Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in American Agriculture

Preface

vii Preface The essays in this collection have been written over the span of more than a decade. The various topics were suggested by the people who organized the sustainable agriculture conferences where they were presented. The essays address some of the most important questions of the sustainable agriculture movement: why did it begin, what is it about, and how can it succeed? The sustainable agriculture movement emerged in response to a growing crisis in American agriculture, a crisis arising from the unintended social, ecological, and economic consequences of agricultural industrialization. Sustainable agriculture is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future , which requires harmony and balance among the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of agriculture. But sustainable agriculture also is about the pursuit of a desirable quality of life—materially, socially, and spiritually—rather than the pursuit of narrow individual self-interests. Finally, the sustainable agriculture movement can and will succeed as farmers, consumers, and citizens realize, one by one, that farming and living sustainably is simply a better way to farm, to work, and to live. Those who are actually farming and living more sustainably are proving that it can be done. I have been involved with the sustainable agriculture movement since the late 1980s, when it was first publicly validated by the usda Low Input Sustainable Agriculture program. During the decade of the 1990s, I represented the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Missouri in facilitating and conducting sustainable agriculture research and educational viii Preface programs all across the country. During this time, and since retiring in early 2000, I have had the great privilege of making hundreds of presentations at various public events related to sustainable agriculture. Some of my earlier presentations focused on specific issues, such as agricultural industrialization, defining sustainable agriculture, niche marketing, and sustainable community development. In the mid-1990s I discovered an interesting pattern in the historic writings of Thomas Paine, a prominent pamphleteer during the American Revolution. He always began his pamphlets with an indictment, by stating what was wrong with the way things were. But he always went beyond the indictment to articulate his vision of how things ought to be. He then finished each pamphlet with a message of hope, stating what needed to be done to make things the way they ought to be. The essays in this book reflect this pattern: the crisis, the opportunity, and the hope for the future. This book as a whole tells the story of sustainable agriculture in America in its varied dimensions and from a variety of perspectives . I certainly do not claim to be an expert on Canadian agriculture, but I have averaged three to four speaking engagements in Canada per year over the past ten years. While I have observed significant differences between Canadian and U.S. agriculture , I believe the current challenges and opportunities for Canadian and U.S. farmers are very much the same, particularly with respect to sustainability. This book presents a significant number of essays, each addressing the whole of sustainable agriculture, but within a speci fic context and oriented toward a specific audience. Sustainable agriculture is a holistic concept; it cannot be understood by dissecting it, examining it piece by piece, and then putting the pieces back together. A sustainable agriculture is a living system; it is individualistic, site-specific, and dynamic. Thus, sustainability must be assessed within a specific context of people, place, and time. Sustainable agriculture is diverse, and thus cannot be Preface ix captured in a few examples or studies. Together, these essays tell a single holistic story of a dynamic and diverse sustainable agriculture. The story begins with the essay “Crisis and Opportunity in American Agriculture,” which establishes the theme and the pattern for the other essays and for the book as a whole. After reading the first chapter, readers should be able to skip to any section or any chapter of the book, if they prefer. Each essay stands on its own as a whole within a whole, although some sections of some essays have been edited and condensed to minimize duplication. The essays are organized in a logical progression and are mutually supportive or interdependent, but no essay is necessarily dependent upon another. Each of the book’s five sections contains three or more essays that share common themes. The first section...