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Wikipedia

Sustainable agriculture

January 06, 2023

Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs.[1] It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services. There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture. When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems, it is important to develop flexible business process and farming practices.[2] Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint, playing a significant role in causing climate change (food systems are responsible for one third of the anthropogenic GHG emissions),[3][4] water scarcity, water pollution, land degradation, deforestation and other processes;[5] it is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes.[6] Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems. It involves preventing adverse effects to soil, water, biodiversity, surrounding or downstream resources—as well as to those working or living on the farm or in neighboring areas. Elements of sustainable agriculture can include permaculture, agroforestry, mixed farming, multiple cropping, and crop rotation.[7]

Shade-grown coffee, a form of polyculture (an example of sustainable agriculture) in imitation of natural ecosystems. Trees provide resources for the coffee plants such as shade, nutrients, and soil structure; the farmers harvest coffee and timber.

Developing sustainable food systems contributes to the sustainability of the human population. For example, one of the best ways to mitigate climate change is to create sustainable food systems based on sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture provides a potential solution to enable agricultural systems to feed a growing population within the changing environmental conditions.[6] Besides sustainable farming practices, dietary shifts to sustainable diets are an intertwined way to substantially reduce environmental impacts.[8][9][10][11] Numerous sustainability standards and certification systems exist, including organic certification, Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade, UTZ Certified, GlobalGAP, Bird Friendly, and the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C).[12]

Definition

The term "sustainable agriculture" was defined in 1977 by the USDA as an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term:[13]

  • satisfy human food and fiber needs
  • enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agriculture economy depends
  • make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls
  • sustain the economic viability of farm operations
  • enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.

Aims

A common consensus is that sustainable farming is the most realistic way to feed growing populations. In order to successfully feed the population of the planet, farming practices must consider future costs–to both the environment and the communities they fuel.[14]  The fear of not being able to provide enough resources for everyone led to the adoption of technology within the sustainability field to increase farm productivity. The ideal end result of this advancement is the ability to feed ever-growing populations across the world. The growing popularity of sustainable agriculture is connected to the wide-reaching fear that the planet's carrying capacity (or planetary boundaries), in terms of the ability to feed humanity, has been reached or even exceeded.[15]

Key principles

There are several key principles associated with sustainability in agriculture:[16]

  1. The incorporation of biological and ecological processes such as nutrient cycling, soil regeneration, and nitrogen fixation into agricultural and food production practices.
  2. Using decreased amounts of non-renewable and unsustainable inputs, particularly environmentally harmful ones.
  3. Using the expertise of farmers to both productively work the land as well as to promote the self-reliance and self-sufficiency of farmers.
  4. Solving agricultural and natural resource problems through the cooperation and collaboration of people with different skills. The problems tackled include pest management and irrigation.

It "considers long-term as well as short-term economics because sustainability is readily defined as forever, that is, agricultural environments that are designed to promote endless regeneration".[17] It balances the need for resource conservation with the needs of farmers pursuing their livelihood.[18]

It is considered to be reconciliation ecology, accommodating biodiversity within human landscapes.[19]

Oftentimes the execution of sustainable practices within farming comes through the adoption of technology and environmentally-focused appropriate technology.

Environmental factors

 
Traditional farming methods have a low carbon footprint.[citation needed]

Practices that can cause long-term damage to soil include excessive tilling of the soil (leading to erosion) and irrigation without adequate drainage (leading to salinization).[20][21]

 
Conservation farming in Zambia

The most important factors for a farming site are climate, soil, nutrients and water resources. Of the four, water and soil conservation are the most amenable to human intervention. When farmers grow and harvest crops, they remove some nutrients from the soil. Without replenishment, the land suffers from nutrient depletion and becomes either unusable or suffers from reduced yields. Sustainable agriculture depends on replenishing the soil while minimizing the use or need of non-renewable resources, such as natural gas or mineral ores.

A farm that can "produce perpetually", yet has negative effects on environmental quality elsewhere is not sustainable agriculture. An example of a case in which a global view may be warranted is the application of fertilizer or manure, which can improve the productivity of a farm but can pollute nearby rivers and coastal waters (eutrophication).[22] The other extreme can also be undesirable, as the problem of low crop yields due to exhaustion of nutrients in the soil has been related to rainforest destruction.[23] In Asia, the specific amount of land needed for sustainable farming is about 12.5 acres which include land for animal fodder, cereal production as a cash crop, and other food crops. In some cases, a small unit of aquaculture is included (AARI-1996).

Nutrients

Nitrates

Possible sources of nitrates that would, in principle, be available indefinitely, include:

  1. recycling crop waste and livestock or treated human manure[24]
  2. growing legume crops and forages such as peanuts or alfalfa that form symbioses with nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia[25]
  3. industrial production of nitrogen by the Haber process uses hydrogen, which is currently derived from natural gas (but this hydrogen could instead be made by electrolysis of water using renewable electricity)
  4. genetically engineering (non-legume) crops to form nitrogen-fixing symbioses or fix nitrogen without microbial symbionts.[26]

The last option was proposed in the 1970s, but is only gradually becoming feasible.[27][28] Sustainable options for replacing other nutrient inputs such as phosphorus and potassium are more limited.

Other options include long-term crop rotations, returning to natural cycles that annually flood cultivated lands (returning lost nutrients) such as the flooding of the Nile, the long-term use of biochar, and use of crop and livestock landraces that are adapted to less than ideal conditions such as pests, drought, or lack of nutrients. Crops that require high levels of soil nutrients can be cultivated in a more sustainable manner with appropriate fertilizer management practices.

Phosphate

Phosphate is a primary component in fertilizer. It is the second most important nutrient for plants after nitrogen,[29] and is often a limiting factor.[30] It is important for sustainable agriculture as it can improve soil fertility and crop yields.[31] Phosphorus is involved in all major metabolic processes including photosynthesis, energy transfer, signal transduction, macromolecular biosynthesis, and respiration. It is needed for root ramification and strength and seed formation, and can increase disease resistance.[32]

Phosphorus is found in the soil in both inorganic and organic forms[29] and makes up approximately 0.05% of soil biomass.[32] Phosphorus fertilizers are the main input of inorganic phosphorus in agricultural soils and approximately 70%–80% of phosphorus in cultivated soils is inorganic.[33] Long-term use of phosphate-containing chemical fertilizers causes eutrophication and deplete soil microbial life, so people have looked to other sources.[32]

Phosphorus fertilizers are manufactured from rock phosphate.[34] However, rock phosphate is a non-renewable resource and it is being depleted by mining for agricultural use:[31][33] peak phosphorus will occur within the next few hundred years,[35][36][37] or perhaps earlier.[38][39][40]

Potassium

Potassium is a macronutrient very important for plant development and is commonly sought in fertilizers.[41] This nutrient is essential for agriculture because it improves water retention, nutrient value, yield, taste, color, texture and disease resistance of crops. It is often used in the cultivation of grains, fruits, vegetables, rice, wheat, millets, sugar, corn, soybeans, palm oil and coffee.[42]

Potassium chloride (KCl) represents the most widely source of K used in agriculture,[43] accounting for 90% of all potassium produced for agricultural use.[44]  

The use of KCl leads to high concentrations of chloride (Clˉ) in soil harming its health due to the increase in soil salinity, imbalance in nutrient availability and this ion's biocidal effect for soil organisms. In consequences the development of plants and soil organisms is affected, putting at risk soil biodiversity and agricultural productivity.[45][46][47][48] A sustainable option for replacing KCl are chloride-free fertilizers, its use should take into account plants' nutrition needs, and the promotion of soil health.[49][50]

Soil

 
Walls built to avoid water run-off, Andhra Pradesh, India

Land degradation is becoming a severe global problem. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: "About a quarter of the Earth's ice-free land area is subject to human-induced degradation (medium confidence). Soil erosion from agricultural fields is estimated to be currently 10 to 20 times (no tillage) to more than 100 times (conventional tillage) higher than the soil formation rate (medium confidence)."[51] Over a billion tonnes of southern Africa's soil are being lost to erosion annually, which if continued will result in halving of crop yields within thirty to fifty years.[52] Improper soil management is threatening the ability to grow sufficient food. Intensive agriculture reduces the carbon level in soil, impairing soil structure, crop growth and ecosystem functioning,[53] and accelerating climate change.[53] Modification of agricultural practices is a recognized method of carbon sequestration as soil can act as an effective carbon sink.[54]

Soil management techniques include no-till farming, keyline design and windbreaks to reduce wind erosion, reincorporation of organic matter into the soil, reducing soil salinization, and preventing water run-off.[55][56]

Land

See also: Peak farmland

As the global population increases and demand for food increases, there is pressure on land as a resource. In land-use planning and management, considering the impacts of land-use changes on factors such as soil erosion can support long-term agricultural sustainability, as shown by a study of Wadi Ziqlab, a dry area in the Middle East where farmers graze livestock and grow olives, vegetables, and grains.[57]

Looking back over the 20th century shows that for people in poverty, following environmentally sound land practices has not always been a viable option due to many complex and challenging life circumstances.[58] Currently, increased land degradation in developing countries may be connected with rural poverty among smallholder farmers when forced into unsustainable agricultural practices out of necessity.[59]

Converting big parts of the land surface to agriculture have severe environmental and health consequences. For example, it leads to rise in zoonotic disease like the Coronavirus disease 2019, by degrading natural buffers between humans and animals, reducing biodiversity and creating big groups of genetically similar animals.[60][61]

Land is a finite resource on Earth. Although expansion of agricultural land can decrease biodiversity and contribute to deforestation, the picture is complex; for instance, a study examining the introduction of sheep by Norse settlers (Vikings) to the Faroe Islands of the North Atlantic concluded that, over time, the fine partitioning of land plots contributed more to soil erosion and degradation than grazing itself.[62]

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that in coming decades, cropland will continue to be lost to industrial and urban development, along with reclamation of wetlands, and conversion of forest to cultivation, resulting in the loss of biodiversity and increased soil erosion.[63]

Energy

In modern agriculture, energy is used in on-farm mechanisation, food processing, storage, and transportation processes.[64] It has therefore been found that energy prices are closely linked to food prices.[65] Oil is also used as an input in agricultural chemicals. The International Energy Agency projects higher prices of non-renewable energy resources as a result of fossil fuel resources being depleted. It may therefore decrease global food security unless action is taken to 'decouple' fossil fuel energy from food production, with a move towards 'energy-smart' agricultural systems including renewable energy.[65][66] The use of solar powered irrigation in Pakistan is said to be a closed system for agricultural water irrigation.[67]

The environmental cost of transportation could be avoided if people use local products.[68]

Water

In some areas sufficient rainfall is available for crop growth, but many other areas require irrigation. For irrigation systems to be sustainable, they require proper management (to avoid salinization) and must not use more water from their source than is naturally replenishable. Otherwise, the water source effectively becomes a non-renewable resource. Improvements in water well drilling technology and submersible pumps, combined with the development of drip irrigation and low-pressure pivots, have made it possible to regularly achieve high crop yields in areas where reliance on rainfall alone had previously made successful agriculture unpredictable. However, this progress has come at a price. In many areas, such as the Ogallala Aquifer, the water is being used faster than it can be replenished.

