What Are the Opportunities Presented by Sustainable Agriculture for Farmers in Pennsylvania?
In a word, profit. Sustainable ag offers farmers alternative markets that allow farmers to seek a greater percentage of the profit created by their labor. The dollars that remain on the farm benefit the local community as well–equipment dealers, farm supply stores, and other local merchants.Farmers also have the opportunity to include value-added farm products in farm sales. Public attention and scrutiny focused on the food supply–due to genetically modified crops and diseases like BSE–have caused sales of organic foods to grow at 20 to 25 percent a year. Increased quality of life. This benefit may be reflected in many ways, including 1) lower exposure to pesticides, herbicides, and other toxins such as nitrates in well water from commercial fertilizers; 2) decreased workloads from some farming methods (for example, dairy farmers who adopt pasture-based dairying milking only 10 months a year), and the opportunity to reap greater profits from smaller acreages. Lower start-up costs fo
