Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
would have to have some mechanism for accountability, some means to
foster public trust that this policy is achieving its stated goals. Protected
Harvest is a working model of how to verify this progress with scientific
data.
Third, Congress should create a comprehensive agro-environmental
policy and fund agroecological initiatives. Congress has never provided
proper direction or authorization for the USEPA to help agriculture meet
its pollution-prevention goals. This is a major impediment for the
agency, and for environmental protection in general. The USEPA should
be given authority to foster healthy, resilient ecosystems, through its own
initiatives and in partnering with the Department of Agriculture and
other agencies.
American agriculture is worthy of public support, but only if it pro-
vides the kinds of socio-ecological benefits required of a good neighbor
industry. Agriculture in all US coastal states is straining under land use
pressures. Environmental leaders in these states in particular should rec-
ognize the importance of agriculture in providing ecological services, and
devise collaborative efforts to its preservation. Mark Chandler, the
Executive Director of the Lodi Woodbridge Winegrape Commission,
asserts that the best defense against suburban sprawl onto prime farm
land is to ensure the economic viability of agriculture. Agroecological
initiatives, held accountable through programs like Protected Harvest,
can help restore trust in agriculture, and contribute to mobilizing the
public to demand a different kind of agriculture.
For decades the public has largely accepted the “family farm” myths
as a representation of contemporary American agriculture when it is in
fact a large scale industrial activity. Agriculture has as much if not
greater impacts than any other economic enterprise on human health and
the environment. Agroecology holds out the scientific promise and
implicit ethos to transform American agriculture. Mobilizing the public
to demand this of our elected officials will be required to further put
agroecology into action, and achieve Rachel Carson's dream of a healthy
relationship between society and nature.
