Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
public funds and certainly may not be
conducive to enhancing the transformational
framework for developing and implementing
widespread sustainable agricultural practices
and systems. In the USA today, relatively lit-
tle of public funding for agriculture, despite
efforts of the USDA National Institute for
Food and Agriculture, goes towards funding
this proposed transformative approach, most
goes to funding incremental research (NRC,
2010). Major reallocation of public funds is
critical to support transdisciplinary systems
research to examine the interconnected chal-
lenges and opportunities at the farm (agro-
ecosystem) and landscape levels, as well as
the complex socio-ecological system frame-
work (Fig. 18.1).
Currently, as opposed to the vast portfo-
lio of individual knowledge pieces available
to farmers for decision making from incre-
mental research, the movement toward
transformative agriculture systems depends
on a much smaller, developing knowledge
base tested and communicated by farmers
and non-profit organizations independent of
traditional agriculture research institutions.
Current agriculture research and farmers
would both benefit from collaborative pro-
jects to build a publicly accessible database of
innovations for sustainable agriculture,
including animal agriculture. Additionally,
re-deployment of some federal farm subsidies
to fund, track and compare conventional sys-
tems with innovations from the transforma-
tive sustainable agriculture approach should
be made at the landscape, watershed and air-
shed levels.
The NRC (2010) committee concluded its
urge for the transformative approach to strive
for sustainable agriculture by noting the
tough choices that must be made among
competing options and goals for a sustainable
food system. It strongly urged that in addi-
tion to changing markets and policy, that
substantive public dialogue is required to
shape and direct the transformative path to
sustainable animal agriculture systems.
Successful implementation will necessitate
the public, individuals and organizations
spanning political and institutional bounda-
ries to integrate complex components for
transformation to agricultural sustainability
from research, to field-testing and demon-
stration, to full implementation for farms,
markets and consumers.
Thinking of mixed-crop-animal farming
systems as the transformative target, the goals
for agriculture sustainability are not exclu-
sively applicable to either more developed or
less developed countries or cultures. It is critical
that animal agriculture sustainability be
thought of as part of the transformative pro-
cess in the context of people, planet and profit,
rather than simply as a collection of incre-
mental technical problems to be managed
and solved. Systems thinking is required.
Experiences and outcomes (non-sustainable
as well as sustainable) over the last 100 years
of development of agriculture systems in devel-
oped countries can serve to inform the evolu-
tion to sustainable systems in developing
countries, and farmers from more developed
countries can learn from long-held sustainable
agriculture practices of less-developed coun-
tries, especially faced with less resources such
as water and fossil fuel (Hillel and Rosenzweig,
2008). These will be paramount as evolution
towards more integrated and sustainable
mixed-crop-animal systems occur toward
2050 and beyond.
References
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