The Promises of Regenerative Agriculture with Alana Siegner and Ryan Peterson

The Edible Schoolyard Project

Streamed live 2 hours ago

Food-matters,

See related:

• The “Green Revolution:” Its Essence, Achievements & Aftermath

Africana Section (African and Middle Eastern Reading Room, Library of Congress)

African Section

Unusually rich and extensive research materials on sub-Saharan Africa are available to the researcher at the Library of Congress. The African Section, one of three units of the African and Middle Eastern Division, is the focal point of the Library’s reference and bibliographic activities on sub-Saharan Africa, which excludes the North African countries of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia.

• About the Africana Collections

For Africa south of the Sahara, the focal point of the Library’s reference and bibliographic service is the African Section, one of three units of the African and Middle Eastern Division. The Section was formally established in the Library of Congress in 1960, a momentous year in sub-Saharan Africa as 17 nations gained independence. Supported initially by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation and later by funds appropriated by Congress, the Section continues to advise and cooperate in the Library’s acquisition program, provide reference and bibliographic services, and maintain liaison with other research and teaching institutions in the United States and abroad.

The African Section is well known for its bibliographic products. Notable among them is the series of bibliographies of the official publications of African countries in which the documents of some thirty African nations from colonial times through independence have been systematically listed. A related publication is the United States and Africa: Guide to U.S. Official Documents and Government-Sponsored Publications on Africa, 1785-1975, with a supplement for the period 1976-1980. The Section’s bibliographic program also includes the Maktaba Afrikana, a series of short topical bibliographies on subjects of current interest and Africana Directions, an irregular series of short bibliographies and reference aids designed to help readers user the Library’s collections more effectively.

For both historical and contemporary research studies, the Library’s collection of Africana (material published in or relating to Africa) are substantial, including sources in every major field of study in the social sciences and in the humanities. Holdings include invaluable primary source documents, facsimiles, and secondary sources, in diverse formats. Language coverage includes English, French, German, Portuguese, and many African vernaculars. Africana holdings are integrated into the general collections and other special collections of the Library.

See related:

• LOC – Africa Maps
• The Africa Map Circle – Introduction & Digital Resource Directory

BBC World Service – The Inquiry, Will rising sea levels wipe countries off the map?

Click here to listen

Small island nations are facing an existential threat. It’s predicted that by 2100, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Maldives and many others will be underwater, because of rising sea levels and increasingly extreme weather events.

At the recent COP27 conference in Egypt. The most polluting industrialised countries agreed in principle to set up a “loss and damage” fund, effectively recognising that low-lying islands are bearing the brunt of climate change.

But is their loss inevitable? Could traditional sea wall defences hold back the waters, or are there more effective solutions? Will entire communities need to be moved to higher ground, or even entire nations transplanted to safer locations?

This week on the Inquiry, we’re asking: will rising sea levels wipe countries off the map?

Presented by Charmaine Cozier
Produced by Ravi Naik
Researcher Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty
Editor Tara McDermott
Technical producer Richard Hannaford
Broadcast Coordinator Brenda Brown

(a woman in a lagoon in the threatened coral atoll nation of Tuvalu. Credit: Mario Tama /Getty Images)

Jeffery Sachs | The UNITED STATES is a MADMAN

Chris Hedges Fan Club Mar 15, 2023 #war #ukraine #russia

Jeffrey David Sachs is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. chfanclub for any takedown requests.

Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World: Londa Schiebinger

Plants seldom figure in the grand narratives of war, peace, or even everyday life yet they are often at the center of high intrigue. In the eighteenth century, epic scientific voyages were sponsored by European imperial powers to explore the natural riches of the New World, and uncover the botanical secrets of its people. Bioprospectors brought back medicines, luxuries, and staples for their king and country. Risking their lives to discover exotic plants, these daredevil explorers joined with their sponsors to create a global culture of botany.

But some secrets were unearthed only to be lost again. In this moving account of the abuses of indigenous Caribbean people and African slaves, Schiebinger describes how slave women brewed the “peacock flower” into an abortifacient, to ensure that they would bear no children into oppression. Yet, impeded by trade winds of prevailing opinion, knowledge of West Indian abortifacients never flowed into Europe. A rich history of discovery and loss, Plants and Empire explores the movement, triumph, and extinction of knowledge in the course of encounters between Europeans and the Caribbean populations.

