Table of Contents

List of Articles

History of Agriculture

The Early Anthropogenic Hypothesis
William Ruddiman

Nomadism
Philip Carl Salzman

Hunter-Gatherer Economies in the Old World and New World
Christian Morgan, Shannon Tushingham, Raven Garvey, Loukas Barton, and Robert Bettinger

Geography and Chronology of the Transition to Agriculture
Peter Bogucki

Ancient and Traditional Agriculture, Pastoralism, and Agricultural Societies in Sub-Saharan Africa
Andrew B. Smith

Barley in Archaeology and Early History
Simone Riehl

Prehistoric and Traditional Agriculture in Lowland Mesoamerica
Clarissa Cagnato

Agricultural Origins and their Consequences in Southwestern Asia
Alan Simmons

Agriculture in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Levant
John M. Marston

Human Environmental Interrelationships and the Origins of Agriculture in Egypt and Sudan
Simon Holdaway and Rebecca Phillipps

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe
Aurélie Salavert

The Agriculture of Early India
Charlene Murphy and Dorian Q. Fuller

Early History of Animal Domestication in Southwest Asia
Benjamin S. Arbuckle

Agricultural Practices and Environmental Impacts of Aztec and Pre-Aztec Central Mexico
Deborah L. Nichols

Ancient and Traditional Agriculture in South America: Tropical Lowlands
Glenn H. Shepard Jr., Eduardo Neves, Charles R. Clement, Helena Lima, Claide Moraes, and Gilton Mendes

Indigenous American Agricultural Contributions to Modern Global Food Systems
Marcia C. Bruno

Origin and Development of Agriculture in New Guinea, Island Melanesia and Polynesia
Tim Denham

Agricultural Innovation and Dispersal in Eastern North America
Kandace D. Hollenbach and Stephen B. Carmody

Indigenous Polynesian Agriculture in Hawai'i
Noa Kekuewa Lincoln and Peter Vitousek

Evolution of Agricultural Practices and the Transformation of the English Landscape
Tom Williamson

From the Plow and Harness to Precision Farming in the North American Great Plains
David E. Clay, Sharon A. Clay, Thomas DeSutter, and Cheryl Reese

History of Agriculture in the United States
Pamela Riney-Kehrberg


Soil Nature, Abuse, and Stewardship

Soils, Science, Society, and the Environment
Colin Robins

Soil Resources, the Delivery of Ecosystem Services and Value
David A. Robinson, Fiona Seaton, Katrina Sharps, Amy Thomas, Francis Parry Roberts, Martine van der Ploeg, Laurence Jones, Jannes Stolte, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, Paula Harrison, and Bridget Emmett

Soil Tilth and Management
Lars J. Munkholm, Mansonia Pulido-Moncada, and Peter Bilson Obour

Soil Sediment Loading and Related Environmental Impacts from Farms
Vito Ferro

Measuring Soil Loss and Subsequent Nutrient and Organic Matter Loss on Farmlands
Vito Ferro and Vincenzo Bagarello

Effective Practices in Mitigating Soil Erosion from Fields
Vincenzo Bagarello

Soil Quality as Affected by Intensive Versus Conservative Agricultural Managements
Luigi Badalucco

Soil Salinization
Pichu Rengasamy

Classification and Mitigation of Soil Salinization
Tibor Tóth

Causes of Soil Salinization, Sodification, and Alkalinization
Elisabeth N. Bui

Irrigation, Nutrient Management, and Nutrient Issues

Surface Irrigation
Luis S. Pereira and José M. Gonçalves

The Qanat System of Iran and the Maghreb
Ahmad Abbasnejad; Behnam Abbasnejad

Environmental Benefits and Concerns of Center Pivot Irrigation
Leonor Rodriguez Sinobas

Subsurface (Tile) Agricultural Drainage
Gary Sands, Srinivasulu Ale, Laura Christianson, and Nathan Utt

Well Construction, Cones of Depression and Groundwater Sharing Approaches
Fidel Ribera Urenda

Terracing: From Agriculture to Multiple Ecosystem Services
Paolo Socci, Alessandro Errico, Giulio Castelli, Daniele Penna, and Federico Preti