According to the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, several steps must be taken to develop drought-resistant farming systems even in "normal" years with average rainfall. These measures include both policy and management actions:[69]

  1. improving water conservation and storage measures[69]
  2. providing incentives for selection of drought-tolerant crop species[69]
  3. using reduced-volume irrigation systems[69]
  4. managing crops to reduce water loss[69]
  5. not planting crops at all.[69]

Indicators for sustainable water resource development include the average annual flow of rivers from rainfall, flows from outside a country, the percentage of water coming from outside a country, and gross water withdrawal.[70]

Social factors

Rural economic development

Sustainable agriculture attempts to solve multiple problems with one broad solution. The goal of sustainable agricultural practices is to decrease environmental degradation due to farming while increasing crop–and thus food–output. There are many varying strategies attempting to use sustainable farming practices in order to increase rural economic development within small-scale farming communities. Two of the most popular and opposing strategies within the modern discourse are allowing unrestricted markets to determine food production and deeming food a human right. Neither of these approaches have been proven to work without fail. A promising proposal to rural poverty reduction within agricultural communities is sustainable economic growth; the most important aspect of this policy is to regularly include the poorest farmers in the economy-wide development through the stabilization of small-scale agricultural economies.[71]

In 2007, the United Nations reported on "Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa", stating that using sustainable agriculture could be a tool in reaching global food security without expanding land usage and reducing environmental impacts.[72] There has been evidence provided by developing nations from the early 2000s stating that when people in their communities are not factored into the agricultural process that serious harm is done. The social scientist Charles Kellogg has stated that, "In a final effort, exploited people pass their suffering to the land."[72] Sustainable agriculture mean the ability to permanently and continuously "feed its constituent populations".[72]

There are a lot of opportunities that can increase farmers' profits, improve communities, and continue sustainable practices. For example, in Uganda Genetically Modified Organisms were originally illegal, however, with the stress of banana crisis in Uganda where Banana Bacterial Wilt had the potential to wipe out 90% of yield they decided to explore GMOs as a possible solution.[73] The government issued the National Biotechnology and Biosafety bill which will allow scientists that are part of the National Banana Research Program to start experimenting with genetically modified organisms.[74] This effort has the potential to help local communities because a significant portion live off the food they grow themselves and it will be profitable because the yield of their main produce will remain stable.

Not all regions are suitable for agriculture.[75][76] The technological advancement of the past few decades has allowed agriculture to develop in some of these regions. For example, Nepal has built greenhouses to deal with its high altitude and mountainous regions.[29] Greenhouses allow for greater crop production and also use less water since they are closed systems.[77]

Desalination techniques can turn salt water into fresh water which allows greater access to water for areas with a limited supply.[78] This allows the irrigation of crops without decreasing natural fresh water sources.[79] While desalination can be a tool to provide water to areas that need it to sustain agriculture, it requires money and resources. Regions of China have been considering large scale desalination in order to increase access to water, but the current cost of the desalination process makes it impractical.[80]

Women

 
Selling produce at an American farmers market

Women working in sustainable agriculture come from numerous backgrounds, ranging from academia to labour.[81] From 1978-2007, in the United States, the number of women farm operators has tripled.[75] In 2007, women operated 14 percent of farms, compared to five percent in 1978. Much of the growth is due to women farming outside of the "male dominated field of conventional agriculture".[75]

Growing your own food

Main article: Urban Agriculture

The practice of growing food in the backyard of houses, schools, etc., by families or by communities became widespread in the US at the time of World War I, the Great Recession and World War II, so that in one point of time 40% of the vegetables of the USA was produced in this way. The practice became more popular again in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. This method permits to grow food in a relatively sustainable way and at the same time make easier for poor people to obtain food.[82]

Economic factors

Costs, such as environmental problems, not covered in traditional accounting systems (which take into account only the direct costs of production incurred by the farmer) are known as externalities.[16]

Netting studied sustainability and intensive agriculture in smallholder systems through history.[83]

There are several studies incorporating externalities such as ecosystem services, biodiversity, land degradation, and sustainable land management in economic analysis. These include The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study and the Economics of Land Degradation Initiative which seek to establish an economic cost-benefit analysis on the practice of sustainable land management and sustainable agriculture.

Triple bottom line frameworks include social and environmental alongside a financial bottom line. A sustainable future can be feasible if growth in material consumption and population is slowed down and if there is a drastic increase in the efficiency of material and energy use. To make that transition, long- and short-term goals will need to be balanced enhancing equity and quality of life.[84]

Challenges and debates

Barriers

A major barrier to the adoption of sustainable agriculture is its appearance of a lack of benefits. Many benefits are not visible or immediately evident, and affecting changes such as lower rates of soil and nutrient loss, improved soil structure and higher levels of beneficial microorganisms takes time.[85] In conventional agriculture the benefits are easily visible with no weeds, pests, etc. and the costs to soil and ecosystems around it are hidden and "externalized".[85]

The author James Howard Kunstler claims almost all modern technology is bad and that there cannot be sustainability unless agriculture is done in ancient traditional ways.[86] Efforts toward more sustainable agriculture are supported in the sustainability community, however, these are often viewed only as incremental steps and not as an end. Some foresee a true sustainable steady state economy that may be very different from today's: greatly reduced energy usage, minimal ecological footprint, fewer consumer packaged goods, local purchasing with short food supply chains, little processed foods, more home and community gardens, etc.[87]

Different viewpoints about the definition

There is a debate on the definition of sustainability regarding agriculture. The definition could be characterized by two different approaches: an ecocentric approach and a technocentric approach.[88] The ecocentric approach emphasizes no- or low-growth levels of human development, and focuses on organic and biodynamic farming techniques with the goal of changing consumption patterns, and resource allocation and usage. The technocentric approach argues that sustainability can be attained through a variety of strategies, from the view that state-led modification of the industrial system like conservation-oriented farming systems should be implemented, to the argument that biotechnology is the best way to meet the increasing demand for food.[88]

One can look at the topic of sustainable agriculture through two different lenses: multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services.[89] Both of approaches are similar, but look at the function of agriculture differently. Those that employ the multifunctional agriculture philosophy focus on farm-centered approaches, and define function as being the outputs of agricultural activity.[89] The central argument of multifunctionality is that agriculture is a multifunctional enterprise with other functions aside from the production of food and fiber. These functions include renewable resource management, landscape conservation and biodiversity.[90] The ecosystem service-centered approach posits that individuals and society as a whole receive benefits from ecosystems, which are called "ecosystem services".[89][91] In sustainable agriculture, the services that ecosystems provide include pollination, soil formation, and nutrient cycling, all of which are necessary functions for the production of food.[92]

It is also claimed sustainable agriculture is best considered as an ecosystem approach to agriculture, called agroecology.[93]

Ethics

Most agricultural professionals agree that there is a "moral obligation to pursue [the] goal [of] sustainability."[72] The major debate comes from what system will provide a path to that goal because if an unsustainable method is used on a large scale it will have a massive negative effect on the environment and human population.

Methods

 
Countries' evaluation of trends in the use of selected management practices and approaches

Other practices include growing a diverse number of perennial crops in a single field, each of which would grow in separate seasons so as not to compete with each other for natural resources.[94] This system would result in increased resistance to diseases and decreased effects of erosion and loss of nutrients in the soil. Nitrogen fixation from legumes, for example, used in conjunction with plants that rely on nitrate from the soil for growth, helps to allow the land to be reused annually. Legumes will grow for a season and replenish the soil with ammonium and nitrate, and the next season other plants can be seeded and grown in the field in preparation for harvest.

Sustainable methods of weed management may help reduce the development of herbicide-resistant weeds.[95] Crop rotation may also replenish nitrogen if legumes are used in the rotations and may also use resources more efficiently.[96]

 
Rotational grazing with pasture divided into paddocks

There are also many ways to practice sustainable animal husbandry. Some of the tools to grazing management include fencing off the grazing area into smaller areas called paddocks, lowering stock density, and moving the stock between paddocks frequently.[97]

Intensification

Main article: Intensive farming § Sustainability

An increased production is a goal of intensification. Sustainable intensification encompasses specific agriculture methods that increase production and at the same time help improve environmental outcomes. The desired outcomes of the farm are achieved without the need for more land cultivation or destruction of natural habitat; the system performance is upgraded with no net environmental cost. Sustainable Intensification has become a priority for the United Nations. Sustainable intensification differs from prior intensification methods by specifically placing importance on broader environmental outcomes. By 2018; it was predicted in 100 nations a combined total of 163 million farms used sustainable intensification. The amount of agricultural land covered by this is 453 million ha of land. That amount of land is equal to 29% of farms worldwide.[98] In light of concerns about food security, human population growth and dwindling land suitable for agriculture, sustainable intensive farming practises are needed to maintain high crop yields, while maintaining soil health and ecosystem services. The capacity for ecosystem services to be strong enough to allow a reduction in use of non-renewable inputs whilst maintaining or boosting yields has been the subject of much debate. Recent work in irrigated rice production system of east Asia has suggested that – in relation to pest management at least – promoting the ecosystem service of biological control using nectar plants can reduce the need for insecticides by 70% whilst delivering a 5% yield advantage compared with standard practice.[99]

Vertical farming is a concept with the potential advantages of year-round production, isolation from pests and diseases, controllable resource recycling and reduced transportation costs.[100]

Water

Water efficiency can be improved by reducing the need for irrigation and using alternative methods. Such methods include: researching on drought resistant crops, monitoring plant transpiration and reducing soil evaporation.[101]

Drought resistant crops have been researched extensively as a means to overcome the issue of water shortage. They are modified genetically so they can adapt in an environment with little water. This is beneficial as it reduces the need for irrigation and helps conserve water. Although they have been extensively researched, significant results have not been achieved as most of the successful species will have no overall impact on water conservation. However, some grains like rice, for example, have been successfully genetically modified to be drought resistant.[102]

Soil and nutrients

Soil amendments include using compost from recycling centers. Using compost from yard and kitchen waste uses available resources in the area.

Abstinence from soil tillage before planting and leaving the plant residue after harvesting reduces soil water evaporation; It also serves to prevent soil erosion.[103]

Crop residues left covering the surface of the soil may result in reduced evaporation of water, a lower surface soil temperature, and reduction of wind effects.[103]

A way to make rock phosphate more effective is to add microbial inoculates such as phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms, known as PSMs, to the soil.[30][76] These solubilize phosphorus already in the soil and use processes like organic acid production and ion exchange reactions to make that phosphorus available for plants.[76] Experimentally, these PSMs have been shown to increase crop growth in terms of shoot height, dry biomass and grain yield.[76]

Phosphorus uptake is even more efficient with the presence of mycorrhizae in the soil.[104] Mycorrhiza is a type of mutualistic symbiotic association between plants and fungi,[104] which are well-equipped to absorb nutrients, including phosphorus, in soil.[105] These fungi can increase nutrient uptake in soil where phosphorus has been fixed by aluminum, calcium, and iron.[105] Mycorrhizae can also release organic acids that solubilize otherwise unavailable phosphorus.[105]

Pests and weeds

 
Sheet steaming with a MSD/moeschle steam boiler (left side)

Soil steaming can be used as an alternative to chemicals for soil sterilization. Different methods are available to induce steam into the soil to kill pests and increase soil health.

