Agricultural sustainability is a fundamental requirement for environmental conservation, food production, and food security. In order to achieve agricultural sustainability, it is essential that policies are put in place to support sustainable practices, and that agricultural institutions are provided access supporting knowledge and technology. With this integral support, stakeholders can be better prepared to avoid issues such as eroding biodiversity and environmental quality as well as prepare for the inevitable challenges of climate change. This dissertation investigates the challenges and opportunities involved with the development of the hard apple cider industry in the United States’ Northeast. Hard apple cider is the smallest, but fastest growing sector of the alcoholic beverage industry, showing a great deal of potential to improve rural agricultural economies while supporting the food localization movement that is integral in connecting consumers to the environment. In this study, we use a multi-tiered approach towards addressing multiple aspects of sustainability by acknowledging the needs of various stakeholders residing in the US (United States) Northeast. We explore stakeholder values related to sustainability attributes to better understand the producer-consumer relationship using online surveys for orchard managers and hard apple cider consumers, and take on life cycle and risk assessment analytical techniques to quantify the environmental and socioeconomic impact of the hard apple cider production system. In Chapter 1, we analyze survey data collected from 65 apple orchard owners/managers to explore how their values, beliefs, and norms influence their current management practices and their willingness to implement sustainable management practices through principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression analyses. Here, we also explore orchardists’ perceptions of the opportunities and challenges related to the hard apple cider industry. In Chapter 2, we analyze survey data collected from 630 hard apple cider consumers to identify the intrinsic and actual value associated with sustainability attributes attached to hard apple cider using the best-worst choice (BWC) approach, which combines bestworst scaling (BWC) and discrete choice (DC) methods. In Chapter 3, we apply quantify the environmental and economic impact of the hard apple cider production system through life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) analyses, and explore multiple packaging and distribution scenarios to identify best management practices in terms of sustainability. In Chapter 4, we evaluate the uncertainties associated with the environmental, social, and financial impacts of the hard apple cider production system and identify the associated risk to better inform adaptation and mitigation management strategies. Through these techniques, we offer a comprehensive foundation of knowledge in this little-explored subject which can provide useful information for supporting political and community decision-making, and can be used as a model for ongoing work in this field.

On her farm in Massachusetts, nutritionist Diana Rodgers has found a way back to a healthy, active lifestyle with a focus on nutritious and delicious eating, raising animals, growing vegetables, and balancing work and play. Anyone can have the same healthy, balanced lifestyle and a closer connection to their food—whether you live in a house in the suburbs, a farmhouse in the countryside, or an apartment in the city. The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook shows you how. With more than 100 seasonal Paleo recipes, guides to growing your own food and raising animals, and inspiring how-tos for crafts and entertaining, The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook is a guide not just for better eating, but for better living—and a better world.

“Not just a thorough guide to the history of apples and cider in this country but also an inspiring survey of the orchardists and cidermakers devoting their lives to sustainable agriculture through apples.”—Alice Waters “Pucci and Cavallo are thorough and enthusiastic chroniclers, who celebrate cider’s pomologists and pioneers with infectious curiosity and passion.”—Bianca Bosker, New York Times bestselling author of Cork Dork Cider today runs the gamut from sweet to dry, smooth to funky, made from apples and sometimes joined by other fruits—and even hopped like beer. In American Cider, aficionados Dan Pucci and Craig Cavallo give a new wave of consumers the tools to taste, talk about, and choose their ciders, along with stories of the many local heroes saving apple culture and producing new varieties. Like wine made from well-known grapes, ciders differ based on the apples they’re made from and where and how those apples were grown. Combining the tasting tools of wine and beer, the authors illuminate the possibilities of this light, flavorful, naturally gluten-free beverage. And cider is more than just its taste—it’s also historic, as the nation’s first popular alcoholic beverage, made from apples brought across the Atlantic from England. Pucci and Cavallo use a region-by-region approach to illustrate how cider and the apples that make it came to be, from the well-known tale of Johnny Appleseed—which isn’t quite what we thought—to the more surprising effects of industrial development and government policies that benefited white men. American Cider is a guide to enjoying cider, but even more so, it is a guide to being part of a community of consumers, farmers, and fermenters making the nation’s oldest beverage its newest must-try drink.

Today, food is being reconsidered. It’s a front-and-center topic in everything from politics to art, from science to economics. We know now that leaving food to government and industry specialists was one of the twentieth century’s greatest mistakes. The question is where do we go from here. Author Andy Brennan describes uncultivation as a process: It involves exploring the wild; recognizing that much of nature is omitted from our conventional ways of seeing and doing things (our cultivations); and realizing the advantages to embracing what we’ve somehow forgotten or ignored. For most of us this process can be difficult, like swimming against the strong current of our modern culture. The hero of this book is the wild apple. Uncultivated follows Brennan’s twenty-four-year history with naturalized trees and shows how they have guided him toward successes in agriculture, in the art of cider making, and in creating a small-farm business. The book contains useful information relevant to those particular fields, but is designed to connect the wild to a far greater audience, skillfully blending cultural criticism with a food activist’s agenda. Apples rank among the most manipulated crops in the world, because not only do farmers want perfect fruit, they also assume the health of the tree depends on human intervention. Yet wild trees live all around us, and left to their own devices, they achieve different forms of success that modernity fails to apprehend. Andy Brennan learned of the health and taste advantages of such trees, and by emulating nature in his orchard (and in his cider) he has also enjoyed environmental and financial benefits. None of this would be possible by following today’s prevailing winds of apple cultivation. In all fields, our cultural perspective is limited by a parallel proclivity. It’s not just agriculture: we all must fight tendencies toward specialization, efficiency, linear thought, and predetermined growth. We have cultivated those tendencies at the exclusion of nature’s full range. If Uncultivated is about faith in nature, and the power it has to deliver us from our own mistakes, then wild apple trees have already shown us the way.

"Combines the best of traditional knowledge and techniques with up-to-date, scientifically based practices to provide today's cider makers with all the tools they need to produce high-quality ciders"--Page 4 of cover.

Stronger and her husband moved their family off the grid to discover a more simple, agrarian life. With only minimal solar-powered electricity, she relies on food preservation techniques such as fermentation to provide food for her family while cutting food costs. In this book, she shows readers how to preserve food using traditional fermentation techniques--often without refrigeration--as an alternative to canning and freezing.

Packed with delicious recipes, natural remedies, gardening tips, crafts, and more, this indispensable lifestyle reference from the popular blogger makes earth-friendly living fun. Whether you live in a city, suburb, or the country, this essential guide for the backyard homesteader will help you achieve a homespun life--from starting your own garden and pickling the food you grow to pressing wildflowers, baking sourdough loaves, quilting, raising chickens, and creating your own natural cleaning supplies. In these richly illustrated pages, sustainability-guru Kris Bordessa offers DIY lovers an indispensable home reference for sustainability in the 21st century, with tried-and-true advice, 50 enticing recipes, and step-by-step directions for creating easy, cost-efficient projects that will bring out your inner pioneer. Filled with 340 color photographs, this relatable, comprehensive book contains time honored-wisdom and modern know-how for getting back to basics in a beautiful, accessible package.