Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
to develop a new generation of farming systems in this region, integrat-
ing more perennial crops and continuous living cover into the agricul-
tural landscape.
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“Continuous living cover” indicates agricultural
cropping and livestock production systems designed around perennial
crops, such as trees, shrubs, and grasses. This project integrates scientific,
social, and economic research and practices that will improve water
quality, increase grower profitability, improve wildlife habitat, reduce
flooding risks, and enhance rural community vitality. This is the most
ambitious agroecological partnership yet conceived, yet it is precisely the
kind of initiative our country needs. More than two-thirds of the land in
the Mississippi River watershed is farmed, most of it in annual crops,
leaving soils and nutrients and agrochemicals highly vulnerable to
erosion, which in turn creates the conditions for hypoxia in the Gulf of
Mexico. The Green Lands, Blue Waters project seeks, in the words of
Wes Jackson and Jerry Glover, a perennial solution to farming's annual
problem, or what Jackson calls “the problem of agriculture.”
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This proj-
ect has enrolled five land-grant universities in the basin. The Leopold
Center for Sustainable Agriculture has signed on for Iowa State
University, however, and it is not clear how much its parent university
is invested. Project organizers anticipate a $105 million budget over
ten years, not including farm incentive payments. The ability of projects
like this to effect change appears largely at the mercy of American farm
policy.
Agroecology: Scientific, Economic, and Policy Challenges
This topic has used Latour's model to interpret the development of alter-
native agricultural science, and we have seen that progressing toward
integrated agro-environmental goals depends upon organizing alterna-
tive social relations. What policies could better support the social
relationships to put agroecology into action on a broader scale? The
land-grant university and the federal crop subsidy systems are the two
dominant institutions in American agriculture, and agroecological part-
nerships have developed in spite of their counter-incentives. The USEPA
has never been authorized to manage the health of ecosystems. To
realize the benefits of agroecology will require more than its public rep-
resentation as an alternative, but rather reforming and re-directing these
