What is sustainable agriculture?
Some terms defy definition. “Sustainable agriculture” has become one of them. In such a quickly changing world, can anything be sustainable? What do we want to sustain? How can we implement such a nebulous goal? Is it too late? With the contradictions and questions have come a hard look at our present food production system and thoughtful evaluations of its future. If nothing else, the term “sustainable agriculture” has provided “talking points,” a sense of direction, and an urgency, that has sparked much excitement and innovative thinking in the agricultural world. The word “sustain,” from the Latin sustinere (sus-, from below and tenere, to hold), to keep in existence or maintain, implies long-term support or permanence. As it pertains to agriculture, sustainable describes farming systems that are “capable of maintaining their productivity and usefulness to society indefinitely. Such systems… must be resource-conserving, socially supportive, commercially competitive, and environmen
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Author InfoAerni, Philipp Abstract Public debates on sustainable agriculture tend to be shaped by dominant political stakeholders with a particular political agenda. They simultaneously contribute and respond to the formation of public opinion. In this paper, we investigate to what extent stakeholder attitudes and interests help explain national conceptions of sustainable agriculture and how these conceptions diverge between countries with different agricultural policies. For that purpose, we conducted two stakeholder perception surveys in Switzerland and New Zealand. The data analysis revealed that there are significant differences in perception between the two countries. While Swiss respondents felt that Swiss agriculture is already quite sustainable and that international trade and new technologies are likely to render it less sustainable, New Zealand respondents generally thought that economic and technological change is necessary to make agriculture more sustainable. The conservat
Sustainable agriculture is a system and philosophy that emphasizes protecting and enhancing natural resources, using alternatives to pesticides, and caring for the health and well being of farm workers and rural communities. Food Alliance certified growers are committed to: • Using a range of natural pest controls, such as beneficial insects, careful weather monitoring and scouting. • For non-organic certified products, minimizing the use of pesticides when natural methods don’t work. • Improving soil by natural methods, such as crop rotation and cover crops. • Protecting clean drinking water and fish habitat by providing buffer zones in riparian areas. • Providing wildlife habitat and encouraging residency by growing some year round vegetative cover for shelter and food. • Taking into consideration quality of life issues for their farm workers and their communities when making daily farm management decisions. • Continually improving their farming practices to make them more environmen
