Beyond agriculture, this book is a study in regenerative thinking that would be of value to anyone in the field, whether they are engaged in agriculture or not. It demonstrates a quality of analysis that could be applied across diverse fields. 

Author Mark Shepard begins this very practical book with a simple question: could "restoration agriculture" practices (including permaculture and regenerative principles) feed the world? Using real numbers and examples and working in the early parts of the book with how modern agricultural systems have developed in the US, the author shares analyses that demonstrate that such practices have systematically destroyed value for farmers, communities, and the Earth. 

Moving from the current economic and historical agricultural system practices in the United States, in the second half of the book Shepard delves into the specific practices of restoration agriculture ,demonstrating how restoration agriculture systems are built and grow, not just as food producers, but as ecosystem restoration contributors that are integral to the health and wellbeing in their communities. 

This book is much more than a guide. Providing successive examples of systemic and synergistic thinking and practice at each turn, the author's adaptation from food systems at a national scale to the practices of specific farms flows naturally, with each observation building on the others, much in the way that restoration agriculture is practice. 

From the publisher: "Around the globe most people get their calories from “annual” agriculture — plants that grow fast for one season, produce lots of seeds, then die. Every single human society that has relied on annual crops for staple foods has collapsed. Restoration Agriculture explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs — in your own backyard, farm or ranch. This book, based on real-world practices, presents an alternative to the agriculture system of eradication and offers exciting hope for our future."

by Mark Shepard

Published by ACRES USA