Solarizing is based on the same principle, used to increase the temperature of the soil to kill pathogens and pests.[106]

Certain plants can be cropped for use as biofumigants, "natural" fumigants, releasing pest suppressing compounds when crushed, ploughed into the soil, and covered in plastic for four weeks. Plants in the Brassicaceae family release large amounts of toxic compounds such as methyl isothiocyanates.[107][108]

Location

Relocating current croplands to environmentally more optimal locations, whilst allowing ecosystems in then-abandoned areas to regenerate could substantially decrease the current carbon, biodiversity, and irrigation water footprint of global crop production, with relocation only within national borders also having substantial potential.[109][110]

Plants

Sustainability may also involve crop rotation.[111] Crop rotation and cover crops prevent soil erosion, by protecting topsoil from wind and water.[29] Effective crop rotation can reduce pest pressure on crops, provides weed control, reduces disease build up, and improves the efficiency of soil nutrients and nutrient cycling.[112] This reduces the need for fertilizers and pesticides.[111] Increasing the diversity of crops by introducing new genetic resources can increase yields by 10 to 15 percent compared to when they are grown in monoculture.[112][113] Perennial crops reduce the need for tillage and thus help mitigate soil erosion, and may sometimes tolerate drought better, increase water quality and help increase soil organic matter. There are research programs attempting to develop perennial substitutes for existing annual crops, such as replacing wheat with the wild grass Thinopyrum intermedium, or possible experimental hybrids of it and wheat.[114] Being able to do all of this without the use of chemicals is one of the main goals of sustainability which is why crop rotation is a very central method of sustainable agriculture.[112]

Related concepts

Organic agriculture

Main article: Organic Farming

Organic agriculture can be defined as:

an integrated farming system that strives for sustainability, the enhancement of soil fertility and biological diversity whilst, with rare exceptions, prohibiting synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, synthetic fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, and growth hormones.[115][116][117][118]

Some claim organic agriculture may produce the most sustainable products available for consumers in the US, where no other alternatives exist, although the focus of the organics industry is not sustainability.[111]

In 2018 the sales of organic products in USA reach $52.5 billion[119] According to a USDA survey two-thirds of Americans consume organic products at least occasionally.[120]

Ecological farming

Ecological farming is a concept that focused on the environmental aspects of sustainable agriculture. Ecological farming includes all methods, including organic, which regenerate ecosystem services like: prevention of soil erosion, water infiltration and retention, carbon sequestration in the form of humus, and increased biodiversity.[121] Many techniques are used including no-till farming, multispecies cover crops, strip cropping, terrace cultivation, shelter belts, pasture cropping etc.

There are a plethora of methods and techniques that are employed when practicing ecological farming, all having their own unique benefits and implementations that lead to more sustainable agriculture. Crop genetic diversity is one method that is used to reduce the risks associated with monoculture crops, which can be susceptible to a changing climate.[122] This form of biodiversity causes crops to be more resilient, increasing food security and enhancing the productivity of the field on a long-term scale.[122] The use of biodigestors is another method which converts organic waste into a combustible gas, which can provide several benefits to an ecological farm: it can be used as a fuel source, fertilizer for crops and fish ponds, and serves as a method for removing wastes that are rich in organic matter.[123] Because biodigestors can be used as fertilizer, it reduces the amount of industrial fertilizers that are needed to sustain the yields of the farm. Another technique used is aquaculture integration, which combines fish farming with agricultural farming, using the wastes from animals and crops and diverting them towards the fish farms to be used up instead of being leeched into the environment.[124] Mud from the fish ponds can also be used to fertilize crops.[124]

Organic Fertilizers can also be employed in an ecological farm, such as animal and green manure.[125] This allows soil fertility to be improved and well-maintained, leads to reduced costs and increased yields, reduces the usage of non-renewable resources in industrial fertilizers (Nitrogen and Phosphorus), and reduces the environmental pressures that are posed by intensive agricultural systems.[125] Precision Agriculture can also be used, which focuses on efficient removal of pests using non-chemical techniques and minimizes the amount of tilling needed to sustain the farm. An example of a precision machine is the false seedbed tiller, which can remove a great majority of small weeds while only tilling one centimeter deep.[126] This minimized tilling reduces the amount of new weeds that germinate from soil disturbance.[126] Other methods that reduce soil erosion include contour farming, strip cropping, and terrace cultivation.[127]

Benefits:

  • Ecological farming involves the introduction of symbiotic species, where possible, to support the ecological sustainability of the farm. Associated benefits include a reduction in ecological debt and elimination of dead zones.[128]
  • Ecological farming is a pioneering, practical development which aims to create globally sustainable land management systems, and encourages review of the importance of maintaining biodiversity in food production and farming end products.[129]
  • One foreseeable option is to develop specialized automata to scan and respond to soil and plant situations relative to intensive care for the soil and the plants. Accordingly, conversion to ecological farming may best utilize the information age, and become recognised as a primary user of robotics and expert systems.[130]

Challenges

The challenge for ecological farming science is to be able to achieve a mainstream productive food system that is sustainable or even regenerative. To enter the field of ecological farming, location relative to the consumer, can reduce the food miles factor to help minimise damage to the biosphere by combustion engine emissions involved in current food transportation.

Design of the ecological farm is initially constrained by the same limitations as conventional farming: local climate, the soil's physical properties, budget for beneficial soil supplements, manpower and available automatons; however long-term water management by ecological farming methods is likely to conserve and increase water availability for the location, and require far fewer inputs to maintain fertility.

Principles

Certain principles unique to ecological farming need to be considered.

  • Food production should be ecological in both origin and destiny (the term destiny refers to the post-harvest ecological footprint which results in getting produce to the consumer).
  • Integration of species that maintain ecosystem services whilst providing a selection of alternative products.[131]
  • Minimise food miles, packaging, energy consumption and waste.
  • Define a new ecosystem to suit human needs using lessons from existing ecosystems from around the world.[132][133][134]
  • Apply the value of a knowledge-base (advanced data base) about soil microorganisms so that discoveries of the ecological benefits of having various kinds of microorganisms encouraged in productive systems such as Forest Gardens can be assessed and optimised; for example in the case of naturally occurring microorganisms called denitrifiers.[135]

Traditional agriculture

 
Practice of Traditional Agriculture

Often thought of as inherently destructive, slash-and-burn or slash-and-char shifting cultivation have been practiced in the Amazon for thousands of years.[136]

Some traditional systems combine polyculture with sustainability. In South-East Asia, rice-fish systems on rice paddies have raised freshwater fish as well as rice, producing an additional product and reducing eutrophication of neighboring rivers.[137] A variant in Indonesia combines rice, fish, ducks and water fern; the ducks eat the weeds that would otherwise limit rice growth, saving labour and herbicides, while the duck and fish manure substitute for fertilizer.[138]

Raised field agriculture has been recently revived in certain areas of the world, such as the Altiplano region in Bolivia and Peru. This has resurged in the form of traditional Waru Waru raised fields, which create nutrient-rich soil in regions where such soil is scarce. This method is extremely productive and has recently been utilized by indigenous groups in the area and the nearby Amazon Basin to make use of lands that have been historically hard to cultivate.

Other forms of traditional agriculture include agro forestry, crop rotations, and water harvesting. Water harvesting is one of the largest and most common practices, particularly used in dry areas and seasons. In Ethiopia, over half of their GDP and over 80 percent of their exports are attributed to agriculture; yet, it is known for its intense droughts and dry periods.[139] Rain water harvesting is considered to be a low-cost alternative. This type of harvesting collects and stores water from roof tops during high-rain periods for use during droughts.[140] Rainwater harvesting has been a large practice to help the country survive by focusing on runoff irrigation, roof water harvesting, and flood spreading.

Indigenous Agriculture

 
Indigenous Agriculture

Native Americans in the United States practiced sustainable agriculture through their subsistence farming techniques. Many tribes grew or harvested their own food from plants that thrived in their local ecosystems. Native American farming practices are specific to local environments and work with natural processes.[141] This is a practice called Permaculture, and it involves a deep understanding of the local environment.[142] Native American farming techniques also incorporate local biodiversity into many of their practices, which helps the land remain healthy.[143]

Many indigenous tribes incorporated Intercropping into their agriculture, which is a practice where multiple crops are planted together in the same area. This strategy allows crops to help one another grow through exchanged nutrients, maintained soil moisture, and physical supports for one another. The crops that are paired in intercropping often do not heavily compete for resources, which helps them to each be successful. For example, many tribes utilized intercropping in ways such as the Three Sisters Garden. This gardening technique consists of corn, beans, and squash. These crops grow in unity as the corn stalk supports the beans, the beans produce nitrogen, and the squash retain moisture.[144] Intercropping also provides a natural strategy for pest management and the prevention of weed growth. Intercropping is a natural agricultural practice that often improves the overall health of the soil and plants, increases crop yield, and is sustainable.[142]

One of the most significant aspects of indigenous sustainable agriculture is their traditional ecological knowledge of harvesting. The Anishinaabe tribes follow an ideology known as "the Honorable Harvest". The Honorable Harvest is a set of practices that emphasize the idea that people should "take only what you need and use everything you take."[145] Resources are conserved through this practice because several rules are followed when harvesting a plant. These rules are to never take the first plant, never take more than half of the plants, and never take the last plant.[146] This encourages future growth of the plant and therefore leads to a sustainable use of the plants in the area.

Native Americans practiced agroforestry by managing the forest, animals, and crops together. They also helped promote tree growth through controlled burns and silviculture. Often, the remaining ash from these burns would be used to fertilize their crops. By improving the conditions of the forest, the local wildlife populations also increased. Native Americans allowed their livestock to graze in the forest, which provided natural fertilizer for the trees as well.[142]

Alternative agriculture

Further information: Polyculture

There is limited evidence polyculture may contribute to sustainable agriculture. A meta-analysis of a number of polycrop studies found that predator insect biodiversity was higher at comparable yields than conventional in certain two-crop systems with a single cash crop combined with a cover crop.[147]

One approach to sustainability is to develop polyculture systems using perennial crop varieties. Such varieties are being developed for rice, wheat, sorghum, barley, and sunflowers. If these can be combined in polyculture with a leguminous cover crop such as alfalfa, fixation of nitrogen will be added to the system, reducing the need for fertilizer and pesticides.[114]

Use of local space

The use of available city space (e.g., rooftop gardens, community gardens, garden sharing, organopónicos, and other forms of urban agriculture) may be able to contribute to sustainability.[148] Some consider "guerrilla gardening" an example of sustainability in action[149] – in some cases seeds of edible plants have been sown in local rural areas.[150]

Regenerative agriculture

Main article: Regenerative agriculture

Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity,[151] improving the water cycle,[152] enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration, increasing resilience to climate change, and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil. Practices include, recycling as much farm waste as possible, and adding composted material from sources outside the farm.[75][153][29][154]

Permaculture

This section is an excerpt from Permaculture.[edit]

Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principles in fields such as regenerative agriculture, town planning, rewilding, and community resilience. Permaculture originally came from "permanent agriculture",[155] but was later adjusted to mean "permanent culture", incorporating social aspects. The term was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, who formulated the concept in opposition to modern industrialized methods instead adopting a more traditional or "natural" approach to agriculture.[156][157][158]

Permaculture has many branches including ecological design, ecological engineering, regenerative design, environmental design, and construction. It also includes integrated water resources management, sustainable architecture, and regenerative and self-maintained habitat and agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems.[159][160]

Permaculture uses creative design processes based on whole-systems thinking, considering all materials and energies in flow that affect or are affected by proposed changes. In practical terms it means that before, for example, modifying overland water flow, one fully considers both upstream and downstream effects in the short and long terms. Or, when looking at a "problem", such as brushy vegetation, one considers how removing or altering it will affect soil and wildlife, and how these interacting forces would evolve over time and space.