Review

“Plants and Empire shows how botany and slavery, cruelty and courage, curiosity and capitalism all converged on one beautiful “peacock flower”–the ornament of European gardens, a sought-after medicament, and an abortifacient for slave women who refused to bear children into inhuman bondage. This book is rich in information and insights about how plants have transformed our world; it is above all rich in stories about the people who hunted and used them, splendidly told.”―Lorraine Daston, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

“A rich, innovative analysis–laced with poignant vignettes of the lives of travelers, lovers, colonists, and slaves–of how gender structured the science of botany in the age of mercantilist empires. This book sheds light on how the knowledge of plants of Caribbean Amerindians and slaves moved into Northern European gardens and salons and back again into colonial plantations worldwide. Most importantly, it illuminates how this very knowledge was actively suppressed when it proved threatening to the gendered foundations of power at the European core.”―Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, SUNY-Buffalo

“Schiebinger brings humble plants–peacock flowers and sassafras trees–into the dark and poignant heart of eighteenth century colonial encounters and into the modern history of cultural exchange. Desperate to extract some botanical knowledge from native peoples, Europeans were equally anxious to suppress other medicines–most notably, the abortifacients with which slaves sought to cheat their master of property and through which European women might also seek to rob the mercantalist state of population. Bio-prospecting was a deeply troubled enterprise. This is a morally serious book for anyone interested in the globalization of ‘intellectual property.’”―Thomas Laqueur, University of California, Berkeley

“Londa Schiebinger’s scholarly study covers botanical exploration during what the author calls ‘the long eighteenth century’: from the 1670s until about 1802. This was a period of dawning European recognition that the real treasures of the New World lay not in fabled cities of gold but in the vines, bushes, and flowers that crowded village gardens and grew in the jungles beyond…Schiebinger’s thoughtful study, then, sheds light not only on how new knowledge comes to be, but also on how some new knowledge comes to be ignored.”―Natural History

“Londa Schiebinger’s ambitious, eminently readable new book focuses on “the long eighteenth century” when botany reigned as queen of the colonial sciencesHopefully, Schiebinger’s intellectual voyage beyond Europe’s borders will lead many others to recognize the fundamental importance of knowledge formation–and non-formation–on the colonial “periphery” of the Atlantic World.”―Gregory T. Cushman, Journal of the History of Medicine

“This is a curious book. The heart of it tries to explain why something did not happen…[Schiebinger’s] focus is, as she puts it, ‘the nontransfer of important bodies of knowledge from the New World into Europe.’ It is, then, a study in ‘agnotology,’ that is, of ‘culturally induced ignorances.’ The study of things that did not happen and of ignorances does not sound promising, but Schiebinger has written an entertaining book that raises some interesting questions, and for people passionate about the history of fertility control, no doubt, an important book.”―J.R. McNeill, H-Net

“[A] fascinating study…Schiebinger has read widely in the natural-historical and medical literature of the period, and she writes engagingly, bringing to life many of the chief protoganists. This book ought to be essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between science and empire.”―Mark Harrison, American Historical Review

“Plants and Empire presents a subtle and compelling explanation for why knowledge of West Indian abortifacients was not taken up by scientists in Europe. More broadly, Schiebinger illustrates the explanatory power of agnotology. Her study of scientific ignorance demonstrates that understanding what scientists do not know is just as important as understanding what they do know.”―Stuart McCook, Science

About the Author

Londa Schiebinger is John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science and Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0674025687
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press; Illustrated edition (September 15, 2007)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780674025684
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674025684
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 0.04 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.72 x 9 inches

See related:

• Secret Cures of Slaves: People, Plants, and Medicine in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World | Londa Schiebinger
• Nature and the Orient (Oxford India Paperbacks): Grove, Richard H. Grove; Vinita Damodaran, Satpal Sangwan
• Ecology, Climate and Empire: Colonialism and Global Environmental History, 1400-1940: Richard Grove
• Agents of Empire: Steps Toward an Ecology of Imperialism | T. C. Weiskel
• Maps, Stones & Plants: Agents of Empire and the Ecology of the Atlantic Trade
• “Rubbish and Racism: Problems of Boundary in an Ecosystem”
• Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic Garden: Brockway, Ms. Lucile H., Brockway

Secret Cures of Slaves: People, Plants, and Medicine in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World | Londa Schiebinger

In the natural course of events, humans fall sick and die. The history of medicine bristles with attempts to find new and miraculous remedies, to work with and against nature to restore humans to health and well-being. In this book, Londa Schiebinger examines medicine and human experimentation in the Atlantic World, exploring the circulation of people, disease, plants, and knowledge between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. She traces the development of a colonial medical complex from the 1760s, when a robust experimental culture emerged in the British and French West Indies, to the early 1800s, when debates raged about banning the slave trade and, eventually, slavery itself.

