Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
as management techniques, practices, and strategies
shift and change. The dynamic nature of agroecosystems
sets the stage for a constant interplay between the orga-
nization and functioning of farms and the organization
and interaction of the social, economic, and cultural
components of the society within which the farms are
embedded.
Over time, specific parameters (elements or proper-
ties) can be measured as indicators of sustainability. The
measurable ecological parameters have been described
throughout this topic; the social parameters of sustain-
able agroecosystem function remain more difficult to
identify and measure. The most useful and most easily
measured parameters will undoubtedly vary with time,
especially as knowledge and preferences shift and
change, the environmental elements develop and mature,
and the interactive processes of resistance and resilience
combine to guide the rate and direction of such change.
One of our greatest challenges is learning how to monitor
the impacts of one indicator on another as social and
ecological parameters interact, as well as finding ways
to link indicators together in some kind of functional or
causal relationship.
Ultimately the interaction between the social and eco-
logical components of sustainable agroecosystems lead to
the condition of sustainability itself. Sustainability
becomes a complex set of conditions that are less depen-
dent on the individual ecological or social components
themselves than they are on the emergent qualities that
come from their interaction.
Such a framework for defining sustainable agriculture
incorporates a whole-systems way of looking at interac-
tions between subsystems. The impact of a new input or
practice in an agricultural system can be followed beyond
its ecological effects to the societal level. By looking at
each farm as an agroecosystem unto itself, and then as
part of regional, national, and transnational food systems,
we look beyond bottom-line economics for new ways to
promote sustainability. Food systems become ecological-
based systems that also maintain the societal needs of food
security, social equity, and the quality of life that sustain-
ability both engenders and requires.
TA B L E 2 4 . 1
Some of the Important Aspects of Social and Ecological Systems that Interact at Each Level in Sustainable
Food Systems
Social System
Ecological System
Social Conditions of Custainability
Ecological Conditions of Sustainability
Equitability
Stability
Quality of life
Resilience
Satisfaction
Efficiency
Efficiency
Health
Cultural stability
Permanence
Social Parameters of Agroecosystem Function
Ecological Parameters of Agroecosystem Function
Dependence on external forces
Biotic diversity
Land tenure relationships
Soil fertility and structure
Role in food product economy
Moisture availability
Food quality
Rates of erosion
Share of return to workers
Rates of nutrient recycling
Social Components of Agroecosystem Structure and Function
Ecological Components of Agroecosystem Structure and Function
Farmers and farmworkers
Crop plants, livestock, and their genomes
Landowners
Biotic interactions
Consumers of food products
Noncrop organisms
Technical and practical knowledge
Soil quality
Ecocultural knowledge
Nutrient cycling
Social System Foundation
Natural System Foundation
Shapes and constrains how human actors design and manage
agroecosystems
Provides the raw materials for and physical context of agroecosystems
Cultural components: values, ways of life, language
Local components: soil, soil microorganisms, native flora and fauna,
ecological relationships, weather and climate, topography
Social components: class structure, societal institutions
Global components: biogeochemical cycles, solar radiation, climatic
patterns
Economic components: market forces, position in global economy
Political components: legislated policies, structure of governance
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