Permaculture has been criticised as being poorly defined and unscientific.[161] Critics have pushed for less reliance on anecdote and extrapolation from ecological first principles, in favor of peer-reviewed research to substantiate productivity claims and to clarify methodology. Peter Harper from the Centre for Alternative Technology suggests that most of what passes for permaculture has no relevance to real problems.[162]

Standards

 

Certification systems are important to the agriculture community and to consumers as these standards determine the sustainability of produce. Numerous sustainability standards and certification systems exist, including organic certification, Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade, UTZ Certified, GlobalGAP, Bird Friendly, and the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C).[12] These standards specify rules that producers, manufacturers and traders need to follow so that the things they do, make, or grow do not hurt people and the environment.[163] These standards are also known as Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) that are private standards that require products to meet specific economic, social or environmental sustainability metrics. The requirements can refer to product quality or attributes, but also to production and processing methods, as well as transportation. VSS are mostly designed and marketed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or private firms and they are adopted by actors up and down the value chain, from farmers to retailers. Certifications and labels are used to signal the successful implementation of a VSS. According to the ITC standards map the mostly covered products by standards are agricultural products.[164] Around 500 VSS today apply to key exports of many developing countries, such as coffee, tea, bananas, cocoa, palm oil, timber, cotton, and organic agri-foods.[165] VSS are found to reduce eutrophication, water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and natural ecosystem conversion.[166] And thus are considered as a potential tool for sustainable agriculture.

The USDA produces an organic label that is supported by nationalized standards of farmers and facilities. The steps for certification consist of creating an organic system plan, which determines how produce will be tilled, grazed, harvested, stored, and transported. This plan also manages and monitors the substances used around the produce, the maintenance needed to protect the produce, and any nonorganic products that may come in contact with the produce. The organic system plan is then reviewed and inspected by the USDA certifying agent. Once the certification is granted, the produce receives an approval sticker from the USDA and the produce is distributed across the U.S. In order to hold farmers accountable and ensure that Americans are receiving organic produce, these inspections are done at least once a year.[167] This is just one example of sustainable certification systems through produce maintenance.

Policy

 
Delaware Valley University's "Roth Center for Sustainable Agriculture", located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

Sustainable agriculture is a topic in international policy concerning its potential to reduce environmental risks. In 2011, the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, as part of its recommendations for policymakers on achieving food security in the face of climate change, urged that sustainable agriculture must be integrated into national and international policy.[168] The Commission stressed that increasing weather variability and climate shocks will negatively affect agricultural yields, necessitating early action to drive change in agricultural production systems towards increasing resilience.[168] It also called for dramatically increased investments in sustainable agriculture in the next decade, including in national research and development budgets, land rehabilitation, economic incentives, and infrastructure improvement.[168]

At the global level

During 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, 45 countries pledged to give more than 4 billion dollars for transition to sustainable agriculture. The organization "Slow Food" expressed concern about the effectivity of the spendings, as they concentrate on technological solutions and reforestation en place of "a holistic agroecology that transforms food from a mass-produced commodity into part of a sustainable system that works within natural boundaries."[169]

Additionally, the Summit consisted of negotiations that led to heavily reducing CO2 emissions, becoming carbon neutral, ending deforestation and reliance on coal, and limiting methane emissions.[170][171]

In November, the Climate Action Tracker reported that global efforts are on track to for a 2.7 °C temperature increase with current policies, finding that the current targets will not meet global needs as coal and natural gas consumption are primarily responsible for the gap in progress.[172][173] Since, like-minded developing countries[which?] asked for an addendum to the agreement that removed the obligation for developing countries to meet the same requirements of wealthy nations.[citation needed]

European Union

Further information: European Green Deal

In May 2020 the European Union published a program, named "From Farm to Fork" for making its agriculture more sustainable. In the official page of the program From Farm to Fork is cited Frans Timmermans the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, saying that:

The coronavirus crisis has shown how vulnerable we all are, and how important it is to restore the balance between human activity and nature. At the heart of the Green Deal the Biodiversity and Farm to Fork strategies point to a new and better balance of nature, food systems, and biodiversity; to protect our people's health and well-being, and at the same time to increase the EU's competitiveness and resilience. These strategies are a crucial part of the great transition we are embarking upon.[174]

The program includes the next targets:

United States

Policies from 1930 - 2000

The New Deal implemented policies and programs that promoted sustainable agriculture. Under the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1933, it provided farmers payments to create a supply management regime that capped production of important crops.[175][176][177] This allowed farmers to focus on growing food and not competing in the market based system. The New Deal also provided a monetary incentive for farmers that left some of their fields unsown or ungrazed to order to improve the soil conditions.[175] The Cooperative Extension Service was also established that set up sharing funding responsibilities amongst the USDA, land-grant universities, and local communities.[176]

The 1950s to 1990s was when the government switched its stance on agriculture policy which halted sustainable agriculture. The Agricultural Act of 1954 passed which supported farmers with flexible price supports, but only to commodity programs.[178] The Food and Agricultural Act of 1965 had new income support payments and continued supply controls but reduced priced supports.[178] Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973 removed price supports and instead introduced target prices and deficiency payments.[178] It continued to promote commodity crops by lowering interest rates. Food Security Act of 1985 continued commodity loan programs.[177][178] These policies incentivized profit over sustainability because the US government was promoting farms to maximize their production output instead of placing checks.[178] This meant that farms were being turned into food factories as they became bigger in size and grew more commodity crops like corn, wheat, and cotton. From 1900 to 2002, the number of farms in the US decreased significantly while the average size of a farm went up after 1950.[178][177]

Current Policies

In the United States, the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA) provides technical and financial assistance for those interested in pursuing natural resource conservation along with production agriculture. With programs like SARE and China-UK SAIN to help promote research on sustainable agriculture practices and a framework for agriculture and climate change respectively.

Future Policies

Currently, there are policies on the table that could move the US agriculture system into a more sustainable direction with the Green New Deal. This policy promotes decentralizing agrarian governance by breaking up large commodity farms that were created in the 1950s to 1980s.[175] Decentralized governance within the farming community would allow for more adaptive management at local levels to help focus on climate change mitigation, food security, and landscape-scale ecological stewardship.[175] The Green New Deal would invest in public infrastructure to support farmers transition from industrial food regime and acquire agroecological skills.[175] Just like in the New Deal, it would invest in cooperatives and commons to share and redistribute resources like land, food, equipment, research facilities, personnel, and training programs.[175] All of these policies and programs would break down barriers that have prevented sustainable farmers and agriculture from taking place in the United States.[177]

Asia

China

In 2016, the Chinese government adopted a plan to reduce China's meat consumption by 50%, for achieving more sustainable and healthy food system.[179][180]

In 2019, the National Basic Research Program or Program 973 funded research into Science and Technology Backyard (STB). STBs are hubs often created in rural areas with significant rates of small-scale farming that combine knowledge of traditional practices with new innovations and technology implementation. The purpose of this program was to invest in sustainable farming throughout the country and increase food production while achieving few negative environmental effects. The program was ultimately proven to be successful, and the study found that the merging of traditional practices and appropriate technology was instrumental in higher crop yields.[181]

India

In collaboration with the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), CEEW (council for energy, environment and water), has given an overview of the current state of sustainable agriculture practices and systems (SAPSs) in India.[182] India is aiming to scale-up SAPs, through policymakers, administrators, philanthropists, and other which represent a vital alternative to conventional, input-intensive agriculture. In idea these efforts identify 16 SAPSs – including agroforestry, crop rotation, rainwater harvesting, organic farming and natural farming – using agroecology as an investigative lens. In a conclusive understanding it is realised that sustainable agriculture is far from mainstream in India. Further proposals for several measures for promoting SAPSs, including restructured government support and rigorous evidence generation for benefits and implementation of sustainable farming are ongoing progress in Indian Agriculture.

An example of initiatives in India towards exploring the world of sustainable farming has been set by the Sowgood foundation.[183] It started by teaching primary school children about sustainable farming by helping them farm on small farm strips in suburban farmhouses and gardens. Today many government and private schools in Delhi, India have adopted the sowgood foundation curriculum for sustainable farming for their students.

Other countries

Israel

In 2012, the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture found itself at the height of the Israeli commitment to sustainable agriculture policy. A large factor of this policy was funding programs that made sustainable agriculture accessible to smaller Palestinian-Arab communities. The program was meant to create biodiversity, train farmers in sustainable agriculture methods, and hold regular meetings for agriculture stakeholders.[184] This plan was not well-accepted by all as opposers argue that the plan creates a new social construct and a tool for the government to hold more power.[185]

History

In 1907, the American author Franklin H. King discussed in his book Farmers of Forty Centuries the advantages of sustainable agriculture and warned that such practices would be vital to farming in the future.[186] The phrase 'sustainable agriculture' was reportedly coined by the Australian agronomist Gordon McClymont.[187] The term became popular in the late 1980s.[144] There was an international symposium on sustainability in horticulture by the International Society of Horticultural Science at the International Horticultural Congress in Toronto in 2002.[188] At the following conference at Seoul in 2006, the principles were discussed further.[189]

This potential future inability to feed the world's population has been a concern since the English political economist Thomas Malthus in the early 1800s, but has become increasingly important recently.[190] Starting at the very end of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, this issue became widely discussed in the U.S. because of growing anxieties of a rapidly increasing global population. Agriculture has long been the biggest industry worldwide and requires significant land, water, and labor inputs. At the turn of the twenty-first century, experts questioned the industry's ability to keep up with population growth.[15] This debate led to concerns over global food insecurity and "solving hunger".[191] 

