a living culture, not just abandoned Mexican ruins, and presents a creative solution to providing homes for refugees while protecting wilderness.
Scott McMillan's "Wild Work Crew" is brief and enjoyable presentation of learning how to live with beavers, and benefit from their dambuilding, rather than exterminating them.
Admittedly I skimmed thru lots of chapters which just rehash the current situation in our American standard of living/production/consumerism.
Brian Halweil's "Can Organic Farming Feed us All?" answers that often asked question in the affirmative. He cites studies supporting this, and critiques the assumptions previous pundits have used to prove that organic farming is just a fad of hippies.
Luba Vangelova's chapter "Living with Wolves" was very readable description of protecting their sheep with trained dogs and the need to educate people to be accepting of some wolf presence: starting with school children where games teach the role of predators in the ecosystem.
Aldo Leopold's chapter (from a 1991 essay) goes over ecosystem cycles, and introduces the idea of a resilient biota--an idea I've seen expanded elsewhere--where biodiversity helps an ecosystem rebound from stressors such as drought, pest infestation. He encourages farmers to think of ways to move the energy the plants store from sun up the food pyramid before returning it to the soil (currently rodent populations are the top trophic level on modern farms). "A good farm must be one where the wild fauna and flora has lost acreage without losing its existence.
Reed Noss, in "Context Matters", reminds us to look at the larger area within which exists the piece of property we manage. Rather than trying to maintain a wide diversity of habitats, each of them quite small, see if there is some type that is rather unique to your property. Or see if there are ways you can maintain corridors and connections between other wild area. Often, nowadays, degraded lands may have quite a biodiversity of species but they are all opportunistic, or edge species which can get along quite well almost anywhere. More concerning is maintaining habitat for those species with limited range, or requirements for inner woods, wide prairies, expansive wetlands.
Rick Bass, in "Keeping Track", describes a winter walk with a forester & tracker in VT. He quotes Sue Morse: "Only by doing this sort of homework--literally keeping track of wildlife use--can we know a given habitat's true value." This is the kind of work I'd like to be able to do.
John Davis, in "Rebuilding After Collapse", being pessimistic about our ability to stop the destruction that is steamrolling over our American landscape, advises thinking about how to keep some pieces of habitat functioning, so they can act as arcs, expanding and restoring after humans finally change their ways (because we've suffered our own epidemics? or "survivors of industrial collapse"?). I'm not sure his advice on using computers now (while we still have an infrastructure) to make plans that identify the carrying capacity of each ecosystem has any utility. Who's going to know where to find these analyses? What about climate change upsetting current habitats? But I do like his advice that all life-affirming groups should build alliances which will fruitfully support each other during the "coming chaos". He suggests the value of self-restraint needs to be re-inculcated in humans so future generations will survive.
2011 review. show less

A thorough explanation of US food policy since the 1930s, with a focus on the state of affairs in 2012. A lot of change was in the air at the time, so more research is needed to know how the Farm Bill (Food Bill) has evolved since. The text starts to feel repetitive at times, as if it were written for people not to read cover to cover. But it gives many, many resources and suggestions for taking action.

A deconstruction of the complex Farm Bill policy, with detailed analysis and in an historical context.

Holy fuck. Um, go vegan, assholes?