Sustainable Agriculture
Because of concerns over pesticides and nitrates in ground-water, soil erosion, pesticide residues in food, pest resistance to pesticides, and the rising costs of purchased inputs needed for conventional agriculture, many farmers have begun to adopt alternative practices with the goals of reducing input costs, preserving the resource base, and protecting human health. This is called sustainable agriculture.
Many of the components of sustainable agriculture are derived from conventional agronomic practices and livestock husbandry. Sustainable systems more deliberately integrate and take advantage of naturally occurring beneficial interactions. Sustainable systems emphasize management, biological relationships such as those between the pest and predator, and natural processes such as nitrogen fixation instead of chemically intensive methods. The objective is to sustain and enhance, rather than reduce and simplify, the biological interactions on which production agriculture depends, thereby reducing the harmful off-farm effects of production practices.
Examples of practices and principles emphasized in sustainable agriculture systems include:
- Crop rotations that mitigate weed, disease, insect, and other pest problems; increase available soil nitrogen and reduce the need for purchased fertilizers; and, in conjunction with conservation tillage practices, reduce soil erosion.
- Integrated pest management (IPM) that reduces the need for pesticides by crop rotations, scouting weather monitoring, use of resistant cultivars, timing of planting, and biological pest controls.
- Soil and water conservation tillage practices that increase the amount of crop residues on the soil surface and reduce the number of times farmers have to till the soil.
- Animal production systems that emphasize disease prevention through health maintenance, thereby reducing the need for antibiotics.
Many farmers and people of rural communities are starting to explore the possibilities of systems of sustainable agriculture. The term "systems" is used because there is no one single way to farm sustainably. The possible ways are as numerous as farmers and potential farmers.
The first aspect of sustainable agriculture is the understanding that a respect for life, in its various forms, is not only desirable but necessary to human survival. A second aspect requires that the farming system not put life in jeopardy, and that its methods not deplete the soil or the water or place farmers in situations where they themselves are depleted, either in numbers or in the quality of their lives.
Another aspect of sustainable agriculture recognizes that farming families are an essential part of a sustainable system. Farmers are the systems' stewards, or caregivers. As stewards, they know their land better than anyone else and are equipped to shoulder the challenge of developing a sustainable system on that land. In a sustainable system, farmers ideally move toward less dependence on off-farm purchased inputs and more toward natural or organic materials. This is accomplished by gaining knowledge about the intricate biological and economic workings of the farm. Lastly, sustainable agricultural systems require the support of consumers as well; they can give support, for example, by selectively buying food raised in close proximity to a buyer's local market.
Resources
Books
National Research Council Board on Agriculture. Alternative Agriculture. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1989.
Periodicals
Thesing, C. "What Is Sustainable Agriculture?" The Land Stewardship Letter 10 (1992): 13–14.
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