Massive mortality among enslaved Africans and European planters, soldiers, and sailors fueled the search for new healing techniques. Amerindian, African, and European knowledges competed to cure diseases emerging from the collision of peoples on newly established, often poorly supplied, plantations. But not all knowledge was equal. Highlighting the violence and fear endemic to colonial struggles, Schiebinger explores aspects of African medicine that were not put to the test, such as Obeah and vodou. This book analyzes how and why specific knowledges were blocked, discredited, or held secret.

Review

“Racism is the belief that certain people are not fully human, and that infamously opportunistic opinion is evident whenever some people are selected to be unwilling subjects of medical experimentation, as Londa Schiebinger makes clear in her important new study.” — Joyce E. Chaplin ― Harvard University

“In this urgent, probing and visually striking volume, Londa Schiebinger, one of the pioneers of feminist and colonial science studies, shifts our understanding of Enlightenment racial attitudes to the domain of the medical, making a vital contribution to the dynamic new wave of research on science and slavery in the Atlantic world.” — James Delbourgo ― Rutgers University

“Londa Schiebinger’s insightful book provides us with a conceptual grid for understanding the production and distribution of medical knowledge and the ethics of experimentation, opening up many fertile new avenues for research.” — Mark Harrison ― University of Oxford

“Engaging unique sources from both the English and French worlds, Londa Schiebinger untangles the complex relationships between European and local physicians, healers, plants, and slavery. Her work offers a deep dive into how the Atlantic World emerged as a crucible for medical innovation as well as pressing ethical questions.”

See related:

• Nature and the Orient (Oxford India Paperbacks): Grove, Richard H. Grove; Vinita Damodaran, Satpal Sangwan
• Ecology, Climate and Empire: Colonialism and Global Environmental History, 1400-1940: Richard Grove
• Agents of Empire: Steps Toward an Ecology of Imperialism | T. C. Weiskel
• Maps, Stones & Plants: Agents of Empire and the Ecology of the Atlantic Trade
• “Rubbish and Racism: Problems of Boundary in an Ecosystem”
• Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic Garden: Brockway, Ms. Lucile H., Brockway

The First Ashanti War 1823-31: The Conflict Between the British Army and the Natives of West Africa-Narrative of the Ashantee War… H.I. Ricketts, J. W. Fortescue

As the 19th century progressed the inexorable expansion of the British Empire gained momentum across the globe. Imperial ambitions invariably resulted in British naval and military forces coming into conflict with indigenous peoples, who understandably resented intrusions into their territories and traditional ways of life. How problematic the resulting conflict proved to be for the British depended on two factors-the martial abilities of their opponents and the difficulty of the terrain for military operations. The more troublesome these factors were, particularly when combined, then the more likely it was that there would be no easy final outcome. It is significant that the first hostile engagements against the Ashanti tribe, of the West African Gold Coast region, broke out in 1806 and conflict with the British continued throughout the century-in at least five wars-until the final Ashanti defeat in 1900 and the incorporation of Ashanti territories into the Gold Coast colony in 1902. This book concentrates on the First Anglo-Ashanti War of 1823-31. It followed a pattern for British imperial wars with captured officers beheaded, bitter fighting in dense jungle with no favourable outcome guaranteed, and tropical diseases which reduced British numbers far more effectively than open battle ever could. The initial part in this Leonaur book is a first hand account of the conflict based on personal experience, and this is followed by a brief overview of the campaign, that adds perspective, by the eminent historian of the British Army, Sir John Fortescue.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ LEONAUR (September 1, 2014)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 140 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1782823573
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1782823575
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.51 x 0.44 x 8.5 inches

See related:

• Forests of Gold: Essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of Asante: Ivor Wilks
• Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order (African Studies, Series Number 13) Ivor Wilks
• The Slave Kingdoms – The Origins of the African Slave Trade – Africans sold Africans as slaves

Nature and the Orient (Oxford India Paperbacks): Grove, Richard H. Grove; Vinita Damodaran, Satpal Sangwan

Discussing diverse aspects of the environmental history of South and Southeast Asia, from a variety of perspectives, it brings together leading experts from the fields of history, history of science, archaeology, geography and environmental studies, and covers a time span from 50,000 BC to the present. Spanning a geographical region from Peshawar on the North-West Frontier to the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia, this book tells the story of the highly complex relationship between people and their environment. Among a multitude of subjects it reports on the latest findings in settlement archaeology, the history of deforestation, climate change, the history of fishing, hunting and shikar, colonial science and forest management, indigenous plant knowledge, the history of famine, the impact of coalmining and the tragic story of India’s tragic story of India’s tribal communities.

