The US pork industry has long believed in “continuous process improvement” for all aspects of pork production, and the search for better nutrition, genetics, facilities, welfare, and health has driven the evolution of the industry over the decades. As a result, today’s US pork industry is a world leader in production efficiency, product quality, and competitiveness. However, recent events have exposed two threats to this leadership position:

pathogens endemic to the US that resist traditional control strategies and
pathogens (trade impacting diseases) whose detection within our borders would immediately cause a ban of US pork from global markets and result in a seismic shift and economic hardship across the entire US pork industry.
Benjamin Franklin’s words seem written for these circumstances: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” That is, it is our responsibility to prepare for the risks that threaten our future. But how should the industry move forward? Initiated in 1935, the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP) is a poultry industry-driven entity designed to promote health and control targeted diseases among participating US poultry producers and slaughter facilities, and presents a possible model for the pork industry to learn from and consider. A study was commissioned by the Swine Health Information Center in 2018 with the aim of understanding the NPIP and assessing the potential for an NPIP like program to support the US pork industry. While there are many species- and industry-specific considerations, in the opinion of these authors, the findings of this study suggest that a “US Swine Health Improvement Plan,” modeled after the NPIP, could provide an effective platform for addressing the major swine health related challenges, opportunities, and risks confronting the 21st century US pork industry.

There is a growing awareness to the role that natural resources, such as water, land, forests and environmental amenities, play in our lives. There are many competing uses for natural resources, and society is challenged to manage them for improving social well-being. Furthermore, there may be dire consequences to natural resources mismanagement. Renewable resources, such as water, land and the environment are linked, and decisions made with regard to one may affect the others. Policy and management of natural resources now require interdisciplinary approaches including natural and social sciences to correctly address our society preferences.This series provides a collection of works containing most recent findings on economics, management and policy of renewable biological resources, such as water, land, crop protection, sustainable agriculture, technology, and environmental health. It incorporates modern thinking and techniques of economics and management. Books in this series will incorporate knowledge and models of natural phenomena with economics and managerial decision frameworks to assess alternative options for managing natural resources and environment.

Written entirely by members of the Canadian Society of Soil Science, "Digging into Canadian Soils: An Introduction to Soil Science" provides an introduction to the core disciplines of soil science, and introduces the concepts and vocabulary needed by students just beginning their soil science journey. The textbook provides supplementary materials that are specific to regions in Canada, or may be of specific interest beyond what might be considered introductory soil science material. Importantly, the textbook also is intended to introduce students to the Canadian System of Soil Classification by providing examples from across the length and breadth of the world’s second largest country, and to the Canadian Society of Soil Science, whose members share a common passion for soil science and are keen to share and instill this passion with students across Canada.

The Second Edition of Economics of Food and Agricultural Markets (2019) is written for applied intermediate microeconomics courses. The book showcases the power of economic principles to explain and predict issues and current events in the food, agricultural, agribusiness, international trade, labor markets, and natural resource sectors. The field of agricultural economics is relevant, important and interesting. The study of market structures, also called industrial organization, provides powerful, timely, and useful tools for any individual or group making personal choices, business decisions, or public policies in food and agricultural industries.

The discipline of Biosystems Engineering emerged in the 1990s from the traditional strongholds of agricultural engineering and food engineering. Biosystems engineering integrates engineering science and design with applied biological, environmental, and agricultural sciences. Introduction to Biosystems Engineering is targeted at 1st and 2nd year university-level students with an interest in biosystems engineering but who are not yet familiar with the breadth and depth of the subject. It is designed as a coherent educational resource, also available for download as individual digital chapters. The book can be used as a localized, customizable text for introductory courses in Biosystems Engineering globally. It is written as a series of stand-alone chapters organized under six major topics: Food and Bioprocessing; Environment; Buildings and Infrastructure; Information and Communications Technology and Data; Machinery Systems; and Energy. Each chapter is organized around stated learning outcomes and describes key concepts, applications of the concepts, and worked examples.

Permaculture Design is a method of land planning that can be applied at scales from the home garden to city block to village to farm. It is an ethically based whole-systems design approach that uses concepts, principles, and methods derived from ecosystems, indigenous technologies, and other time-tested practices to create sustainable human settlements and institutions. Although rooted in horticulture and agriculture, Permaculture design is interdisciplinary, touching on a wide range of subjects including regional planning, ecology, animal husbandry, appropriate technology, architecture, social justice, and international development.

