Sustainable agriculture research in the ideal and in the field

ABSTRACT:

Recently completed and ongoing field projects in the United States that are self-labeled as sustainable agriculture research or funded through sustainable and low-input agriculture research programs were surveyed to find how closely they match the rhetoric of sustainability. Out of 122 projects, almost all covered techniques that have the potential to conserve nonrenewable resources and reduce environmental pollution. However, they did not show the broad scope that current writing about sustainable agriculture emphasizes: only 22 % focused on entire farms; 25% looked at integrated crops and livestock, 19% studied general processes from which basic agroecological principles could be learned, 44% measured environmental effects, and 7% analyzed off-farm social and economic effects. Projects on commercial farms and projects conducted on farms combined with experiment station or private research farm sites included studies of whole farms, combined crops and livestock, and analyzed offs-farm social and economic effects more frequently than projects done solely at experiment stations. In aggregate, these projects demonstrate disparities between the principles and practice of sustainable agriculture research. However, this may reflect overly rigid assertions about what sustainable agriculture research should be, rather than of true shortcomings in addressing sustainability through research.