The Role of Cover Crops in Agriculture and their Environmental Significance
Helena Aronsson

Crop Rotations, Fallowing, and their Environmental Benefits
Muhammad Farooq, Ahmad Nawaz, and Faisal Nadeem

Industrial Fertilizers in Agriculture
Gregory L. Willoughby

Agricultural Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution in Surface Waters
Marianne Bechmann and Per Stålnacke


Selected Crops, Livestock, and Environmental Impacts of Their Production

Agricultural Energy Demand and Use
David Roland-Holst

Agricultural Subsidies and the Environment
Heather Williams

Cultivation and Impact of Wheat
Peter Shewry

Cultivation and Environmental Impact of Corn
Emerson Nafziger

Cultivation and Environmental Impacts of Rice
Reiner Wassmann

Tomatoes: A Model Crop of Solanaceous Plants
Autar Mattoo, Raheel Anwar, and Tahira Fatima

Citrus History, Taxonomy, Breeding, and Fruit Quality
Paolo Inglese; Giuseppe Sortino

Cultivation and Environmental Impact of Mushrooms
Shu Ting Chang; Solomon P. Wasser

Cultivation, Improvement, and Environmental Impacts of Tea
Mainaak Mukhopadhyay and Tapan Kumar Mondal

Environmental Impacts of Tropical Soybean and Palm Oil Crops
Kimberly M. Carlson and Rachael D. Garrett

Social and Environmental Implications of Plantation Agriculture in Malaysia and Indonesia
Jean-François Bissonnette and Rodolphe De Koninck

Environmental Impacts and Benefits of Agroforestry
Shibu Jose

Dairy, Science, Society, and the Environment
Christopher Lu

CAFOs: Farm Animals and Industrialized Livestock Production
James M. MacDonald

Agricultural Methanogenesis
Alexander N. Hristov


The Big Picture, and Toward a New Global Agriculture

An Image Reconnaissance: Agricultural Patterns and Related Environmental Impacts Viewed from Space
Richard W. Hazlett and Joshua Peck

Economics, Agriculture, and Famines
Noel Russell

Food Safety in a Global Economy: Policies and Concerns
Tomiko Yamaguchi and Shun-Nan Chiang

Sustainable Coffee Production
Sarada Krishnan

Organic Farming
Theodore J. K. Radovich

Ecological Farming and the Methods of Agroecology
Miguel A. Altieri

Agroecology
Juhn Helenius, Alexander Wezel, and Charles A. Francis

Biotechnology and Agriculture
David Still

Food Waste and Biomass Recovery
Wun Jern Ng, Keke Xiao, Vinay Kumar Tyagi, Chaozhi Pan, and Leong Soon Poh

Vermiculture in Greenhouse Plants, Field Crop Production and Hydroponics
Norman Q. Arancon; Zachary Solarte

Pros and Cons of GMO Crop Farming
Rene Van Acker, Motior Rahman, and S. Zahra H. Cici

Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture across Africa
Laura Pereira

Crop Production Resilience through Biodiversity for Adaptation to Climate Change
Charles A. Francis

Seed Banking as Future Insurance against Crop Collapses
Fiona Hay

About the Author

Richard W. Hazlett is a geologist and environmental scientist whose professional work has included detailed field studies of active volcanoes (in Hawai'i, Italy, Central America, and the Aleutian Islands), and the establishment of the Environmental Analysis Program at Pomona College in California, where he also helped develop and manage the Pomona Organic Farm as a new teaching and learning resource. His popular works include the books "Roadside Geology of
Hawai'i," "Volcanoes: Global Perspectives" (with co-author Jack Lockwood), and numerous national park publications. In the early 1990s, he also played a leading role in developing the 26-part Annenberg
telecourse "Earth Revealed" for public television, broadcast internationally, and has led field trips for interested parties to study the volcanoes of southern Italy, Russia, and the Island of Hawai'i, where he presently resides. Recently, he played a key role as a geology team leader for the U.S. Geological Survey, closely monitoring and documenting the 2018 eruption of Kilauea volcano.