This work draws on many stories of successful transformation. A sustainable agriculture making the best of nature and people's knowledge and collective capacities has been showing increasingly good promise. Everyone is in favour of sustainability, yet few go seriously beyond the fine words. The text shows that there is no alternative to radical reform of national agricultural, rural and food policies and institutions - the time has come for the next agricultural revolution.

The hungry and malnourished masses on the one hand and the overfed and dys-nourished few on the other, along with the environmental degradation that many farming practices produce, makes Pretty (environment and society, U. of Essex) think there are major problems with existing agricultural and food systems. He advocates an emerging approach to agriculture that is based on ecological principles and is in harmony with people and their societies and cultures. Distributed in the US by Stylus. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Something is wrong with our agricultural and food systems. Despite great progress in increasing productivity in the last century, hundreds of millions of people remain hungry and malnourished. Can nothing be done or is it time for the expansion of another sort of agriculture, founded on more ecological principles, and in harmony with people, their societies and cultures?This book draws on many stories of successful transformation. A sustainable agriculture making the best of nature and people's knowledge and collective capacities has been showing increasingly good promise. Everyone is in favor of sustainability, yet few go seriously beyond the fine words. This book shows that there is no alternative to radical reform of national agricultural, rural and food policies, and institutions - the time has come for the next agricultural revolution.

An account of problems afflicting agriculture, food production and our relationship to the land - and how to resolve them. It draws on stories of successful transformation, showing that there is no alternative to radical reform of national agricultural, rural and food policies and institutions.