Shelley Mitchell

Organic Agriculture in Oklahoma: Catalysts and Roadblocks for Producers: Influencing Factors in Sustainable Agriculture Shelley Mitchell

What drives farmers and ranchers to become involved in organic agriculture? What characteristics do they have in common? What challenges do they face? The answers to these questions and more are found within these pages. How is conventional agriculture affecting our environment? Is the apparently cheap price of food worth the loss of biodiversity, degradation of soil, and chemical dependence? How can sustainable agriculture, such as organic methods, reduce the negative impact of modern agriculture on the earth while improving human health, helping local economies, and even keeping the gene pools of species varied enough to allow for adaptation to future environmental conditions?This book was written to explain the current impact of modern agriculture on the earth, to show the need for more sustainable methods of agriculture, and to see what helps and hinders farmers who decide to use sustainable methods. Agriculturalists, scientists, extension agents, legislators, and anyone interested in the state of agriculture today should find this book of interest and use. The focus is on Oklahoma farmers, but the results are applicable everywhere.