atLEAF Chlorophyll meter is a powerful, handheld, easy to use device for noninvasive measurements of the relative chlorophyll content of green leaf plants. Chlorophyll content can be an indicator of the plant’s health and Nitrogen uptake levels. Plant relative chlorophyll concentration is measured by inserting the leaf of the plant into the device aperture. Green leaves of up to 0.1 inch (3mm) thickness can be measured with just one press of a button. By utilizing the atLEAF+ four keys you can assign species names to the measurements; until 500 names can be stored in atLEAF+, view up to 5,000 measurements stored in the device’s memory, delete the most recently performed measurement, delete all measurements, transfer plant names to the device or measurements to a computer using the USB mode
Acres U.S.A. is the national magazine of organic and sustainable farming. In continuous publication for over 35 years, Acres U.S.A. reaches more commercial-scale organic and sustainable farmers than any other publication in North America.
Begun in 1970, when there were merely a few lone souls practicing eco-agriculture, farming that is both economical and ecological, Acres U.S.A. founder and executive editor Charles Walters recognized how the methodical cheating of small farmers and the enforced swing toward new, chemical agriculture were gears in the same machine, working in tandem to transform the countryside — and not for the better. Corporate power and public policy were colluding in the destruction of the family farm, and the process of annihilation was gathering speed. Walters met, interviewed and presented to the public the works of soil scientists, farmers, economic thinkers and farm policy experts who were gradually being pushed aside by mainstream publications in favor of more modern, and more toxic, solutions. He worked tirelessly to reveal the inadequacies of chemical farming, and promoted gently coaxing nature into yielding her bounty.
Decades later, Acres U.S.A. readers continue to receive the latest news and in-depth analyses of ecological agriculture technologies, economic issues and environmental news each month. They meet successful eco-farmers through case reports. Top figures in eco-agriculture share their stories, struggles and successes through the Acres U.S.A. Interview. And eco-agriculture is brought full-circle through countless discussions of complex veterinary and human health and healing issues. Add in regular columns on marketing, grazing, tillage methods, soils, weed and insect control, high-value crops, news from around the world, meetings, and more, and you’ll begin to understand the scope of what Acres U.S.A. offers.
Based on the work of scientists and farmers whose sophisticated approach to agriculture reveals chemical farming as obsolete and misguided, Acres U.S.A. teaches readers how to embrace the science of nature. Rather than batter nature into submission with bizarre chemistry that short-circuits natural processes, sustainable farmers feed the soil and bring it into balance. Subsequently, they are rewarded with superior crops and lower input costs. Acres U.S.A. has helped thousands of farmers feed the nation’s growing appetite for clean, delicious food and showed them how to make a profit while they’re at it.
Acres U.S.A. holds a unique understanding of and role in the eco-agriculture movement, introducing readers to the experts who are putting both new practices and proven methods to work in the field. We’re not reporting on trends from afar; our writers are experts in their field, providing high-level, useful information for serious farmers.
Acres U.S.A. is independent of government, Extension, the universities, agribusiness and the agrichemical industry. We’re a family-owned business and an outspoken authority on eco-farming, unfettered from any outside interests. We aim for comprehensive coverage of the multitude of issues within the vast field of farming.
Learn from the oldest and largest magazine focusing on sustainable agriculture, emphasizing practical, soils up advice for sophisticated, innovative farmers. Leading the movement toward chemical-free agriculture for over 35 years, our readers rely on Acres U.S.A. for the latest techniques for growing bountiful, nutritious crops and raising healthy, vibrant livestock.
In this provocative, wide-ranging book, Richard Manning offers a dramatically revisionist view of recent human evolution, beginning with the vast increase in brain size that set us apart from our primate relatives and brought an accompanying increase in our need for nourishment. For 290,000 years, we managed to meet that need as hunter-gatherers, a state in which Manning believes we were at our most human: at our smartest, strongest, most sensually alive. But our reliance on food made a secure supply deeply attractive, and eventually we embarked upon the agricultural experiment that has been the history of our past 10,000 years.
The evolutionary road is littered with failed experiments, however, and Manning suggests that agriculture as we have practiced it runs against both our grain and nature’s. Drawing on the work of anthropologists, biologists, archaeologists, and philosophers, along with his own travels, he argues that not only our ecological ills-overpopulation, erosion, pollution-but our social and emotional malaise are rooted in the devil’s bargain we made in our not-so-distant past. And he offers personal, achievable ways we might re-contour the path we have taken to resurrect what is most sustainable and sustaining in our own nature and the planet’s.
Various biotic factors cause diseases in crops, which result in food losses. Historically pesticide development has been instructive to us in terms of the benefits derived as well as the hazards that accompany their indiscriminate use. The application of fertilizers and pesticides to crops has become a norm in agricultural production, but this has led to resurgence in pests as they have developed resistance to such chemicals. Biological control of plant pests and pathogens is part of the solution to this problem. This is an area that continues to inspire research and development. It is also the foundation on which sustainable, non-polluting pest control for tomorrow’s farms must be built.
Biological Controls for Preventing FoodDeterioration provides readers with options of non-chemical, eco-friendly, environmentally safe natural alternatives to prevent food from spoilage at pre- and postharvest stages. It covers the principles behind these techniques and their implementation. By integrating theory and practice, this book discusses the potential and associated problems in the development of non-chemical alternatives to protect food and addresses the common hurdles that need to be overcome to enable commercialization and registration of natural products for combating diseases.
Focussing on plant foods, this timely book is unique in scope as it offers an international perspective on food deterioration caused by bacterial, fungal, viral, and mycotoxin contamination. It brings together highly respected scientists from differingyet complementary disciplines in one unified work that is important reading for food safety professionals, researchers and students.
