ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors finds the technique of shifting cultivation or field-forest rotation which is typically practised in rain forest areas on the boundary between horticulture and agriculture. Horticulture and agriculture are clearly further means of channelling and increasing the amount of food energy available to human populations. The problem of the chlorinated hydrocarbons is highly instructive and it is arrested, but it is only part of the problem of agricultural pollution. Eventually much of our poison effluent enters the oceans via our rivers, and we may find the most striking and dangerous effect of long-term agricultural pollution. England and the USA have enough domestic oil production to operate their agriculture for many decades, but if some oil is not reserved for this purpose, alternative power sources will become vital to both countries. The development of agriculture is the first of the major cultural advances that has transformed the biosphere by permitting an immense multiplication of the human species.