See also

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January 06, 2023
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Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society s present food and textile needs without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs 1 It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems it is important to develop flexible business process and farming practices 2 Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint playing a significant role in causing climate change food systems are responsible for one third of the anthropogenic GHG emissions 3 4 water scarcity water pollution land degradation deforestation and other processes 5 it is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes 6 Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems It involves preventing adverse effects to soil water biodiversity surrounding or downstream resources as well as to those working or living on the farm or in neighboring areas Elements of sustainable agriculture can include permaculture agroforestry mixed farming multiple cropping and crop rotation 7 Shade grown coffee a form of polyculture an example of sustainable agriculture in imitation of natural ecosystems Trees provide resources for the coffee plants such as shade nutrients and soil structure the farmers harvest coffee and timber Developing sustainable food systems contributes to the sustainability of the human population For example one of the best ways to mitigate climate change is to create sustainable food systems based on sustainable agriculture Sustainable agriculture provides a potential solution to enable agricultural systems to feed a growing population within the changing environmental conditions 6 Besides sustainable farming practices dietary shifts to sustainable diets are an intertwined way to substantially reduce environmental impacts 8 9 10 11 Numerous sustainability standards and certification systems exist including organic certification Rainforest Alliance Fair Trade UTZ Certified GlobalGAP Bird Friendly and the Common Code for the Coffee Community 4C 12 Contents 1 Definition 2 Aims 2 1 Key principles 3 Environmental factors 3 1 Nutrients 3 1 1 Nitrates 3 1 2 Phosphate 3 1 3 Potassium 3 2 Soil 3 3 Land 3 4 Energy 3 5 Water 4 Social factors 4 1 Rural economic development 4 2 Women 4 3 Growing your own food 5 Economic factors 6 Challenges and debates 6 1 Barriers 6 2 Different viewpoints about the definition 6 3 Ethics 7 Methods 7 1 Intensification 7 2 Water 7 3 Soil and nutrients 7 4 Pests and weeds 7 5 Location 7 6 Plants 8 Related concepts 8 1 Organic agriculture 8 2 Ecological farming 8 2 1 Challenges 8 2 2 Principles 8 3 Traditional agriculture 8 4 Indigenous Agriculture 8 5 Alternative agriculture 8 5 1 Use of local space 8 5 2 Regenerative agriculture 8 5 3 Permaculture 9 Standards 10 Policy 10 1 At the global level 10 2 European Union 10 3 United States 10 4 Asia 10 4 1 China 10 4 2 India 10 5 Other countries 10 5 1 Israel 11 History 12 See also 13 References 14 SourcesDefinition EditThe term sustainable agriculture was defined in 1977 by the USDA as an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site specific application that will over the long term 13 satisfy human food and fiber needs enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agriculture economy depends make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on farm resources and integrate where appropriate natural biological cycles and controls sustain the economic viability of farm operations enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole Aims EditA common consensus is that sustainable farming is the most realistic way to feed growing populations In order to successfully feed the population of the planet farming practices must consider future costs to both the environment and the communities they fuel 14 The fear of not being able to provide enough resources for everyone led to the adoption of technology within the sustainability field to increase farm productivity The ideal end result of this advancement is the ability to feed ever growing populations across the world The growing popularity of sustainable agriculture is connected to the wide reaching fear that the planet s carrying capacity or planetary boundaries in terms of the ability to feed humanity has been reached or even exceeded 15 Key principles Edit There are several key principles associated with sustainability in agriculture 16 The incorporation of biological and ecological processes such as nutrient cycling soil regeneration and nitrogen fixation into agricultural and food production practices Using decreased amounts of non renewable and unsustainable inputs particularly environmentally harmful ones Using the expertise of farmers to both productively work the land as well as to promote the self reliance and self sufficiency of farmers Solving agricultural and natural resource problems through the cooperation and collaboration of people with different skills The problems tackled include pest management and irrigation It considers long term as well as short term economics because sustainability is readily defined as forever that is agricultural environments that are designed to promote endless regeneration 17 It balances the need for resource conservation with the needs of farmers pursuing their livelihood 18 It is considered to be reconciliation ecology accommodating biodiversity within human landscapes 19 Oftentimes the execution of sustainable practices within farming comes through the adoption of technology and environmentally focused appropriate technology Environmental factors Edit Traditional farming methods have a low carbon footprint citation needed Practices that can cause long term damage to soil include excessive tilling of the soil leading to erosion and irrigation without adequate drainage leading to salinization 20 21 Conservation farming in Zambia The most important factors for a farming site are climate soil nutrients and water resources Of the four water and soil conservation are the most amenable to human intervention When farmers grow and harvest crops they remove some nutrients from the soil Without replenishment the land suffers from nutrient depletion and becomes either unusable or suffers from reduced yields Sustainable agriculture depends on replenishing the soil while minimizing the use or need of non renewable resources such as natural gas or mineral ores A farm that can produce perpetually yet has negative effects on environmental quality elsewhere is not sustainable agriculture An example of a case in which a global view may be warranted is the application of fertilizer or manure which can improve the productivity of a farm but can pollute nearby rivers and coastal waters eutrophication 22 The other extreme can also be undesirable as the problem of low crop yields due to exhaustion of nutrients in the soil has been related to rainforest destruction 23 In Asia the specific amount of land needed for sustainable farming is about 12 5 acres which include land for animal fodder cereal production as a cash crop and other food crops In some cases a small unit of aquaculture is included AARI 1996 Nutrients Edit Nitrates Edit Possible sources of nitrates that would in principle be available indefinitely include recycling crop waste and livestock or treated human manure 24 growing legume crops and forages such as peanuts or alfalfa that form symbioses with nitrogen fixing bacteria called rhizobia 25 industrial production of nitrogen by the Haber process uses hydrogen which is currently derived from natural gas but this hydrogen could instead be made by electrolysis of water using renewable electricity genetically engineering non legume crops to form nitrogen fixing symbioses or fix nitrogen without microbial symbionts 26 The last option was proposed in the 1970s but is only gradually becoming feasible 27 28 Sustainable options for replacing other nutrient inputs such as phosphorus and potassium are more limited Other options include long term crop rotations returning to natural cycles that annually flood cultivated lands returning lost nutrients such as the flooding of the Nile the long term use of biochar and use of crop and livestock landraces that are adapted to less than ideal conditions such as pests drought or lack of nutrients Crops that require high levels of soil nutrients can be cultivated in a more sustainable manner with appropriate fertilizer management practices Phosphate Edit Phosphate is a primary component in fertilizer It is the second most important nutrient for plants after nitrogen 29 and is often a limiting factor 30 It is important for sustainable agriculture as it can improve soil fertility and crop yields 31 Phosphorus is involved in all major metabolic processes including photosynthesis energy transfer signal transduction macromolecular biosynthesis and respiration It is needed for root ramification and strength and seed formation and can increase disease resistance 32 Phosphorus is found in the soil in both inorganic and organic forms 29 and makes up approximately 0 05 of soil biomass 32 Phosphorus fertilizers are the main input of inorganic phosphorus in agricultural soils and approximately 70 80 of phosphorus in cultivated soils is inorganic 33 Long term use of phosphate containing chemical fertilizers causes eutrophication and deplete soil microbial life so people have looked to other sources 32 Phosphorus fertilizers are manufactured from rock phosphate 34 However rock phosphate is a non renewable resource and it is being depleted by mining for agricultural use 31 33 peak phosphorus will occur within the next few hundred years 35 36 37 or perhaps earlier 38 39 40 Potassium Edit Potassium is a macronutrient very important for plant development and is commonly sought in fertilizers 41 This nutrient is essential for agriculture because it improves water retention nutrient value yield taste color texture and disease resistance of crops It is often used in the cultivation of grains fruits vegetables rice wheat millets sugar corn soybeans palm oil and coffee 42 Potassium chloride KCl represents the most widely source of K used in agriculture 43 accounting for 90 of all potassium produced for agricultural use 44 The use of KCl leads to high concentrations of chloride Clˉ in soil harming its health due to the increase in soil salinity imbalance in nutrient availability and this ion s biocidal effect for soil organisms In consequences the development of plants and soil organisms is affected putting at risk soil biodiversity and agricultural productivity 45 46 47 48 A sustainable option for replacing KCl are chloride free fertilizers its use should take into account plants nutrition needs and the promotion of soil health 49 50 Soil Edit Walls built to avoid water run off Andhra Pradesh India Land degradation is becoming a severe global problem According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change About a quarter of the Earth s ice free land area is subject to human induced degradation medium confidence Soil erosion from agricultural fields is estimated to be currently 10 to 20 times no tillage to more than 100 times conventional tillage higher than the soil formation rate medium confidence 51 Over a billion tonnes of southern Africa s soil are being lost to erosion annually which if continued will result in halving of crop yields within thirty to fifty years 52 Improper soil management is threatening the ability to grow sufficient food Intensive agriculture reduces the carbon level in soil impairing soil structure crop growth and ecosystem functioning 53 and accelerating climate change 53 Modification of agricultural practices is a recognized method of carbon sequestration as soil can act as an effective carbon sink 54 Soil management techniques include no till farming keyline design and windbreaks to reduce wind erosion reincorporation of organic matter into the soil reducing soil salinization and preventing water run off 55 56 Land Edit See also Peak farmland As the global population increases and demand for food increases there is pressure on land as a resource In land use planning and management considering the impacts of land use changes on factors such as soil erosion can support long term agricultural sustainability as shown by a study of Wadi Ziqlab a dry area in the Middle East where farmers graze livestock and grow olives vegetables and grains 57 Looking back over the 20th century shows that for people in poverty following environmentally sound land practices has not always been a viable option due to many complex and challenging life circumstances 58 Currently increased land degradation in developing countries may be connected with rural poverty among smallholder farmers when forced into unsustainable agricultural practices out of necessity 59 Converting big parts of the land surface to agriculture have severe environmental and health consequences For example it leads to rise in zoonotic disease like the Coronavirus disease 2019 by degrading natural buffers between humans and animals reducing biodiversity and creating big groups of genetically similar animals 60 61 Land is a finite resource on Earth Although expansion of agricultural land can decrease biodiversity and contribute to deforestation the picture is complex for instance a study examining the introduction of sheep by Norse settlers Vikings to the Faroe Islands of the North Atlantic concluded that over time the fine partitioning of land plots contributed more to soil erosion and degradation than grazing itself 62 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that in coming decades cropland will continue to be lost to industrial and urban development along with reclamation of wetlands and conversion of forest to cultivation resulting in the loss of biodiversity and increased soil erosion 63 Energy Edit In modern agriculture energy is used in on farm mechanisation food processing storage and transportation processes 64 It has therefore been found that energy prices are closely linked to food prices 65 Oil is also used as an input in agricultural chemicals The International Energy Agency projects higher prices of non renewable energy resources as a result of fossil fuel resources being depleted It may therefore decrease global food security unless action is taken to decouple fossil fuel energy from food production with a move towards energy smart agricultural systems including renewable energy 65 66 The use of solar powered irrigation in Pakistan is said to be a closed system for agricultural water irrigation 67 The environmental cost of transportation could be avoided if people use local products 68 Water Edit In some areas sufficient rainfall is available for crop growth but many other areas require irrigation For irrigation systems to be sustainable they require proper management to avoid salinization and must not use more water from their source than is naturally replenishable Otherwise the water source effectively becomes a non renewable resource Improvements in water well drilling technology and submersible pumps combined with the development of drip irrigation and low pressure pivots have made it possible to regularly achieve high crop yields in areas where reliance on rainfall alone had previously made successful agriculture unpredictable However this progress has come at a price In many areas such as the Ogallala Aquifer the water is being used faster than it can be replenished According to the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute several steps must be taken to develop drought resistant farming systems even in normal years with average rainfall These measures include both policy and management actions 69 improving water conservation and storage measures 69 providing incentives for selection of drought tolerant crop species 69 using reduced volume irrigation systems 69 managing crops to reduce water loss 69 not planting crops at all 69 Indicators for sustainable water resource development include the average annual flow of rivers from rainfall flows from outside a country the percentage of water coming from outside a country and gross water withdrawal 70 Social factors EditRural economic development Edit Sustainable agriculture attempts to solve multiple problems with one broad