Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
staff to undertake regional analyses of environmental problems to deter-
mine gaps they needed to address. Integrated analysis of environmental
indicators in several regions indicated that agriculture merited priority
attention, and the USEPA launched place-based agricultural initiatives.
Under Reilly's tenure, the USEPA also emphasized public sector/industry
partnerships to promote voluntary pollution prevention.
30
The agency
also began initiatives to work with other federal agencies with existing
authority to manage resources. This shifted attention from end-of-the-
pipe pollution management to the reduction or elimination of potential
pollutants, especially hazardous or toxic materials.
31
These administra-
tive initiatives nudged the USEPA to address agriculture's problems, but
staff knew they had to do so in a non-confrontational way.
During the Clinton administration, the US Department of Agriculture
set new goals for implementation of IPM, but the passage of the Food
Quality Protection Act in 1996 was the most important agricultural reg-
ulatory initiative of that decade. As chapter 3 narrates, this law created
new concerns in the agricultural community about the loss of chemical
technologies, but also new funding sources for agroecological partner-
ships. As chapters 3 and 4 explain, when USEPA staff encountered BIOS
and other partnerships, they discovered that by investing in them they
could achieve agency goals with carrots, not merely sticks.
Essentially all industrial farming operations pollute, and comprehen-
sive enforcement is impossible. Laws such as the Clean Water Act and
Food Quality Protection Act provide a framework for environmental
regulatory agencies at the federal and state levels, but their limited
resources leave all but the most egregious environmental offenses unad-
dressed. Agriculture's widely distributed and independent decision
makers, managing varied farming systems in highly variable ecological
contexts frustrate regulatory enforcement models. For these reasons,
developing incentive systems of collaborative voluntary innovation hold
more promise.
The Emergence of Agroecology
Silent Spring
challenged scientific institutions as well as public officials.
Carson was one of the first in the Cold War era to openly criticize pub-
licly funded scientific institutions for disregarding the public good.
