Jerry Brunetti - The Farm as Ecosystem: Tapping Natures Resevoir - Biology, Geology, Diversity

One of the most important reference books for the twenty-first centuryhow do we feed 9 billion people without destroying more precious ecosystems and without having to use toxic chemicals and GMOs? Every farmer, agronomist, and policy maker must read this book and, most importantly, must ensure that this valuable scientific knowledge and the proven best practices are widely adopted to make agriculture truly ecologically sustainable.

Andre Leu, president, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements

Few people understand the elements of the soil and animal husbandry better than Jerry Brunetti and it is evident in this book. We ignore the knowledge within at our own peril. It is obvious that Jerrys writing comes from an illuminated mind. This book should be on the shelf of every farmer and growers library.

David Kline, editor, Farming magazine

Jerry Brunetti is one of the brightest people I know in biological farming. His book is a treasure of concepts and strategies that will maximize soil fertility to grow nutritionally dense food that will improve your health. Highly recommended.

Dr. Joseph Mercola, founder, Mercola.com

Because I hold the scientific understanding of an evolving Universe and Earth as central to transforming our planets crises, it is a relief to listen to an interpretation of farming as primarily the work Earth has been doing for 3.8 billion years since learning to eat photons of the suns energy and transform them into life. Everything Earth does to feed all living creatures since the creation of photosynthesis should be the essential guidance that humans need to participate in the mystery, miracle, and craft that we call agriculture. Jerrys insights into this guidance should make leaders in the present industrial food system blush with shame, as should the leaders in Western education, medicine, religion, economics, and politics for condoning it through their endorsements or through their silence.

Sister Miriam MacGillis, founder and director, Genesis Farm

Crucial to a new generation of farmers. Jerry combines the magic of biology and the science of chemistry, and puts them both in service of a new kind of farmwhich is really a whole functioning ecology.

Jack Kittredge, editor, The Natural Farmer

Jerry Brunetti has captured both the philosophy and practice of farming in his book The Farm as Ecosystem as he reminds us that sustainable farming is much more than just crop and animal production. It involves the management of an ecology encompassing all of the physical, chemical, biological, and social factors that sustain a healthy society. Jerry starts with the soil and shows how everything provides an important contribution to the integrated whole of farming. He describes practical solutions based on perpetual principles to achieve an essential and rewarding contribution to mankinds successful progress. The principles developed in The Farm as Ecosystem will guide the avid learner to design a productive architecture as beautiful as it is efficient.

Don M. Huber, professor emeritus, Purdue University

ACRES U.S.A. Austin, Texas

2014 by Jerry Brunetti

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Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication

Jerry Brunetti, 1950
The farm as ecosystem / Jerry Brunetti. Austin, TX, ACRES U.S.A., 2014
xvi, 336 pp., 23 cm.
Includes index, tables, and illustrations
ISBN 978-1-60173-041-1 (trade)

1. Agricultural ecology. 2. Soil fertility. 3. Agrobiodiversity.
I. Brunetti, Jerry, 1950 II. Title.

S589.7 B78 2014
577.57

To my parents, Aurelio and Rena Brunetti, who instilled in me the appreciation that soil, food, taste, health, and joy are contiguous and contagious.

There are so many kindred souls in my community of ecology that I could not even begin to enumerate them all. Suffice it to say that family, loved ones, close friends, office staff here at home, Acres U.S.A. personnel, clients, classmates, fellow activists, mentors and the yeomen, supporters, and fellow members of sustainable and regenerative organizations have all made this text possible, due to their encouragement, love and guidance. A heartfelt salute to those nurturing the landscapes, walking the talk, and bearing witness to this miraculous mystery of creation.