Policy proposals to foster sustainable agriculture

Excerpt

SUSTAINABLE agriculture is changing American agriculture, in spite of public policies hostile to the farmers who practice it. Until recently, sustainable agriculture was shunned by most of the agricultural research establishment. Even today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's low-input/sustainable agricultural (LISA) research program accounts for less than one-half of one percent of the federal investment in agricultural research and extension. Federal farm commodity programs penalize sustainable agriculture. Midwestern farmers who use low-input crop rotations have smaller corn acreage bases and consequently forego as much as two-thirds of the deficiency payments received by continuous corn producers. Finally, low-input, sustainable farmers whose crop rotations enhance soil tilth and thereby reduce soil erosion do not get adequate credit under the universal soil loss equation (USLE) and conservation compliance. If they farm erodible soils, they are likely to be encouraged by the local office of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) to switch to chemical-intensive systems, such as no-till, continuous corn and drilled soybeans.

Farm bill goals and proposals

The 1990 farm bill presents the opportunity to change public policy to facilitate the development of low-input, sustainable farming systems and reward farmers who …