Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Fertilizers
Cover crops
Green manures
Mulching
Compost
Rotations
Enhanced
soil
fertility
Healthy
agroecosystem
Integrated
farm
management
decisions
Synergism
Interactions
(+, -)
Healthy crop
Crop diversity
Cultural practices
Pesticides
Habitat modification
Enhanced
pest
regulation
Figure 1.6
Interactions between components of a farming system and farm-management
decisions (expanded from Altieri 2002).
she was savagely attacked by industry and elected officials, and the
integrity of her scientific work was assailed. Carson was dismissed as an
irrational, emotional woman, and her scientific work judged illegitimate.
Her critics were wrong, of course, and her arguments about the public
significance of the scientific consequences of irresponsible chemical use
carried the day, in large part because she circulated her findings to the
public, which recognized the interdependence of all these loops even
when most agricultural scientists did not.
Using insights from Latour's understanding of science as practice, we
can improve Altieri's conceptual model of agroecological interactions of
systems components by adding a feedback loop, circulating knowledge
back to the humans who make management decisions (figure 1.6).
Agroecology in Action
investigates how people have successfully circu-
lated this knowledge back to farming decision makers for social and
environmental benefits. In so doing, they collectively carry forward
Rachel Carson's dream.
