Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Early Online
    • Archive
    • Subject Collections
  • Info For
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Subscribers
    • Advertisers
  • About
    • About JSWC
    • Editorial Board
    • Permissions
    • Alerts
    • RSS Feeds
    • Contact Us

User menu

  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Early Online
    • Archive
    • Subject Collections
  • Info For
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Subscribers
    • Advertisers
  • About
    • About JSWC
    • Editorial Board
    • Permissions
    • Alerts
    • RSS Feeds
    • Contact Us
  • Follow SWCS on Twitter
  • Visit SWCS on Facebook
OtherFeatures

Alternative agriculture

Robert Rodale
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation September 1984, 39 (5) 294-296;
Robert Rodale
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Excerpt

FOR nearly a century a small group of scientists have criticized conventional agricultural systems in the United States and other developed countries. The two main points of that criticism: conventional agriculture wastes potentially useful organic materials, and artificial fertilizers and pesticides harm the soil and life forms in it. Growing out of these two points is still another criticism: conventional agriculture allows too much soil erosion to occur.

The first of the critics was Franklin Hyde King, chief of the Division of Soil Management in the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the latter 1800s and early 1900s. After his retirement, King toured China, Japan, Korea, and Formosa, recording his observations of agriculture and related industries in his classic book Farmers of Forty Centuries.

King's purpose in the book was to warn U.S. farmers that their wasteful ways would catch up with them. He urged farmers to look carefully at their Oriental counterparts who had farmed the same land for 4,000 years using conservation and recycling methods.

Though King died before he could write his last chapter, a “Message of China and Japan to the World,” one sentence from his introduction offers a clue to his thoughts …

Footnotes

  • Robert Rodale is president of Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pennsylvania 18049. This article is based on his address at SCSA's 39th annual meeting in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

  • Copyright 1984 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.

Log in using your username and password

Forgot your user name or password?

Purchase access

You may purchase access to this article. This will require you to create an account if you don't already have one.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation: 39 (5)
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Vol. 39, Issue 5
September/October 1984
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Journal of Soil and Water Conservation.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Alternative agriculture
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
6 + 3 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
Citation Tools
Alternative agriculture
Robert Rodale
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation Sep 1984, 39 (5) 294-296;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Alternative agriculture
Robert Rodale
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation Sep 1984, 39 (5) 294-296;
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Youth water education: Programs and potential in the American Midwest
  • Working toward sustainable agricultural intensification in the Red River Delta of Vietnam
  • Soil science beyond COVID-19
Show more Features

Similar Articles

Content

  • Current Issue
  • Early Online
  • Archive
  • Subject Collections

Info For

  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Advertisers

Customer Service

  • Subscriptions
  • Permissions and Reprints
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy

SWCS

  • Membership
  • Publications
  • Meetings and Events
  • Conservation Career Center

© 2022 Soil and Water Conservation Society