Book Review 5
Review
Title: Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems
ISBN 13: 9781439895610
Published: 2014
Pages: 371
Cost: $75.95
Rating (1-5): 5
Submitted By: Chatterjee, Amitava
Date posted: February 20, 2015
Excellent textbook for agroecology
Understanding ecosystem principles of agriculture is a significant component of undergraduate students training and Gliessman’s book has served this purpose for a longtime. Dr. Gliessman did his doctoral degree in plant ecology from the University of California, and spent more than 40 years in teaching, research, and production. He was the founding director of the University of California, Santa Cruz and co-founder of the non-profit Community Agroecology Network (CAN). Agroecology entails the biotic and abiotic interactions and maintaining sustainability at farm level. This book has 26 chapters containing comprehensive discussions of different aspects of agroecology divided into six sections: (1) introduction to agroecology, (2) plants and abiotic factors of the environment, (3) a more complete autoecological perspective, (4) system-level interactions, (5) the transition to sustainability, and (6) bringing about a sustainable world food system. In the beginning, author describes plant and abiotic factors of the environment comprising of the plant, light, temperature, humidity and rainfall, wind, soil, water in the soil, and fire. Author introduced these basic concepts lucid enough for undergraduate students’ understanding. Each chapter is 10-15 pages in length but comprises enough details to comprehend the linkage in between the factor and crop production. Next two sections are dedicated towards explaining biological component and complex system level interactions. Author describes various complex theories and laws governing the population ecology, diversity, and agroecosystem management. At the end, author has highlighted the importance, indicators and indicator measurement of sustainability. At the end of each chapter, thought provoking questionnaires are included for students to check their knowledge base development. For the future editions, I have couple of suggestions to improve the structure and context for wide acceptability of this textbook. It will be good to introduce students with United States agroecological regions and their differences in agroecology diversity, management and sustainability. For instructors’ resources, it will be good to have slides made for each chapter and objective and subjective type question sets for the class quiz and test.