Indicators of Sustainability - Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems - page 306

In recent years, however, the emphasis in agriculture
has begun to shift from maximizing yields and profit over
the short term to valuing the ability to sustain productivity
over the long term. Reflecting this shift, the number of
university programs, nonprofit organizations, and devel-
opment projects with a sustainability focus have grown in
the past decade. Yet agriculture as a whole is just begin-
ning to respond.

TA B L E 2 1 . 4
Socioeconomic Parameters Related to
Agroecosystem Sustainability

Ecological Economics (Farm Profitability)
Per-unit production costs and returns
Rate of investment in tangible assets and conservation
Debt loads and interest rates
Variance of economic returns over time
Reliance on subsidized inputs or price supports
Relative net return to ecologically based practices and investments
Off-farm externalities and costs that result from farming practices
Income stability and farming practice diversity

U SING AN A GROECOLOGICAL F RAMEWORK

The emerging agroecological approach permits research
to apply an integrated system-level framework concerned
with management for the long term (Gliessman, 2001;
Rickerl and Francis, 2004). Agroecological research stud-
ies the environmental background of the agroecosystem,
as well as the complex of processes involved in the main-
tenance of long-term productivity. It establishes the eco-
logical basis of sustainability in terms of resource use and
conservation, including soil, water, genetic resources, and
air quality. Then it examines the interactions between the
many organisms of the agroecosystem, beginning with
interactions at the individual species level and culminating
at the ecosystem level as the dynamics of the entire system
are revealed.
The ecological concepts and principles on which agro-
ecology is based establish a holistic perspective for the
design and management of sustainable agricultural sys-
tems. The application of ecological methods is essential
for determining (1) if a particular agricultural practice,
input, or management decision is sustainable, and (2) what
the ecological basis is for the functioning of the chosen
management strategy over the long term.
The holistic perspective of agroecology means that
instead of focusing research on very limited problems or
single variables in a production system, these problems or
variables are studied as part of a larger unit. There is little
doubt that certain problems require research specializa-
tion. But in agroecological studies any necessary narrow
focus is placed in the context of the larger system. Impacts
that are felt outside of the production unit as a result of a
particular management strategy (e.g., a reduction in local
biodiversity) can be part of agroecological analysis. This
broadening of the research context extends to the social
realm as well — the final step in agroecological research
is to understand ecological sustainability in the context of
social and economic systems.

The Social and Cultural Environment
Equitability of return to farmer, farm laborer, and consumer
Autonomy and dependence on external forces
Degree of self-sufficiency and use of local resources
Social justice, especially cross-cultural and intergenerational
Equitability of involvement in the production process
Reproducibility of the farming culture
Extent of age, race, and gender empowerment
Stability of social organization and activity of social networking
Degree of sharing of agrarian values

readings at the end of both chapters for more depth and
information.

RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABILITY

Research on the sustainability of agroecosystems has
grown considerably in the past decade (Masera and
López-Ridaura, 2000; Gliessman, 2001; Turner et al.,
2003; Zhen and Routray, 2003; Liebig et al., 2004). The
principles on which sustainability can be built are well
established (and have been discussed in detail in this
text), but we are just beginning to generate the more
detailed knowledge needed to apply these principles to
the design of sustainable systems and the global conver-
sion of agriculture to sustainability.
Much more research still needs to be done because
the resources and efforts of agricultural research have long
been concentrated on other concerns. Research has
focused on maximizing production, studying the compo-
nent parts of systems, evaluating results based primarily
on short-term economic return, answering questions
involving immediate production problems, and serving the
immediate needs and demands of agriculture as an inde-
pendent industry (Pretty, 2002). The result has been the
development of a high-yielding, industrial agriculture that
is experiencing great difficulty responding to concerns
about environmental quality, resource conservation, food
safety, the quality of rural life, and the sustainability of
agriculture itself.

Q UANTIFICATION OF S USTAINABILITY

For agroecological research to contribute to making agri-
culture more sustainable, it must establish a framework
for measuring and quantifying sustainability (Liverman
et al., 1988; Gliessman, 2001). We need to be able to
assess a particular system to determine how far from