Managing Energy, Nutrients, and Pests in Organic Field Crops

This book presents information on organic field cropping and discusses possibilities to make these systems more productive, energy efficient, and economically viable. Chapters summarize the latest data, create a comprehensive and coherent picture of issues, and integrate agronomic, economic, and policy interpretations. The book clearly demonstrates how organic systems can effectively be designed to optimize farm conditions. Sections focus on organic research, soil health, pest management, energy efficiency, integrating organic approaches, as well as economics and policy.

Rod MacRae, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His research focuses on creating a national food and agriculture policy for Canada and the set of coherent and comprehensive programs required to support such a policy. He has published extensively on this topic in the academic and popular press and has also conducted numerous policy analyses for the Canadian organic food sector.

Ralph C. Martin, Ph.D., grew up on a beef and hog farm in Wallenstein, Ontario, Canada. His love of teaching grew unexpectedly when he began teaching at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, in 1990, and realized how students teach him too. In 2001, he founded the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada to coordinate university research and education pertaining to organic systems across Canada. In 2011, he was appointed professor and Loblaw Chair in Sustainable Food Production at the University of Guelph.