Ecology

Give Us This Day is a poetic and imaginative ode to the American farmer and to the bounty of the land which sustains us all. Illustrated with ten full-page drawings in chalk by the author, it is a glorification of agriculture by a nationally respected woodcut artist.

New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943. 1st ed. Dust jacket in protective cover; edges worn and chipped; light red ink stain running vertically on front cover; evidence of tape repair at head of spine; rust cloth with navy blue lettering on spine; head of spine frayed; corners bumped; illustrated endpapers; binding good; text clean and bright. G/G

In his most urgent book to date, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and world-renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson states that in order to stave off the mass extinction of species, including our own, we must move swiftly to preserve the biodiversity of our planet. In this visionary blueprint for saving the planet (Stephen Greenblatt), Half-Earth argues that the situation facing us is too large to be solved piecemeal and proposes a solution commensurate with the magnitude of the problem: dedicate fully half the surface of the Earth to nature. Identifying actual regions of the planet that can still be reclaimed--such as the California redwood forest, the Amazon River basin, and grasslands of the Serengeti, among others--Wilson puts aside the prevailing pessimism of our times and speaks with a humane eloquence which calls to us all (Oliver Sacks).

Eating food grown close to home is not only tasty, but comes with great benefits for the health of your family, your local community, and the environment. Learn how and where to find local foods, how to eat locally on a tight budget, what questions to ask at the farmers' market, and how to grow your own food in small spaces. With shopping tips and simple guides to preparing what's in season, The Locavore Way makes eating locally as simple as it is delicious.

Journalist and bestselling author Kristin Ohlson makes an elegantly argued, passionate case for our great green hope--a way in which we can not only heal the land but also turn atmospheric carbon into beneficial soil carbon--and potentially reverse global warming.

Thousands of years of poor farming and ranching practices--and, especially, modern industrial agriculture--have led to the loss of up to 80 percent of carbon from the world's soils. That carbon is now floating in the atmosphere, and even if we stopped using fossil fuels today, it would continue warming the planet.

As the granddaughter of farmers and the daughter of avid gardeners, Ohlson has long had an appreciation for the soil. A chance conversation with a local chef led her to the crossroads of science, farming, food, and environmentalism and the discovery of the only significant way to remove carbon dioxide from the air--an ecological approach that tends not only to plants and animals but also to the vast population of underground microorganisms that fix carbon in the soil. Ohlson introduces the visionaries--scientists, farmers, ranchers, and landscapers--who are figuring out in the lab and on the ground how to build healthy soil, which solves myriad problems: drought, erosion, air and water pollution, and food quality, as well as climate change. Her discoveries and vivid storytelling will revolutionize the way we think about our food, our landscapes, our plants, and our relationship to Earth.