The concept of agricultural sustainability

Abstract

Sustainable agriculture has become a popular code word for an environmentally sound, productive, economically viable, and socially desirable agriculture. This paper reviews reasons for growing interest in agricultural sustainability (mainly the unanticipated, adverse side-effects of conventional farming), examines the proposed ends and means of sustainability, and discusses two issues frequently debated — the profitability of sustainable farming and the adequacy of food production from sustainable systems. The concept of agricultural sustainability does not lend itself to precise definition, partly because it implies a way of thinking as well as of using farming practices, and because the latter cannot be specified as final answers. Consequently, people's beliefs and values will continue to mold public understanding of the concept. Two different views of sustainable agriculture are held. One is that fine-tuning of conventional agriculture — more careful and efficient farming with sensitive technologies — will reduce or eliminate many undesirable effects of conventional agriculture. The other is that fundamental changes in agriculture are needed, requiring a major transformation of societal values. Those who believe that only fine-tuning is needed tend to argue that sustainable farming is inherently unprofitable. If widely adopted, it would not feed the world's expanding population as well as conventional agriculture. Those who see a need for more fundamental changes in conventional systems believe that sustainable farming, on the contrary, can be even more profitable than the conventional, especially when the calculation of profit counts all of the benefits and costs of farming. Further, resource conservation, protection of the environment, and farming in partnership with nature — all requirements of sustainability — will enhance, not reduce, global food production. Other issues, such as the connections between sustainable farming and the rest of the food and fiber system, and the implications of sustainability for rural communities and society as a whole, have yet to be addressed significantly.