A new book on organic animal farming has been published by award winning Cambridge-based publisher, Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Limited.
The book contains a chapter written by ORC’s Susanne Padel on The principles of organic livestock farming, a chapter by Laurence Smith (now ex ORC) on The effects of organic management on greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency in livestock production (with AG Williams of Cranfield University), and a chapter by Lindsay Whistance on Enhancing naturalness and human care in organic animal farming. Lindsay also contributed to a chapter on Integrated crop–livestock systems with agroforestry to improve organic animal farming
The title pays particular attention to the role organic animal farming will play in the face of key environmental issues. Dr Malla Hovi, Veterinary Epidemiologist at Preventable Surprises says, “This book comes at an extremely opportune time when the world is having to rethink food production and diets in the face of climate change and mass land degradation.”
Dr Hovi emphasises the market’s need for a book of this calibre and celebrates it’s publication: “The cast of editors and authors, all leaders in their field, makes the book a reliable reference work for years to come and is hugely welcome.”
The collection is divided into three key sections. Part 1 is dedicated to assessing the concepts associated with organic animal farming, Part 2 focuses on the farming of particular species, and Part 3 discusses what the future holds for the organic farming process.
Francis Dodds, Editorial Director at Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, who have published the new title, says “Organic animal farming is growing rapidly but face a range of challenges in areas such as nutrition, health and welfare. This volume surveys the wealth of research addressing these challenges.”
Francis explores the wealth of research in Improving organic animal farming in this short video.
The book is edited by Dr Mette Vaarst and Dr Stephen Roderick.
Dr Mette Vaarst is Senior Researcher in the Department of Animal Science at Aarhus University, and in the International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS), Denmark. She has published widely on organic animal farming and coordinated a number of major European research projects in this area.
Dr Stephen Roderick manages research and development projects in organic and sustainable farming at Duchy College’s Rural Business School in the UK. He has published widely in animal health and farm resource management.
