Research & Scientific Publications - Page 12
The Land Institute’s work advances research and agricultural scientific knowledge and is conducted in an innovative yet rigorous professional context. Explore our findings and ideas via articles authored or co-authored by members of our staff and published in research and peer-reviewed journals.
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Agriculture and Biodiversity Loss: Industrial Agriculture
Over the last fifty to eighty years, most of the world’s agriculture has been transformed into an “industrial agriculture.” Download PDF
Comparison of Nutrient Return and Plant Uptake in Agricultural Systems
Maintenance of agricultural productivity requires sustained soil fertility by import or return of nutrients. While intensive farming systems obtain nutrients through purchased fertilizers and/or supplemental feed, extensive systems import little…
The Mirage of Genetic Engineering
The extensive adoption of transgenic plants now underway has provoked heated debate about its effects on human health, rural life, and the environment. But too many critics are neglecting to…
Natural Systems Agriculture: A Radical Alternative
Abstract: The Natural Systems Agriculture (NSA) idea was developed at The Land Institute in 1977 and was published in 1978. This new paradigm features an ecologically sound perennial food-grain-producing system…
Breeding perennial grain crops (part 3 of 3)
Part 3: One-third of the planet’s arable land has been lost to soil erosion in recent decades, and the pace of this degradation will increase as the limits of our…
Breeding perennial grain crops (part 2 of 3)
Part 2: One-third of the plant’s arable land has been lost to soil erosion in recent decades, and the pace of this degradation will increase as the limits of our…
Breeding perennial grain crops (part 1 of 3)
Part 1: One-third of the planet’s arable land has been lost to soil erosion in recent decades, and the pace of this degradation will increase as the limits of our…
Perennial wheat: The development of a sustainable cropping system for the U.S., Pacific Northwest
Abstract: Perennial wheat offers a new solution to the long-standing problems of soil erosion and degradation associated with conventional annual small-grain cropping systems in the Pacific Northwest region. Download PDF
An Economic Comparison of Traditional and Conventional Agricultural Systems at a County Level: Appendices and Expanded References
Appendices, tables and expanded references for the paper, “An economic comparison of traditional and conventional agricultural systems at a county level” by M.H. Bender, published in the American Journal of…
Energy in Agriculture and Society: Insights from the Sunshine Farm
Accompanying Tables 1-3 found here are available in downloadable PDF format. Click here and the PDF will automatically begin downloading. To read a PDF file you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed…
An economic comparison of traditional and conventional agricultural systems at a county level
Abstract: In Holmes and Wayne Counties, Ohio, respectively, one-half and one-fourth of the farms belong to the Amish, an agrarian culture whose traditional agriculture has been remarkably successful. In an…
Age Of Maturity And Life Span In Herbaceous, Polycarpic Perennials
Abstract: A review of age of maturity in herbaceous, polycarpic perennials found that the most common year of earliest maturity for wild and cultivated conditions was the second year of…