What is sustainable agriculture?
Sustainable agriculture can provide high food, feed, or energy crop yields without destroying the environment or undermining current productivity. Farmers who take a sustainable approach substitute knowledge for pesticides and fertilizers. They use crop rotations and other adjustments of the agricultural system to solve problems. For example, soil enrichment produces healthy plants that resist disease, cover crops retard erosion and control weeds, and natural predators help control pests. The result is that farmers are able to minimize their use of pesticides and fertilizers, thereby saving money and protecting the environment.
Sustainable agriculture is an integrated system of plant and animal production which, over the long term, satisfies human food and fiber needs, enhances environmental quality, makes the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources, sustains the economic viability of farm operations and enhances the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.
Sustainable agriculture is farming practices that preserve and protect the future productivity and health of the environment. Sustainable agriculture is, however, a wider topic than organic farming. The way food is processed, packaged and transported may pose a threat to the environment, even when the food was cultivated organically. For example, pretzels may be organic-meaning 95% of their ingredients are organically grown-but have been produced from highly refined flour processed using energy-wasting machinery, packaged in non-recyclable plastic, and shipped around the world using large amounts of fossil fuel. Growing foods organically is, therefore, only the first step in achieving sustainable agriculture. Most environmentalists and ecologists and many individuals involved in the production of organic foods believe that sustainable agriculture is necessary if we are to reach the long-term goals of personal health and ecological balance. In 1988 the United Nation’s Food and Agricultu
Sustainable agriculture is a method of growing crops while protecting the environment, making a sizable profit, and leading to successful communities of farms. Philosophically and in practice, sustainable agriculture strives to find ways in which farmlands can be continuous producers of crops. Reliance on sources not available at the farmland, like water, soil nutrients, and appropriate amounts of sunshine, is considered unsustainable because the farm cannot self-perpetuate. Though the term sustainable agriculture dates from the 1980’s, there have certainly been attempts in the more distant past to create the best methods for farming land. In the US, for example, the pioneering work of George Washington Carver in the 19th century led to a better understanding of how crops like cotton can deplete nitrogen in the soil. Eventually, cotton growing led to non-arable land because of this depletion. Instead of artificially adding nitrogen to the soil, Carver advocated growing peanuts and swee