solution The goal of sustainable agricultural practices is to decrease environmental degradation due to farming while increasing crop and thus food output There are many varying strategies attempting to use sustainable farming practices in order to increase rural economic development within small scale farming communities Two of the most popular and opposing strategies within the modern discourse are allowing unrestricted markets to determine food production and deeming food a human right Neither of these approaches have been proven to work without fail A promising proposal to rural poverty reduction within agricultural communities is sustainable economic growth the most important aspect of this policy is to regularly include the poorest farmers in the economy wide development through the stabilization of small scale agricultural economies 71 In 2007 the United Nations reported on Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa stating that using sustainable agriculture could be a tool in reaching global food security without expanding land usage and reducing environmental impacts 72 There has been evidence provided by developing nations from the early 2000s stating that when people in their communities are not factored into the agricultural process that serious harm is done The social scientist Charles Kellogg has stated that In a final effort exploited people pass their suffering to the land 72 Sustainable agriculture mean the ability to permanently and continuously feed its constituent populations 72 There are a lot of opportunities that can increase farmers profits improve communities and continue sustainable practices For example in Uganda Genetically Modified Organisms were originally illegal however with the stress of banana crisis in Uganda where Banana Bacterial Wilt had the potential to wipe out 90 of yield they decided to explore GMOs as a possible solution 73 The government issued the National Biotechnology and Biosafety bill which will allow scientists that are part of the National Banana Research Program to start experimenting with genetically modified organisms 74 This effort has the potential to help local communities because a significant portion live off the food they grow themselves and it will be profitable because the yield of their main produce will remain stable Not all regions are suitable for agriculture 75 76 The technological advancement of the past few decades has allowed agriculture to develop in some of these regions For example Nepal has built greenhouses to deal with its high altitude and mountainous regions 29 Greenhouses allow for greater crop production and also use less water since they are closed systems 77 Desalination techniques can turn salt water into fresh water which allows greater access to water for areas with a limited supply 78 This allows the irrigation of crops without decreasing natural fresh water sources 79 While desalination can be a tool to provide water to areas that need it to sustain agriculture it requires money and resources Regions of China have been considering large scale desalination in order to increase access to water but the current cost of the desalination process makes it impractical 80 Women Edit Selling produce at an American farmers market Women working in sustainable agriculture come from numerous backgrounds ranging from academia to labour 81 From 1978 2007 in the United States the number of women farm operators has tripled 75 In 2007 women operated 14 percent of farms compared to five percent in 1978 Much of the growth is due to women farming outside of the male dominated field of conventional agriculture 75 Growing your own food Edit Main article Urban Agriculture The practice of growing food in the backyard of houses schools etc by families or by communities became widespread in the US at the time of World War I the Great Recession and World War II so that in one point of time 40 of the vegetables of the USA was produced in this way The practice became more popular again in the time of the COVID 19 pandemic This method permits to grow food in a relatively sustainable way and at the same time make easier for poor people to obtain food 82 Economic factors EditCosts such as environmental problems not covered in traditional accounting systems which take into account only the direct costs of production incurred by the farmer are known as externalities 16 Netting studied sustainability and intensive agriculture in smallholder systems through history 83 There are several studies incorporating externalities such as ecosystem services biodiversity land degradation and sustainable land management in economic analysis These include The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study and the Economics of Land Degradation Initiative which seek to establish an economic cost benefit analysis on the practice of sustainable land management and sustainable agriculture Triple bottom line frameworks include social and environmental alongside a financial bottom line A sustainable future can be feasible if growth in material consumption and population is slowed down and if there is a drastic increase in the efficiency of material and energy use To make that transition long and short term goals will need to be balanced enhancing equity and quality of life 84 Challenges and debates EditBarriers Edit A major barrier to the adoption of sustainable agriculture is its appearance of a lack of benefits Many benefits are not visible or immediately evident and affecting changes such as lower rates of soil and nutrient loss improved soil structure and higher levels of beneficial microorganisms takes time 85 In conventional agriculture the benefits are easily visible with no weeds pests etc and the costs to soil and ecosystems around it are hidden and externalized 85 The author James Howard Kunstler claims almost all modern technology is bad and that there cannot be sustainability unless agriculture is done in ancient traditional ways 86 Efforts toward more sustainable agriculture are supported in the sustainability community however these are often viewed only as incremental steps and not as an end Some foresee a true sustainable steady state economy that may be very different from today s greatly reduced energy usage minimal ecological footprint fewer consumer packaged goods local purchasing with short food supply chains little processed foods more home and community gardens etc 87 Different viewpoints about the definition Edit There is a debate on the definition of sustainability regarding agriculture The definition could be characterized by two different approaches an ecocentric approach and a technocentric approach 88 The ecocentric approach emphasizes no or low growth levels of human development and focuses on organic and biodynamic farming techniques with the goal of changing consumption patterns and resource allocation and usage The technocentric approach argues that sustainability can be attained through a variety of strategies from the view that state led modification of the industrial system like conservation oriented farming systems should be implemented to the argument that biotechnology is the best way to meet the increasing demand for food 88 One can look at the topic of sustainable agriculture through two different lenses multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services 89 Both of approaches are similar but look at the function of agriculture differently Those that employ the multifunctional agriculture philosophy focus on farm centered approaches and define function as being the outputs of agricultural activity 89 The central argument of multifunctionality is that agriculture is a multifunctional enterprise with other functions aside from the production of food and fiber These functions include renewable resource management landscape conservation and biodiversity 90 The ecosystem service centered approach posits that individuals and society as a whole receive benefits from ecosystems which are called ecosystem services 89 91 In sustainable agriculture the services that ecosystems provide include pollination soil formation and nutrient cycling all of which are necessary functions for the production of food 92 It is also claimed sustainable agriculture is best considered as an ecosystem approach to agriculture called agroecology 93 Ethics Edit Most agricultural professionals agree that there is a moral obligation to pursue the goal of sustainability 72 The major debate comes from what system will provide a path to that goal because if an unsustainable method is used on a large scale it will have a massive negative effect on the environment and human population Methods Edit Countries evaluation of trends in the use of selected management practices and approaches Other practices include growing a diverse number of perennial crops in a single field each of which would grow in separate seasons so as not to compete with each other for natural resources 94 This system would result in increased resistance to diseases and decreased effects of erosion and loss of nutrients in the soil Nitrogen fixation from legumes for example used in conjunction with plants that rely on nitrate from the soil for growth helps to allow the land to be reused annually Legumes will grow for a season and replenish the soil with ammonium and nitrate and the next season other plants can be seeded and grown in the field in preparation for harvest Sustainable methods of weed management may help reduce the development of herbicide resistant weeds 95 Crop rotation may also replenish nitrogen if legumes are used in the rotations and may also use resources more efficiently 96 Rotational grazing with pasture divided into paddocks There are also many ways to practice sustainable animal husbandry Some of the tools to grazing management include fencing off the grazing area into smaller areas called paddocks lowering stock density and moving the stock between paddocks frequently 97 Intensification Edit Main article Intensive farming Sustainability An increased production is a goal of intensification Sustainable intensification encompasses specific agriculture methods that increase production and at the same time help improve environmental outcomes The desired outcomes of the farm are achieved without the need for more land cultivation or destruction of natural habitat the system performance is upgraded with no net environmental cost Sustainable Intensification has become a priority for the United Nations Sustainable intensification differs from prior intensification methods by specifically placing importance on broader environmental outcomes By 2018 it was predicted in 100 nations a combined total of 163 million farms used sustainable intensification The amount of agricultural land covered by this is 453 million ha of land That amount of land is equal to 29 of farms worldwide 98 In light of concerns about food security human population growth and dwindling land suitable for agriculture sustainable intensive farming practises are needed to maintain high crop yields while maintaining soil health and ecosystem services The capacity for ecosystem services to be strong enough to allow a reduction in use of non renewable inputs whilst maintaining or boosting yields has been the subject of much debate Recent work in irrigated rice production system of east Asia has suggested that in relation to pest management at least promoting the ecosystem service of biological control using nectar plants can reduce the need for insecticides by 70 whilst delivering a 5 yield advantage compared with standard practice 99 Vertical farming is a concept with the potential advantages of year round production isolation from pests and diseases controllable resource recycling and reduced transportation costs 100 Water Edit Water efficiency can be improved by reducing the need for irrigation and using alternative methods Such methods include researching on drought resistant crops monitoring plant transpiration and reducing soil evaporation 101 Drought resistant crops have been researched extensively as a means to overcome the issue of water shortage They are modified genetically so they can adapt in an environment with little water This is beneficial as it reduces the need for irrigation and helps conserve water Although they have been extensively researched significant results have not been achieved as most of the successful species will have no overall impact on water conservation However some grains like rice for example have been successfully genetically modified to be drought resistant 102 Soil and nutrients Edit Soil amendments include using compost from recycling centers Using compost from yard and kitchen waste uses available resources in the area Abstinence from soil tillage before planting and leaving the plant residue after harvesting reduces soil water evaporation It also serves to prevent soil erosion 103 Crop residues left covering the surface of the soil may result in reduced evaporation of water a lower surface soil temperature and reduction of wind effects 103 A way to make rock phosphate more effective is to add microbial inoculates such as phosphate solubilizing microorganisms known as PSMs to the soil 30 76 These solubilize phosphorus already in the soil and use processes like organic acid production and ion exchange reactions to make that phosphorus available for plants 76 Experimentally these PSMs have been shown to increase crop growth in terms of shoot height dry biomass and grain yield 76 Phosphorus uptake is even more efficient with the presence of mycorrhizae in the soil 104 Mycorrhiza is a type of mutualistic symbiotic association between plants and fungi 104 which are well equipped to absorb nutrients including phosphorus in soil 105 These fungi can increase nutrient uptake in soil where phosphorus has been fixed by aluminum calcium and iron 105 Mycorrhizae can also release organic acids that solubilize otherwise unavailable phosphorus 105 Pests and weeds Edit Sheet steaming with a MSD moeschle steam boiler left side Soil steaming can be used as an alternative to chemicals for soil sterilization Different methods are available to induce steam into the soil to kill pests and increase soil health Solarizing is based on the same principle used to increase the temperature of the soil to kill pathogens and pests 106 Certain plants can be cropped for use as biofumigants natural fumigants releasing pest suppressing compounds when crushed ploughed into the soil and covered in plastic for four weeks Plants in the Brassicaceae family release large amounts of toxic compounds such as methyl isothiocyanates 107 108 Location Edit Relocating current croplands to environmentally more optimal locations whilst allowing ecosystems in then abandoned areas to regenerate could substantially decrease the current carbon biodiversity and irrigation water footprint of global crop production with relocation only within national borders also having substantial potential 109 110 Plants Edit Sustainability may also involve crop rotation 111 Crop rotation and cover crops prevent soil erosion by protecting topsoil from wind and water 29 Effective crop rotation can reduce pest pressure on crops provides weed control reduces disease build up and improves the efficiency of soil nutrients and nutrient cycling 112 This reduces the need for fertilizers and pesticides 111 Increasing the diversity of crops by introducing new genetic resources can increase yields by 10 to 15 percent compared to when they are grown in monoculture 112 113 Perennial crops reduce the need for tillage and thus help mitigate soil erosion and may sometimes tolerate drought better increase water quality and help increase soil organic matter There are research programs attempting to develop perennial substitutes for existing annual crops such as replacing wheat with the wild grass Thinopyrum intermedium or possible experimental hybrids of it and wheat 114 Being able to do all of this without the use of chemicals is one of the main goals of sustainability which is why crop rotation is a very central method of sustainable agriculture 112 Related concepts EditOrganic agriculture Edit Main article Organic Farming Organic agriculture can be defined as an integrated farming system that strives for sustainability the enhancement of soil fertility