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The Sugar Creek Watershed (SCW) of Holmes, Stark, Tuscarawas, and Wayne counties, Ohio is currently one of the most polluted watersheds in the state. There are several small municipalities that influence the overall condition of the watershed, but the primary problem is non-point source pollution from the many farms in the Sugar Creek region. There are highly mechanized farms that utilize modern technology (machinery, chemicals etc.), and there are farms (Amish) that are of a more primitive nature that rely on animal power and animal waste. Both of these farm types contribute to the non-point source pollution problem in the SCW, but the focus of this particular study are the Old Order Amish farms that are in the SE corner of Wayne County, the SW corner of Stark County and the NE corner of Holmes County Ohio. Complicating the problem has been the removal of riparian buffer zones from a large portion of the SCW, and a historical ignorance of the importance of maintaining a clean water supply. The cultural and religious beliefs of local societies have a big impact on the level of concern about environmental issues. Numerous efforts have been made to educate the local population about the importance of restoring the environmental health of the watershed, but very little has been done to determine the environmental beliefs of the Old Order Amish.
The first comprehensive study of Amish understandings of the natural world, this compelling book complicates the image of the Amish and provides a more realistic understanding of the Amish relationship with the environment.
With the use of high-level soil management technology, Africa could feed several billion people, yet food production has generally stagnated since the 1960s. No matter how powerful the seed technology, the seedling emerging from it can flourish only in a healthy soil. Accordingly, crop yields in Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean could be doubled or tripled through adoption of technologies based on laws of sustainable soil management. Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems describes the application of these laws to enhance ecosystem services while restoring degraded soils and promoting sustainable use. With chapters contributed by world-class soil scientists, ecologists, and social scientists, this book outlines critical changes in management of agricultural soils necessary to achieve food security and meet the food demands of the present and projected future population. These changes include conversion to no-till and conservation agriculture; adoption of strategies of integrated nutrient management, water harvesting, and use of drip sub-irrigation; complex cropping/farming systems such as cover cropping and agroforestry; and use of nano-enhanced fertilizers. The book is based on the premise that it is not possible to extract more from a soil than what is put into it without degrading its quality. The strategy is to replace what is removed, respond wisely to what is changed, and be pro-active to what may happen because of natural and anthropogenic perturbations. The chapters, which exemplify these ideas, cover a range of topics including organic farming, soil fertility, crop-symbiotic soil microbiota, human-driven soil degradation, soil degradation and restoration, carbon sink capacity of soils, soil renewal and sustainability, and the marginality principle.
The first comprehensive study of Amish understandings of the natural world, this compelling book complicates the image of the Amish and provides a more realistic understanding of the Amish relationship with the environment.