May 1991 – Sustainable agriculture – fad or harbinger?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247843542_Sustainable_Agriculture_Fad_or_Harbinger
“Does the current discussion of sustainable agriculture; like the larger search for more sustainable societies, represent a harbinger of basic change, or will its challenge to current structures in the industrial and developing worlds be diluted, co-opted, or lost as the term is popularized?”
“Some [taxonomies/naming systems], like organic farming, came out of specific farming and cultivation practices. Others, like biodynamic agriculture and agroecology, emerged more from philosophical positions or theoretical approaches.”
“…alternative-agriculture advocates must now face three challenges:”
- Prevent concepts from being co-opted and diluted.
- Determine policy implications within the agricultural sector.
- To envision how agriculture will be restructured regarding other sectors of society re. climate change, population, resource trends, and loss of genetic and biologic diversity. [Also, gmo, pesticide, herbicide, nano, geo, robotic, etc., technological advances]
Notables:
“Organic” F.H. King (1927) – Analysis of farming systems and compost/humus research of agronomist Sir Albert Howard (1940). Biodynamic agriculture drew on holistic analysis of plant population interactions of scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1974).”
“Robert Rodale, a leading advocate of organic farming funded long-term scientific studies which gave organic farming increased credibility.”
“The US farm crises of the late 1980s (drought and declining farmland prices) led to more interest among farmers and USDA in low-input sustainable agriculture which reduced farmer’s costs and the environmental effects of high-input practices.”
“The concepts termed agroecology, permaculture, and regenerative agriculture emerged in the environmental and post-oil-embargo era, drawing heavily and ecological systems…
Argroecology “seeks to understand how traditional and indigenous Third World agricultural systems have achieved sustainability…”
Permaculture “employs an ecological landscape-design approach…”
Regenerative agriculture “…through the uses of ecological hierarchy theory,…seeks to understand how to reinstate and regenerate over the long-term not only local cropping systems and farm families, but also rural communities, landscapes, and regions.
Agroecology and regenerative agriculture also consider a larger scope of regional and continental trade, aid, disparities and corporate influence.
The larger implications of sustainability are three-fold:
- Sustainability as a long-term strategy to minimize external inputs and enhance existing natural resources.
- Sustainability as stewardship with a focus on ideals and ethics ie. animal and ecological husbandry as well as generational and integrative benefits.
- Sustainability as community – (opens up argument about “justice” due to different ideologies; capitalism vs. socialism) “…gross maldistributions of land, wealth, and power”.
“Fundamentally then, alternative agriculturalists are challenging the conventional paradigms, research models, and methodologies that have facilitated the gradual incorporation of agriculture into larger industrial systems”
“…the combined power of the dominant paradigm and the resistance of the chemical industry has largely transformed integrated pest management into integrated pesticide management.”
“Efforts by multinationals to create herbicide-resistant seeds, [etc.] appear designed to benefit the companies much more than either farmers or consumers. These foci raise basic ethical and political questions.”
Conclusion – paraphrased
“Fundamental issues are at stake in the discussion of sustainability…the struggles for reform…parallel energy, transportation, and health…Will [our] societies seek to maintain,…or will they seek to restructure into genuinely sustainable, equitable patterns?…will they recognize the urgency of acting vigorously now to avooid irreversible damage to the regenerative capabilities of life-supporting systems from the field level up to the entire biosphere?”
Important terms to research:
-Oligopoly
-Ecological economics