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From page 15... ...
One of the first comprehensive reports on the scope and importance of systems approaches to improve sustainability of agriculture was documented in the National Research Council report Alternative Agriculture (1989b)
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This report reviews the state of knowledge on farming practices, technologies, and management systems that have the potential to improve the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of agriculture and discusses the tradeoffs and risks that might present themselves if more farms were to adopt those practices, technologies, and systems. The report also identifies knowledge gaps in improving agricultural sustainability and makes recommendations for future actions aimed at improving agricultural sustainability.
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From page 17... ...
Science documents the performance and impacts of different agricultural practices and systems, predicts outcomes likely to result from the use of different systems, develops indicators to measure progress toward sustainability goals, and expands the range of technological tools and farming management approaches available. The issue of water quality illustrates the critical role science plays.
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and interacts with the geophysical, biological, economic, and social variables of that environment. Farms employ a wide range of produc tion techniques and strategies known as "farming practices." Farms also use marketing techniques and strategies.
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Not only do farming enterprises reflect many combinations of farming practices, organization forms, and management strategies, but also all types of systems can potentially contribute to achieving various sustainability goals (for individual farmers and for resource use and environmental sustainability at the landscape scale)
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Over the last few decades there has been a major effort to develop new management approaches and farming practices that not only improve the economic performance and productivity of conventional and industrial farming systems, but also prevent and mitigate their potentially negative effects on soil erosion and water quality, some of which also can improve the economic performance and productivity of conventional farming. Examples of practices used in these strategies are summarized in Box 1-3 and will be discussed in depth in Chapter 3.
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BOX - E xamples of Ecologically Based Farming Systems Organic farming systems emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. They typically rely on crop rotations, green manures, composts, naturally derived fertilizers and pesticides, biological pest controls, mechanical cultivation, and modern technology.
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Because so much of the research literature is based on comparisons of particular farming practices, or of one or more of those stylized "farming systems," research findings are cited throughout the report using the categories described by the scientists who conducted the research. For this reason, this report cites organic farming systems more frequently than other ecologically based systems.
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AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY Defining Sustainability Goals In its broadest sense, sustainability has been described as the ability to provide for core societal needs in a manner that can be readily continued into the indefinite future without unwanted negative effects. Most definitions of sustainability are framed in terms of three broad social goals: environmental, economic, and social health or well-being.1 For example, a sustainable farming system might be one that provides food, feed, fiber, biofuel, and other commodities for society, as well as allows for reasonable economic returns to producers and laborers, cruelty-free practices for farm animals, and safe, healthy, and affordable food for consumers, while at the same time maintains or enhances the natural resource base upon which agriculture depends (USDA-NAL, 2007)
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Objectives Each of the four sustainability goals consists of a large number of more specific objectives that represent different paths toward achievement of the goal. For example, the goal to "satisfy human food, feed, and fiber needs" requires managing farming systems in the aggregate so that there will be enough affordable food and fiber (including for energy production)
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For example, the objectives listed with respect to environmental quality reflect a societal concern about the impacts of agriculture on the functional integrity of envi BOX - R epresentative Objectives Associated with Sustainability Goals Satisfy human food, feed, and fiber, and contribute to biofuel needs • Productivity of farming practice or system • Quality and safety of food output • Affordability of farm outputs • Availability of farm outputs Enhance environmental quality and quality of resource base • Soil quality and health • Water quality • Air quality • Biodiversity • Animal health and welfare Sustain the economic viability of agriculture • Farm business profitability and viability • Farm and household viability • Farm labor economic security • Community economic security Enhance the quality of life for farmers, farm workers, and society as a whole • nsure that farm operators and their households are able to maintain an acceptable quality of life, E including access to health and retirement benefits • rotect the health and welfare of farmers, farm workers, and society P • nhance community or social well-being from the surrounding agriculture, including access to local E food, sustained provision of ecological services, and maintenance of attractive landscapes
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From page 26... ...
Another quality is to close nutrient, energy, and other resource cycles to the maximum extent feasible to reduce undesirable losses to the environment and additional waste disposal activities. Third, farmers, conventional or alternative, who work toward improved sustainability tend to understand and work with the social, cultural, and economic goals of people and institutions throughout the farm and food chain, which encourages synergistic relationships in the social and economic realm and increases the likelihood of desired outcomes emerging from investment of time and resources.
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. Although those concepts have been discussed in general terms as a desirable attribute of sustainable agricultural systems for over 20 years (Conway, 1987)
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Annual cropping patterns might temporarily result in the deposition, uptake, or loss of various crop nutrients in a single season. Across a series of crop rotations, however, a field might be managed in a manner to present a relatively efficient and balanced nutrient budget over a whole rotation.
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. SETTING PRIORITIES FOR AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY Who Decides?
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Thompson terms a countervailing viewpoint as an agrarian philosophy of agriculture (sometimes called alternative or multifunctional agriculture) that views agriculture as having an important social func tion above and beyond its ability to produce food, feed, fiber, and biofuel.
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Because societal sustainability goals do not emerge from science (although they can be informed by scientific knowledge) , there are implications for what science can and cannot tell us.
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In that sense, sustainable management of agricultural resources is a journey of discovery and adaptive management, more than a specific destination. This committee, thus, regards sustainability as more of a process that moves farming systems along a trajectory toward meeting various socially determined sustainability goals (that is, desired outcomes)
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At present, the bulk of the work on sustainability indicators for agricultural systems has focused on the first three goals (to satisfy human food and fiber needs, to enhance environmental quality and the resource base, and to sustain the economic viability of agriculture) , with social indicators for the fourth goal (to enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole)
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Thus, having good indicators from earlier steps in the cause– effect chain is essential for taking timely preventive actions. (See Figure 1-4, Payraudeau and van der Werf [2005]
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In that case, stream nutrient levels would not be a good indicator for forming the basis of farm-level regulatory decisions. Means-based and outcome-based indicators can also be developed for measuring the impacts of farming systems on economic and social sustainability goals.
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Integrating Diverse Indicators in Holistic Assessments Using even well-designed indicators still begs the question of how to make a holistic assessment of the relative sustainability of different systems given the multiple indicators that represent various sustainability goals and objectives. Even a single sustainability goal, such as enhancing environmental quality, contains many subobjectives, such as water quality, air quality, water use, and biodiversity conservation, each of which may be measured by multiple indicators.
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SUMMARY • Sustainable agriculture can involve a diverse number of possible farming practices or farming systems. The committee's definition of sustainable farming does not accept a sharp dichotomy between conventional and sustainable farming systems, not only be cause farming enterprises reflect many combinations of farming practices, organization forms, and management strategies, but also because all types of systems can potentially contribute to achieving various sustainability goals and objectives.
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• Social indicators, in addition to environmental and economic measures, will help pro vide a more comprehensive assessment of movement toward sustainability goals; how ever, much more research is needed to develop appropriate social indicators because the development of such measures to date has been fledgling. ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT Using the terms and the boundaries defined in this chapter, this report provides an overview of how U.S.
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2008. Economic and policy conditions necessary to foster sustainable farming and food systems: U.S.
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van der Werf.
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2003. Operational indicators for measuring agricultural sustainability in developing countries.
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