Review

`this is a valuable collection of essays, particularly useful for the teachimg at university level of a new imperial history which refuses to be blind to the often dire environmental consequences of european colonialism.’
THES David Hardiman

`an interesting book’
Philip Stott, Journal of Historical Geography, 27, 2001

`An interesting book’
Philip Stott, Journal of Historical Geography, 27, 2001

`This is a valuable collection of essays, particularly useful for the teaching at university level of a new imperial history which refuses to be blind to the often dire environmental consequences of european colonialism.’
THES David Hardiman

About the Author

Richard H. Grove is at Australian National University, Canberra. Vinita Damodaran is at University of Sussex.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ OUP India (September 14, 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 1056 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195653750
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195653755
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.16 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.47 x 2.05 x 8.58 inches

See related:

• Ecology, Climate and Empire: Colonialism and Global Environmental History, 1400-1940: Richard Grove
• Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism, 1600–1860 (Studies in Environment and History): Richard H. Grove
• Agents of Empire: Steps Toward an Ecology of Imperialism | T. C. Weiskel
• Maps, Stones & Plants: Agents of Empire and the Ecology of the Atlantic Trade
• “Rubbish and Racism: Problems of Boundary in an Ecosystem”

Ecology, Climate and Empire: Colonialism and Global Environmental History, 1400-1940: Richard Grove

This collection of essays from a pioneering scholar in the field of environmental history vividly demonstrates that concerns about climate change are far from being a uniquely modern phenomenon. Grove traces the origins of present-day environmental debates about soil erosion, deforestation and climate change in the writings of early colonial administrators, doctors and missionaries. He traces what is known and what can be inferred concerning historic El Nino events centuries before the devastating 1997/98 instance. In an important and wide-ranging concluding essay he analyses the general significance of ‘marginal’ land and its ecology in the history of popular resistance movements.

Review

Richard Grove has written another fascinating and stimulating book to complement his Green Imperialism. Its title, perhaps, fails to express the book’s relevance to all interested in land use, conservation and, especially, the management of forests and other commons. It draws on experience over the centuries from Europe, the West Indies, St. Helena, Mauritius, India, South Africa, Australia and New England….I thoroughly recommend the book to all interested and involved in managing ‘the commons’ in whatever part of the world they work. — Commonwealth Forestry Review 77[3], 1998

About the Author

Richard Grove is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University, and a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. He is founder-editor of the international journal Environment and History. His books include Green Imperialism (1995) and Nature and the Orient (1997).

• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 237 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1874267189
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1874267188
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches

See related:

• Nature and the Orient (Oxford India Paperbacks): Grove, Richard H. Grove; Vinita Damodaran, Satpal Sangwan
• Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism, 1600–1860 (Studies in Environment and History): Richard H. Grove
• Agents of Empire: Steps Toward an Ecology of Imperialism | T. C. Weiskel
• Maps, Stones & Plants: Agents of Empire and the Ecology of the Atlantic Trade
• “Rubbish and Racism: Problems of Boundary in an Ecosystem”
• Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic Garden: Brockway, Ms. Lucile H., Brockway

Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism, 1600–1860 (Studies in Environment and History): Richard H. Grove

Green Imperialism is the first book to document the origins and early history of environmentalism, concentrating especially on its hitherto unexplained colonial and global aspects. It highlights the significance of Utopian, Physiocratic, and medical thinking in the history of environmentalist ideas. The book shows how the new critique of the colonial impact on the environment depended on the emergence of a coterie of professional scientists, and demonstrates both the importance of the oceanic island “Eden” as a vehicle for new conceptions of nature and the significance of colonial island environments in stimulating conservationist notions.

