The world depends on intensive farming – yet we are closer than ever to the kind of agricultural collapse that has destroyed so many past civilisations.

What does this book cover?

It is more important than ever to understand the way that soil collapse and agricultural failure has led to the collapse of huge empires and entire ways of life – if we have any hope of avoiding the same fate.

Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life contains all of the following, and more:

• The history of agriculture
• The rise of great civilisations, and how agricultural collapse spelled their doom
• Crop rotation, mulching and other sustainable ways to nurture and restore soils that are losing their ability to produce the crops we all need to survive
• Methods of soil regeneration which go beyond the concept of ‘organic farming’ to achieve true sustainability

About the Author

David R. Montgomery teaches at the University of Washington where he specialises in geomorphology – the study of soil, the land, and how its features form and evolve. He understands how soils become exhausted, and is the leading authority as to how they can be revived in a fully sustainable manner.

Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life looks at the lifecycle of arable soils over six of the world’s seven continents – excluding Antarctica.