Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
24
From Sustainable Agroecosystems to
Sustainable Food Systems
Throughout most of this topic, we have focused on the
ecological processes in agriculture, with a view towards
making agriculture sustainable in ecological terms. We
have examined the development of practices and technol-
ogies that improve crop yields, reduce dependence on
external inputs, and protect the on-farm environment.
Implementation of these practices, and the ecological con-
cepts and principles on which they are based, is critical
to achieving sustainability. But it is also not enough.
As suggested in the previous chapter, all aspects of
food production, distribution, and consumption must be
included in the picture if agriculture as a whole is to
become truly sustainable. This means transforming global
food systems, which reach into nearly every aspect of
human society and the built environment. Food systems
are much bigger than farming, which makes sustainability
about more than just farms (Buttel, 1993; Faeth, 1993). It
is the complex interaction of
all
the ecological, technical,
social, and economic parts of our food systems that will
determine if these systems can be sustained over the long
term. Our exploration of the consumer-farmer connection
in Chapter 23 offered one important window into the issue
of food system sustainability; in this chapter we will take
a step back to take a broader look at how the principles
and concepts presented in this text play into meeting what
may be humankind's greatest challenge.
individual farm (Gliessman, 2001; Boody, et al., 2005;
Pretty, 2005). A farmer who has converted to sustainable
practices knows that agriculture is more than a production
activity in which the only goal is to achieve a high yield
of a crop in a single season — it must also maintain the
conditions on the farm that allow those yields to be pro-
duced from one season to the next. But a farmer can no
longer only pay attention to the needs of his or her farm
and expect to adequately deal with the concerns of long-
term sustainability.
In many ways, agriculture is like a stream, with indi-
vidual farms being different pools along that stream. Many
things flow into a farm from upstream, and many things
flow out of it as well. Farmers work hard to keep their
own farms productive, being careful with the soil and what
they add to the farm environment and take out as harvest;
thus each pool in the agricultural stream has its own care-
taker. In times past, each farmer could keep his or her pool
in the stream functioning fairly well, and did not have to
worry very much about what was going on either upstream
or downstream.
But this “take care of your own” approach has its
limits today. One reason is that each individual farmer has
less and less control over what flows into his or her pool
from upstream. Many unwanted things come from
upstream, including pesticides, weed seeds, diseases, and
polluted water from other farms. In addition, many things
from upstream that the farmer needs he or she has little
control over. These needs include labor, a market for the
farm products, irrigation water, and farmland. As a result
of these upstream influences — further complicated by
legislated farm policies and the vagaries of the weather
and the market — the stream becomes quite muddied and
the job of keeping one's own pool clean very difficult.
Increasingly, each farmer must also consider a second
problem: the way he or she takes care of the farm can
have many effects downstream. Soil erosion and ground-
water depletion can negatively affect surrounding farms.
Poor or inefficient use of pesticides and fertilizers can
contaminate the water and air, as well as leave potentially
harmful residues on the food that others will consume.
How well each farmer does on his or her own farm also
has an influence on the viability of rural farm economies
and cultures broadly. Both upstream and downstream fac-
tors are linked in complex ways that in different ways
impinge upon the sustainability of each farm.
A BROADER AGENDA
Many conventional agricultural research and extension
institutions have begun to make the concept of sustain-
ability a part of their programs, but they continue to suffer
from a narrowness of approach. They usually focus on
ways to improve yields and increase profits while using
less energy and fewer inputs, giving little emphasis to
protecting the environment beyond the farm, and failing
to take into account the many and complex social and
economic conditions that affect farms and farming com-
munities. It is time for them to expand their focus to
include entire food systems, and agroecology provides the
foundation for doing so.
B
EYOND
THE
I
NDIVIDUAL
F
ARM
The current discussions about sustainable agriculture go
much beyond what happens within the fences of any
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