Seeds of Sustainability | Pamela Matson

Authors

Pamela A. Matson was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley at the beginning of the Yaqui Valley research project, and then moved to Stanford University, becoming the Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies and co-director of the Center for Environmental Science and Policy in the Institute for International Studies; she is currently Dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford and Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment.

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Lessons from the Birthplace of the Green Revolution

Pamela A. Matson

Seeds of Sustainability is a groundbreaking analysis of agricultural development and transitions toward more sustainable management in one region. An invaluable resource for researchers, policymakers, and students alike, it examines new approaches to make agricultural landscapes healthier for both the environment and people.

The Yaqui Valley is the birthplace of the Green Revolution and one of the most intensive agricultural regions of the world, using irrigation, fertilizers, and other technologies to produce some of the highest yields of wheat anywhere. It also faces resource limitations, threats to human health, and rapidly changing economic conditions. In short, the Yaqui Valley represents the challenge of modern agriculture: how to maintain livelihoods and increase food production while protecting the environment.

Renowned scientist Pamela Matson and colleagues from leading institutions in the U.S. and Mexico spent fifteen years in the Yaqui Valley in Sonora, Mexico addressing this challenge. Seeds of Sustainability represents the culmination of their research, providing unparalleled information about the causes and consequences of current agricultural methods. Even more importantly, it shows how knowledge can translate into better practices, not just in the Yaqui Valley, but throughout the world.

Expected Shipping Date: 11/25/2011
ISBN: 9781597265256
Paperback: $45.00
Also Available: Ebook, Hardcover

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Boxes

List of Acronyms

Profile of the Yaqui Valley, 1890-2000

Contributors

Preface

PART I: THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION

Chapter 1: Why the Yaqui Valley? An Introduction
Pamela Matson and Walter Falcon

Chapter 2: A Brief History of the Yaqui Valley
Ashley Dean

PART II: INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSECTIVES ON SUSTAINABILITY

Chapter 3: Looking for “Win-Wins” in Intensive Agriculture
Pamela Matson, Rosamond Naylor, and Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio

Chapter 4: Ecosystems and Land Use Change in the Yaqui Valley: Does Agricultural Intensification “Spare Land For Nature”?
Pamela Matson and Peter Jewett

Chapter 5: Linking Knowledge with Action for Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Change and Effectiveness
Ellen McCullough and Pamela Matson

Chapter 6: Exploring Vulnerability in the Yaqui Valley Human-Environment System
Pamela Matson, Amy Luers, and Ellen McCullough

Chapter 7: From Wheat to Waves and Back Again: Connections Between the Yaqui Valley and the Gulf of California
Michael Beman and Amy Luers

PART III: ELEMENTS OF THE YAQUI VALLEY SYSTEM

Chapter 8: The Yaqui Valley’s Agricultural Transition to a More Open Economy
Rosamond Naylor and Walter Falcon

Chapter 9: Agricultural Research and Management at the Field Scale
Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio and David Lobell

Chapter 10: Nitrogen in the Yaqui Valley: Sources, Transfers, and Consequences
Toby Ahrens, John Harrison, Michael Beman, Peter Jewett, and Pamela Matson

Chapter 11: Water Resources Management in the Yaqui Valley
Gerrit Schoups, Lee Addams, David S. Battisti, Ellen McCullough, and José Luis Minjares

PART IV: CONCLUSIONS

Chapter 12: Lessons Learned
Pamela Matson, Rosamond Naylor, and Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio

Notes

Index