and biological diversity whilst with rare exceptions prohibiting synthetic pesticides antibiotics synthetic fertilizers genetically modified organisms and growth hormones 115 116 117 118 Some claim organic agriculture may produce the most sustainable products available for consumers in the US where no other alternatives exist although the focus of the organics industry is not sustainability 111 In 2018 the sales of organic products in USA reach 52 5 billion 119 According to a USDA survey two thirds of Americans consume organic products at least occasionally 120 Ecological farming Edit Ecological farming is a concept that focused on the environmental aspects of sustainable agriculture Ecological farming includes all methods including organic which regenerate ecosystem services like prevention of soil erosion water infiltration and retention carbon sequestration in the form of humus and increased biodiversity 121 Many techniques are used including no till farming multispecies cover crops strip cropping terrace cultivation shelter belts pasture cropping etc There are a plethora of methods and techniques that are employed when practicing ecological farming all having their own unique benefits and implementations that lead to more sustainable agriculture Crop genetic diversity is one method that is used to reduce the risks associated with monoculture crops which can be susceptible to a changing climate 122 This form of biodiversity causes crops to be more resilient increasing food security and enhancing the productivity of the field on a long term scale 122 The use of biodigestors is another method which converts organic waste into a combustible gas which can provide several benefits to an ecological farm it can be used as a fuel source fertilizer for crops and fish ponds and serves as a method for removing wastes that are rich in organic matter 123 Because biodigestors can be used as fertilizer it reduces the amount of industrial fertilizers that are needed to sustain the yields of the farm Another technique used is aquaculture integration which combines fish farming with agricultural farming using the wastes from animals and crops and diverting them towards the fish farms to be used up instead of being leeched into the environment 124 Mud from the fish ponds can also be used to fertilize crops 124 Organic Fertilizers can also be employed in an ecological farm such as animal and green manure 125 This allows soil fertility to be improved and well maintained leads to reduced costs and increased yields reduces the usage of non renewable resources in industrial fertilizers Nitrogen and Phosphorus and reduces the environmental pressures that are posed by intensive agricultural systems 125 Precision Agriculture can also be used which focuses on efficient removal of pests using non chemical techniques and minimizes the amount of tilling needed to sustain the farm An example of a precision machine is the false seedbed tiller which can remove a great majority of small weeds while only tilling one centimeter deep 126 This minimized tilling reduces the amount of new weeds that germinate from soil disturbance 126 Other methods that reduce soil erosion include contour farming strip cropping and terrace cultivation 127 Benefits Ecological farming involves the introduction of symbiotic species where possible to support the ecological sustainability of the farm Associated benefits include a reduction in ecological debt and elimination of dead zones 128 Ecological farming is a pioneering practical development which aims to create globally sustainable land management systems and encourages review of the importance of maintaining biodiversity in food production and farming end products 129 One foreseeable option is to develop specialized automata to scan and respond to soil and plant situations relative to intensive care for the soil and the plants Accordingly conversion to ecological farming may best utilize the information age and become recognised as a primary user of robotics and expert systems 130 Challenges Edit The challenge for ecological farming science is to be able to achieve a mainstream productive food system that is sustainable or even regenerative To enter the field of ecological farming location relative to the consumer can reduce the food miles factor to help minimise damage to the biosphere by combustion engine emissions involved in current food transportation Design of the ecological farm is initially constrained by the same limitations as conventional farming local climate the soil s physical properties budget for beneficial soil supplements manpower and available automatons however long term water management by ecological farming methods is likely to conserve and increase water availability for the location and require far fewer inputs to maintain fertility Principles Edit Certain principles unique to ecological farming need to be considered Food production should be ecological in both origin and destiny the term destiny refers to the post harvest ecological footprint which results in getting produce to the consumer Integration of species that maintain ecosystem services whilst providing a selection of alternative products 131 Minimise food miles packaging energy consumption and waste Define a new ecosystem to suit human needs using lessons from existing ecosystems from around the world 132 133 134 Apply the value of a knowledge base advanced data base about soil microorganisms so that discoveries of the ecological benefits of having various kinds of microorganisms encouraged in productive systems such as Forest Gardens can be assessed and optimised for example in the case of naturally occurring microorganisms called denitrifiers 135 Traditional agriculture Edit Practice of Traditional Agriculture Often thought of as inherently destructive slash and burn or slash and char shifting cultivation have been practiced in the Amazon for thousands of years 136 Some traditional systems combine polyculture with sustainability In South East Asia rice fish systems on rice paddies have raised freshwater fish as well as rice producing an additional product and reducing eutrophication of neighboring rivers 137 A variant in Indonesia combines rice fish ducks and water fern the ducks eat the weeds that would otherwise limit rice growth saving labour and herbicides while the duck and fish manure substitute for fertilizer 138 Raised field agriculture has been recently revived in certain areas of the world such as the Altiplano region in Bolivia and Peru This has resurged in the form of traditional Waru Waru raised fields which create nutrient rich soil in regions where such soil is scarce This method is extremely productive and has recently been utilized by indigenous groups in the area and the nearby Amazon Basin to make use of lands that have been historically hard to cultivate Other forms of traditional agriculture include agro forestry crop rotations and water harvesting Water harvesting is one of the largest and most common practices particularly used in dry areas and seasons In Ethiopia over half of their GDP and over 80 percent of their exports are attributed to agriculture yet it is known for its intense droughts and dry periods 139 Rain water harvesting is considered to be a low cost alternative This type of harvesting collects and stores water from roof tops during high rain periods for use during droughts 140 Rainwater harvesting has been a large practice to help the country survive by focusing on runoff irrigation roof water harvesting and flood spreading Indigenous Agriculture Edit Indigenous Agriculture Native Americans in the United States practiced sustainable agriculture through their subsistence farming techniques Many tribes grew or harvested their own food from plants that thrived in their local ecosystems Native American farming practices are specific to local environments and work with natural processes 141 This is a practice called Permaculture and it involves a deep understanding of the local environment 142 Native American farming techniques also incorporate local biodiversity into many of their practices which helps the land remain healthy 143 Many indigenous tribes incorporated Intercropping into their agriculture which is a practice where multiple crops are planted together in the same area This strategy allows crops to help one another grow through exchanged nutrients maintained soil moisture and physical supports for one another The crops that are paired in intercropping often do not heavily compete for resources which helps them to each be successful For example many tribes utilized intercropping in ways such as the Three Sisters Garden This gardening technique consists of corn beans and squash These crops grow in unity as the corn stalk supports the beans the beans produce nitrogen and the squash retain moisture 144 Intercropping also provides a natural strategy for pest management and the prevention of weed growth Intercropping is a natural agricultural practice that often improves the overall health of the soil and plants increases crop yield and is sustainable 142 One of the most significant aspects of indigenous sustainable agriculture is their traditional ecological knowledge of harvesting The Anishinaabe tribes follow an ideology known as the Honorable Harvest The Honorable Harvest is a set of practices that emphasize the idea that people should take only what you need and use everything you take 145 Resources are conserved through this practice because several rules are followed when harvesting a plant These rules are to never take the first plant never take more than half of the plants and never take the last plant 146 This encourages future growth of the plant and therefore leads to a sustainable use of the plants in the area Native Americans practiced agroforestry by managing the forest animals and crops together They also helped promote tree growth through controlled burns and silviculture Often the remaining ash from these burns would be used to fertilize their crops By improving the conditions of the forest the local wildlife populations also increased Native Americans allowed their livestock to graze in the forest which provided natural fertilizer for the trees as well 142 Alternative agriculture Edit Further information Polyculture There is limited evidence polyculture may contribute to sustainable agriculture A meta analysis of a number of polycrop studies found that predator insect biodiversity was higher at comparable yields than conventional in certain two crop systems with a single cash crop combined with a cover crop 147 One approach to sustainability is to develop polyculture systems using perennial crop varieties Such varieties are being developed for rice wheat sorghum barley and sunflowers If these can be combined in polyculture with a leguminous cover crop such as alfalfa fixation of nitrogen will be added to the system reducing the need for fertilizer and pesticides 114 Use of local space Edit The use of available city space e g rooftop gardens community gardens garden sharing organoponicos and other forms of urban agriculture may be able to contribute to sustainability 148 Some consider guerrilla gardening an example of sustainability in action 149 in some cases seeds of edible plants have been sown in local rural areas 150 Regenerative agriculture Edit Main article Regenerative agriculture Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems It focuses on topsoil regeneration increasing biodiversity 151 improving the water cycle 152 enhancing ecosystem services supporting biosequestration increasing resilience to climate change and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil Practices include recycling as much farm waste as possible and adding composted material from sources outside the farm 75 153 29 154 Permaculture Edit This section is an excerpt from Permaculture edit Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems It includes a set of design principles derived using whole systems thinking It applies these principles in fields such as regenerative agriculture town planning rewilding and community resilience Permaculture originally came from permanent agriculture 155 but was later adjusted to mean permanent culture incorporating social aspects The term was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren who formulated the concept in opposition to modern industrialized methods instead adopting a more traditional or natural approach to agriculture 156 157 158 Permaculture has many branches including ecological design ecological engineering regenerative design environmental design and construction It also includes integrated water resources management sustainable architecture and regenerative and self maintained habitat and agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems 159 160 Permaculture uses creative design processes based on whole systems thinking considering all materials and energies in flow that affect or are affected by proposed changes In practical terms it means that before for example modifying overland water flow one fully considers both upstream and downstream effects in the short and long terms Or when looking at a problem such as brushy vegetation one considers how removing or altering it will affect soil and wildlife and how these interacting forces would evolve over time and space Permaculture has been criticised as being poorly defined and unscientific 161 Critics have pushed for less reliance on anecdote and extrapolation from ecological first principles in favor of peer reviewed research to substantiate productivity claims and to clarify methodology Peter Harper from the Centre for Alternative Technology suggests that most of what passes for permaculture has no relevance to real problems 162 Standards Edit Certification systems are important to the agriculture community and to consumers as these standards determine the sustainability of produce Numerous sustainability standards and certification systems exist including organic certification Rainforest Alliance Fair Trade UTZ Certified GlobalGAP Bird Friendly and the Common Code for the Coffee Community 4C 12 These standards specify rules that producers manufacturers and traders need to follow so that the things they do make or grow do not hurt people and the environment 163 These standards are also known as Voluntary Sustainability Standards VSS that are private standards that require products to meet specific economic social or environmental sustainability metrics The requirements can refer to product quality or attributes but also to production and processing methods as well as transportation VSS are mostly designed and marketed by non governmental organizations NGOs or private firms and they are adopted by actors up and down the value chain from farmers to retailers Certifications and labels are used to signal the successful implementation of a VSS According to the ITC standards map the mostly covered products by standards are agricultural products 164 Around 500 VSS today apply to key exports of many developing countries such as coffee tea bananas cocoa palm oil timber cotton and organic agri foods 165 VSS are found to reduce eutrophication water use greenhouse gas emissions and natural ecosystem conversion 166 And thus are considered as a potential tool for sustainable agriculture The USDA produces an organic label that is supported by nationalized standards of farmers and facilities The steps for certification consist of creating an organic system plan which determines how produce will be tilled grazed harvested stored and transported This plan also manages and monitors the substances used around the produce the maintenance needed to protect the produce and any nonorganic products that may come in contact with the produce The organic system plan is then reviewed and inspected by the USDA certifying agent Once the certification is granted the produce receives an approval sticker from the USDA and the produce is distributed across the U S In order to hold farmers accountable and ensure that Americans are receiving organic produce these inspections are done at least once a year 167 This is just one example of sustainable certification systems through produce maintenance Policy Edit Delaware Valley University s Roth Center for Sustainable Agriculture located in