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From page 519... ...
Loss of water quality through nitrogen and phosphorus loadings in rivers, streams, and ground water contributes to dramatic shifts in aquatic ecosystems and hypoxic zones. Agricultural pesticides can contaminate streams, ground water, and wells.
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From page 520... ...
agricultural production is to meet the challenge of maintaining long-term adequacy of food, fiber, feed, and biofuels under scarce or declining resources and under challenges posed by climate change and to minimize negative outcomes, agricultural production will have to substantially accelerate progress toward the four sustainability goals. Such acceleration needs to be undergirded by
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From page 521... ...
For this report, the committee's definition of sustainable agriculture does not make a sharp dichotomy between conventional and sustainable farming systems, not only because farming enterprises reflect many combinations of farming practices, organization forms, and management strategies, but also because most types of farming systems can potentially contribute to achieving various sustainability goals and objectives. Pursuit of sustainability is not a matter of defining sustainable or unsustainable agriculture, but rather of assessing whether choices of farming practices and farming systems would lead to a more or less sustainable system as measured by the four goals.
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From page 522... ...
INCREMENTAL APPROACH TO IMPROVING U.S. AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY The proposed expanded incremental approach would include focused disciplinary research on production, environmental, economic, and social topics, and policies (such as expanded agricultural conservation and environmental programs)
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From page 523... ...
. Research on the economic and social dimensions of agricultural sustainability complementary to research on productivity and environmental sustainability is scarce despite its importance in providing farmers with knowledge to design systems that balance different sustainability goals and improve overall sustainability.
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From page 524... ...
TRANSFORMATIVE APPROACH TO IMPROVING U.S. AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY If major farming systems and aggregations of systems within key production regions have gradually evolved toward meeting some sustainability goals while moving toward unacceptable ends of the others, as indicated by scientific knowledge accumulated over
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From page 525... ...
The transformative approach to improving agricultural sustainability would dramatically increase integrative research by bringing together multiple disciplines to address key dimensions of sustainability simultaneously beyond the agroecological dimension. It would apply a systems approach to agriculture that could result in production systems
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From page 526... ...
Policy Research • esearch to improve understanding of the intended and unintended consequences of federal farm, R food, and environmental policies that can affect the use of agricultural practices designed to improve sustainability. and agricultural landscapes that are a significant departure from the dominant systems of present-day agriculture.
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From page 527... ...
Systems other than concentrated confined animal systems are evolving for dairy cattle, beef cattle, and hogs, and to a small extent for poultry, mostly targeted to niche markets. Public concerns about nuisances, environmental pollution, and animal welfare associated with certain types of large animal confinement operations (for example, poorly managed concentrated animal feeding operations that reduce aesthetics of commu nities or animal operations that use large quantities of subtherapeutic antibiotics)
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From page 528... ...
The report Alternative Agriculture emphasized the importance of a systems approach to agricultural research 20 years ago, yet the proportion of long-term systems agricultural research remains small. Ultimately, it will be more effective to structure farms and agricultural systems toward ecosystem stability rather than to address unintended consequences through piecemeal "technological fixes." To pursue systemic changes in farming systems, R&D has to address multiple dimensions of sustainability (productivity, and environmental, economic, and social sustainability)
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From page 529... ...
In addition, effective public policy tools that are politically viable and effective in shaping patterns of the agricultural practices or land use at the landscape level are needed, but their development is in an early stage. Moreover, no single agricultural landscape pattern is likely to work in every location; rather, optimal designs would have to be adapted to local conditions and meet particular community needs.
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From page 530... ...
Those agencies should strengthen initiatives for partici patory education and peer-to-peer partnerships that could enhance information exchange and enhance farmers' adoption of new practices and approaches for improving sustainability of agriculture. Efforts to engage farmers and citizens in research and outreach to improve agricultural sustainability will require institutional support.
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From page 531... ...
Similarly, sustainability initiatives by large food retailers also have opened up new markets for food products that are produced using certain practices or farming system types for improving sustainability. These emerging markets can motivate farmers to transition to sustainable farming systems that balance and meet multiple sustainability goals.
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From page 532... ...
• Promising technologies and approaches include soil organic matter management, reduced tillage, integrated fertility management, water harvesting, drip irrigation, stress-resistant crop varieties, improved animal breeds, integration of crops and livestock, and use of global information systems for landscape and regional analy sis and planning. • Expanding market access will be essential to increase productivity and enhance livelihoods in rural Africa.
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From page 533... ...
Researcher and farmer partnerships and peer-to-peer exchanges among farmers could facilitate incorporation of local knowledge, making use of the best-available scientific process-level understanding, and enabling learning and developing knowledge systems to build the local capacity for improving agricultural sustainability. IN CLOSING This report identifies what is known about farming practices and systems that can improve sustainability.
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