This open text book is derived from the content of the Massive Open Online Course “Intro to Permaculture”. The original course also included interactive mapping and design tools that accompanied this content. The course and book provide a general overview of the Permaculture design system. The book can be downloaded as a print version. However, there are many accompanying videos and content pages that are linked to throughout the text, so it is best viewed online where the links can be accessed.

Learning from agri-environment schemes in Australia is a book about the birds and the beef — more specifically it is about the billions of dollars that governments pay farmers around the world each year to protect and restore biodiversity. After more than two decades of these schemes in Australia, what have we learnt? Are we getting the most out of these investments, and how should we do things differently in the future? Involving contributions from ecologists, economists, social scientists, restoration practitioners and policymakers, this book provides short, engaging chapters that cover a wide spectrum of environmental, agricultural and social issues involved in agri-environment schemes.

Climate is also where we begin the design process in another tool referenced in the Permaculture design system. This is the Scale of Landscape Permanence, originated by P.A.Yeomans, the founder of Keyline™ Design. Yeomans asserts that the order of design is:

Climate
Landshape
Water Supply
Roads/Access
Trees
Structures
Subdivision Fences
Soil
This book is predominantly about climate, and the macro influences of climate and climate change on design. As we get through the topics of climate analogues and climate change forecasting, we will end up moving down this list to see the climate’s influence on specific design choices.

This module by Andrew Millison focusses on farm-scale water systems, and goes in depth into the Permaculture and Keyline strategies for managing water in the landscape for agricultural applications: ponds, roads, trees and soils. The module consists of a YouTube video playlist, a case study example and quiz, and a page of resources. The content has no deadline, and will remain up online indefinitely, so take your time browsing the 24 videos that make up the bulk of the teachings.

This book aims to open that discussion in the belief that we can obtain for food at least some of the (though partial) successes that we have been able to obtain with water.

Socioeconomics may be under greater pressure to define itself than the “classical”sciences. The latter have largely been defined by the conceptualization of real-worldphenomena: biology, for example, arose because of the willingness to better under-stand the phenomenon of life in its different specificities. Economics arose to studyand resolve the issue of scarcity. And sociology was created to analyze the dynamicsof societal groups.But socioeconomics? Its name pays tribute to the existence of sociology andeconomics, so one might either suspect that socioeconomics is merely is a combina-tion of both sciences (S + E = SE), or that there is an intersection of sociology andeconomics which is best termed as socioeconomics (S∩E = SE). Most past attemptsto define socioeconomics as a science in its own right may have been motivated tocounter such a simplistic understanding of socioeconomics.In this chapter, we review past attempts to define socioeconomics before theapproach is chosen that we applied in this book.

The Soils Laboratory Manual, K-State Edition is designed for students in undergraduate, introductory soil science courses, and highlights the many aspects of soil science, including: soil genesis and classification, soil physical properties, soil-water interaction, soil biology, soil chemistry, and soil fertility. The lab manual includes 15 different laboratories, each one starting with an introduction and pre-lab assignment, followed by in-lab activities, and complimented by post-lab assignment. In-lab activities involve field trips, experiments, observation stations, or problem sets. Post-lab assignments include online quizzes, problem sets, or laboratory summary reports.

This book, by a leading expert in urban agriculture, offers a genuine solution to today’s global food crisis. By contributing more to feeding themselves, cities can allow breathing space for the rural sector to convert to more organic sustainable approaches. Biel’s approach connects with current debates about agroecology and food.

Tennessee State University Open Education Resource - Affordable Learning Solutions Webpage Portal for post-secondary content across higher education academic disciplines in partnership with www.MERLOT.org.

This manual was developed by Virginia Cooperative Extension for Master Gardeners who are training to be certified advanced Master Gardener tree stewards. Written by a dedicated team of volunteers who themselves completed advanced Master Gardener tree steward training, the manual covers a wide range of topics, specific to each region of Virginia, including identifying trees, selecting and planting appropriate trees for local landscapes, caring for trees, and troubleshooting tree problems.