Review

“…a fascinating and important book….extremely wide-ranging….Mention must be made of the author’s facility in utilizing a remarkable diversity of sources. His understanding of the literature (in many languages) and his wide general knowledge are rare, and, in addition, he writes well. The bibliography is excellent and the interesting asides in footnotes, entertaining and informative.” H-Net Book Review

“As a work of global colonial environmental history, this work is unsurpassed. It adds breadth, depth, and new influences; it opens numerous and important avenues for further inquiry. On some levels, it is a pathbreaking book, full of hypotheses to be tested in new and different climates and historical milieus. It sees a vivid environmentalism in colonial history and offers several significant avenues through which to see new trends….This book belongs on the shelf of every environmental historian. For those with particular interest in global relationships, colonialism, and the roots of economy and environment in Africa and Asia, this is a marvelous addition to the literature. Richard Grove has given us one of the most wide-ranging and thought-provoking books of the decade.” Hal Rothman, Environmental History

“A valuable reference for scholars studying European colonial history, anthropology, archaeology, and the environmental movement.” Choice

“Anyone who assumes that environmentalism is a twentieth-century phenomenon concerning primarily European and US problems is likely to find this book illuminating. Richard H. Grove, a leading historian of science in the age of empires, shows in fascinating detail, through the experience and writings of scientists who went out to the colonies, that environmental thought evolved in early modern times (1600s-1800s)….This book is remarkable and may well change the prevailing ideas about a major period in the history of science. It is likely to make impossible some of the generalizations that have become current about the origins of environmental concern. Grove’s scholarship is impressive, his literary style is congenial and readable, and his narrative constantly presents newly unearthed facts and interpretations that are unexpected but almost always convincing.” J. Donald Hughes, BioScience

“The great strength of his [Grove] work is its remarkable search for globalization, matched by his own prodigious scholarly travels. He has also produced some convincing internationalization of scientific thought and identified key strands, not least the French derived from Mauritius and the Scots from India.” John MacKenzie. International History Review

“Grove’s study of the origins and development of European environmentalism is an outstanding work of interpretive scholarship, even a revolutionary one. It should become required reading for students of European relations.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“Grove has set out to write a traditional, primarily European-oriented, intellectual history of the roots of Western environmentalism. He has taken up an enormous challenge. To criticize a few weaknesses is to compliment him for his attempt here at grand theory. This is a volume that will prove to be one of the mainstays of the small but growing encyclopedia of global environmental history.” American Historical Review

“Grove writes a cultured and literate prose that is a joy to read. His jugments are based on solid research in source materials that are found in the European imperial centers and also in the former colonies, some of them scattered and difficult of access. This book deserves a prominent place beside Alfred W. Crosby’s Ecological imperialism as a key to understanding the environmental consequences of European worldwide expansion. Although Grove wisely avoids applying his study to the twentieth-century environmental crisis, it seems to this reviewer that his work offers an indispensable background for those who would like to know how the supposed caretakers of the earth arrived where they are today. The first concerns are well chronicled here, as are the first missteps.” Journal of World History

“…Grove has fused colonial expansion, the roots of modern science, and what he calls the roots of environmentalism in a multi-layered attempt to push the genealogical tree of environmenatlism back in time….Grove pushes us back both further in time and broader in geographic space than any existing history of the roots of environmentalism….As a work of gloabal colonial environmental history, this work is unsurpassed. It adds breadth, depth, and new influences; it opens numerous and important avenues for further inquiry. On some level, it is a pathbreaking book, full of hypothesis to be tested in new and different climates and historical milieus. It sees a vivid environmentalism in colonial history and offers several significant avenues through which to see new trends.” Hal Rothman, Environmental History

“…this book…forces a vast and new research agenda on environmental history which, when completed, will greatly illuminate our past, and explain a bit better the reasons for our present predicaments. GReen Imperialism will remain a pioneering work, a book that will take its own place in history….” S. Ravi Rajan, Capitalism Nature Socialism

Book Description

The first book to document the origins and early history of environmentalism, especially its colonial and global aspects.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; Edition Unstated (March 29, 1996)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0521565138
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521565134
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.82 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches

See related:

• Nature and the Orient (Oxford India Paperbacks): Grove, Richard H. Grove; Vinita Damodaran, Satpal Sangwan
• Ecology, Climate and Empire: Colonialism and Global Environmental History, 1400-1940: Richard Grove
• Agents of Empire: Steps Toward an Ecology of Imperialism | T. C. Weiskel
• Maps, Stones & Plants: Agents of Empire and the Ecology of the Atlantic Trade
• “Rubbish and Racism: Problems of Boundary in an Ecosystem”
• Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic Garden: Brockway, Ms. Lucile H., Brockway