Montgomery County Pennsylvania Sustainable agriculture is a topic in international policy concerning its potential to reduce environmental risks In 2011 the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change as part of its recommendations for policymakers on achieving food security in the face of climate change urged that sustainable agriculture must be integrated into national and international policy 168 The Commission stressed that increasing weather variability and climate shocks will negatively affect agricultural yields necessitating early action to drive change in agricultural production systems towards increasing resilience 168 It also called for dramatically increased investments in sustainable agriculture in the next decade including in national research and development budgets land rehabilitation economic incentives and infrastructure improvement 168 At the global level Edit During 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference 45 countries pledged to give more than 4 billion dollars for transition to sustainable agriculture The organization Slow Food expressed concern about the effectivity of the spendings as they concentrate on technological solutions and reforestation en place of a holistic agroecology that transforms food from a mass produced commodity into part of a sustainable system that works within natural boundaries 169 Additionally the Summit consisted of negotiations that led to heavily reducing CO2 emissions becoming carbon neutral ending deforestation and reliance on coal and limiting methane emissions 170 171 In November the Climate Action Tracker reported that global efforts are on track to for a 2 7 C temperature increase with current policies finding that the current targets will not meet global needs as coal and natural gas consumption are primarily responsible for the gap in progress 172 173 Since like minded developing countries which asked for an addendum to the agreement that removed the obligation for developing countries to meet the same requirements of wealthy nations citation needed European Union Edit Further information European Green Deal In May 2020 the European Union published a program named From Farm to Fork for making its agriculture more sustainable In the official page of the program From Farm to Fork is cited Frans Timmermans the Executive Vice President of the European Commission saying that The coronavirus crisis has shown how vulnerable we all are and how important it is to restore the balance between human activity and nature At the heart of the Green Deal the Biodiversity and Farm to Fork strategies point to a new and better balance of nature food systems and biodiversity to protect our people s health and well being and at the same time to increase the EU s competitiveness and resilience These strategies are a crucial part of the great transition we are embarking upon 174 The program includes the next targets Making 25 of EU agriculture organic by 2030 Reduce by 50 the use of pesticides by 2030 Reduce the use of fertilizers by 20 by 2030 Reduce nutrient loss by at least 50 Reduce the use of antimicrobials in agriculture and antimicrobials in aquaculture by 50 by 2030 Create sustainable food labeling Reduce food waste by 50 by 2030 Dedicate to R amp I related to the issue 10 billion 174 United States Edit Policies from 1930 2000The New Deal implemented policies and programs that promoted sustainable agriculture Under the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1933 it provided farmers payments to create a supply management regime that capped production of important crops 175 176 177 This allowed farmers to focus on growing food and not competing in the market based system The New Deal also provided a monetary incentive for farmers that left some of their fields unsown or ungrazed to order to improve the soil conditions 175 The Cooperative Extension Service was also established that set up sharing funding responsibilities amongst the USDA land grant universities and local communities 176 The 1950s to 1990s was when the government switched its stance on agriculture policy which halted sustainable agriculture The Agricultural Act of 1954 passed which supported farmers with flexible price supports but only to commodity programs 178 The Food and Agricultural Act of 1965 had new income support payments and continued supply controls but reduced priced supports 178 Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973 removed price supports and instead introduced target prices and deficiency payments 178 It continued to promote commodity crops by lowering interest rates Food Security Act of 1985 continued commodity loan programs 177 178 These policies incentivized profit over sustainability because the US government was promoting farms to maximize their production output instead of placing checks 178 This meant that farms were being turned into food factories as they became bigger in size and grew more commodity crops like corn wheat and cotton From 1900 to 2002 the number of farms in the US decreased significantly while the average size of a farm went up after 1950 178 177 Current PoliciesIn the United States the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service USDA provides technical and financial assistance for those interested in pursuing natural resource conservation along with production agriculture With programs like SARE and China UK SAIN to help promote research on sustainable agriculture practices and a framework for agriculture and climate change respectively Future PoliciesCurrently there are policies on the table that could move the US agriculture system into a more sustainable direction with the Green New Deal This policy promotes decentralizing agrarian governance by breaking up large commodity farms that were created in the 1950s to 1980s 175 Decentralized governance within the farming community would allow for more adaptive management at local levels to help focus on climate change mitigation food security and landscape scale ecological stewardship 175 The Green New Deal would invest in public infrastructure to support farmers transition from industrial food regime and acquire agroecological skills 175 Just like in the New Deal it would invest in cooperatives and commons to share and redistribute resources like land food equipment research facilities personnel and training programs 175 All of these policies and programs would break down barriers that have prevented sustainable farmers and agriculture from taking place in the United States 177 Asia Edit China Edit In 2016 the Chinese government adopted a plan to reduce China s meat consumption by 50 for achieving more sustainable and healthy food system 179 180 In 2019 the National Basic Research Program or Program 973 funded research into Science and Technology Backyard STB STBs are hubs often created in rural areas with significant rates of small scale farming that combine knowledge of traditional practices with new innovations and technology implementation The purpose of this program was to invest in sustainable farming throughout the country and increase food production while achieving few negative environmental effects The program was ultimately proven to be successful and the study found that the merging of traditional practices and appropriate technology was instrumental in higher crop yields 181 India Edit In collaboration with the Food and Land Use Coalition FOLU CEEW council for energy environment and water has given an overview of the current state of sustainable agriculture practices and systems SAPSs in India 182 India is aiming to scale up SAPs through policymakers administrators philanthropists and other which represent a vital alternative to conventional input intensive agriculture In idea these efforts identify 16 SAPSs including agroforestry crop rotation rainwater harvesting organic farming and natural farming using agroecology as an investigative lens In a conclusive understanding it is realised that sustainable agriculture is far from mainstream in India Further proposals for several measures for promoting SAPSs including restructured government support and rigorous evidence generation for benefits and implementation of sustainable farming are ongoing progress in Indian Agriculture An example of initiatives in India towards exploring the world of sustainable farming has been set by the Sowgood foundation 183 It started by teaching primary school children about sustainable farming by helping them farm on small farm strips in suburban farmhouses and gardens Today many government and private schools in Delhi India have adopted the sowgood foundation curriculum for sustainable farming for their students Other countries Edit Israel Edit In 2012 the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture found itself at the height of the Israeli commitment to sustainable agriculture policy A large factor of this policy was funding programs that made sustainable agriculture accessible to smaller Palestinian Arab communities The program was meant to create biodiversity train farmers in sustainable agriculture methods and hold regular meetings for agriculture stakeholders 184 This plan was not well accepted by all as opposers argue that the plan creates a new social construct and a tool for the government to hold more power 185 History EditIn 1907 the American author Franklin H King discussed in his book Farmers of Forty Centuries the advantages of sustainable agriculture and warned that such practices would be vital to farming in the future 186 The phrase sustainable agriculture was reportedly coined by the Australian agronomist Gordon McClymont 187 The term became popular in the late 1980s 144 There was an international symposium on sustainability in horticulture by the International Society of Horticultural Science at the International Horticultural Congress in Toronto in 2002 188 At the following conference at Seoul in 2006 the principles were discussed further 189 This potential future inability to feed the world s population has been a concern since the English political economist Thomas Malthus in the early 1800s but has become increasingly important recently 190 Starting at the very end of the twentieth and early twenty first centuries this issue became widely discussed in the U S because of growing anxieties of a rapidly increasing global population Agriculture has long been the biggest industry worldwide and requires significant land water and labor inputs At the turn of the twenty first century experts questioned the industry s ability to keep up with population growth 15 This debate led to concerns over global food insecurity and solving hunger 191 See also Edit Agriculture and Agronomy portal Ecology portal Agriculture portal Environment portalAgroecology Climate smart agriculture Environmental impact of meat production Forest farming Local food Natural farming Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network between the UK and China Sustainable Commodity Initiative Sustainable development Sustainable energy Sustainable food system Sustainable landscapingReferences Edit What is sustainable agriculture Agricultural Sustainability Institute asi ucdavis edu 11 December 2018 Retrieved 2019 01 20 Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and 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Udo H M J van Mensvoort M E F Tri L Q Steenstra F A van der Zijpp A J 2010 08 15 An agro ecological evaluation of aquaculture integration into farming systems of the Mekong Delta Agriculture Ecosystems amp Environment 138 3 232 241 doi 10 1016 j agee 2010 05 004 ISSN 0167 8809 a b Vereijken P 1992 09 01 A methodic way to more sustainable farming systems Netherlands Journal of Agricultural Science 40 3 209 223 doi 10 18174 njas v40i3 16507 ISSN 0028 2928 a b 4 Precision Ag for Ecological Farming Systems 5 LOW GREENHOUSE GAS AGRICULTURE MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION POTENTIAL OF SUSTAINABLE FARMING SYSTEMS Scientific American report on dead zones in the sea Nature report on traditional farming ecological debt BBC Report FAS Recommendations Fertiliser trees Nutrient dense food species Deep rooted trees maintain water balance UT Study Unexpected Microbes Fighting Harmful Greenhouse Gas 21 November 2012 Sponsel Leslie E 1986 Amazon ecology and adaptation Annual Review of Anthropology 15 67 97 doi 10 1146 annurev anthro 15 1 67 Burchett Stephen Burchett Sarah 2011 Introduction to Wildlife Conservation in Farming John Wiley amp Sons p 268 ISBN 978 1 119 95759 1 Bezemer Marjolein 12 December 2018 Mixed farming increases rice yield reNature Foundation Tolossa Tasisa Temesge Abebe Firew Bekele Girma Anteneh Abebe 2020 01 01 Yildiz Fatih ed Review Rainwater harvesting technology practices and implication of climate change characteristics in Eastern Ethiopia Cogent Food amp Agriculture 6 1 1724354 doi 10 1080 23311932 2020 1724354 S2CID 214230236 Water Efficient Technology Opportunity Rainwater Harvesting Systems Energy gov Retrieved 2022 02 24 Pace Katie Indigenous Agriculture and Sustainable Foods Sustainable Food Center Retrieved 29 March 2021 a b c Heim Tracy 12 October 2020 The Indigenous Origins of Regenerative Agriculture National Farmers Union Retrieved 29 March 2021 Nabhan Gary 1989 Enduring Seeds Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation Tucson The University of Arizona Press p x a b Frey Darrell 2011 Bioshelter market garden a permaculture farm Gabriola Island BC New Society Publishers ISBN 978 0 86571 678 0 OCLC 601130383 Kimmerer Robin 2013 Braiding Sweetgrass Indigenous Wisdom Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Milkweed Editions p 148 Kimmerer Robin 2013 Braiding Sweetgrass Indigenous Wisdom Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Milkweed Editions p 183 Iverson Aaron L Marin Linda E Ennis Katherine K Gonthier David J Connor Barrie Benjamin T Remfert Jane L Cardinale Bradley J Perfecto Ivette 2014 REVIEW Do polycultures promote win wins or trade offs in agricultural ecosystem services A meta analysis Journal of Applied Ecology 51 6 1593 1602 doi 10 1111 1365 2664 12334 Viljoen Andre Howe Joe eds 2005 Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities Taylor amp Francis ISBN 9781136414329 OCLC 742299840 Crane Annie Viswanathan Leela Whitelaw Graham January 2013 Sustainability through intervention a case study of guerrilla gardening in Kingston Ontario Local Environment 18 1 71 90 doi 10 1080 13549839 2012 716413 S2CID 144854053 Incredible edible Guerrilla gardeners are planting veg for the masses The Independent 13 June 2013 Retrieved 26 April 2022 Our Sustainable Future Regenerative Ag Description csuchico edu Retrieved 2017 03 09 Underground The Carbon Initiative Regenerative Agriculture CSU 2017 02 24 What is Regenerative Agriculture Regeneration International Retrieved 2017 03 09 Regenerative Agriculture Regenerative Agriculture Foundation regenerativeagriculturefoundation org Retrieved 2017 03 09 Regenerative Organic Agriculture ORGANIC INDIA us organicindia com Archived from the original on 2016 03 13 Retrieved 2017 03 09 King 1911 sfn error no target CITEREFKing1911 help Birnbaum Fox Juliana 9 June 2010 Indigenous Science Cultural Survival Quarterly 33 1 via Indiana University Bill Mollison often called the father of permaculture worked with indigenous people in his native Tasmania and worldwide and credits them with inspiring his work I believe that unless we adopt sophisticated aboriginal belief systems and learn respect for all life then we lose our own he wrote in the seminal Permaculture A Designers Manual Holmgren David 2007 Essence of Permaculture PDF Permaculture Principles amp Pathways Beyond Sustainability 7 This focus in permaculture on learning from indigenous tribal and cultures of place is based on the evidence that these cultures have existed in relative balance with their environment and survived for longer than any of our more recent experiments in civilisation Schaeffer John 2014 Real Goods Solar Living Sourcebook New Society Publishers p 292 ISBN 9780865717848 Bill Mollison and a younger David Holmgren who were studying the unstable and unsustainable characteristics of Western industrialized culture They were drawn to indigenous worldviews Hemenway 2009 p 5 sfn error no target CITEREFHemenway2009 help Mars Ross 2005 The Basics of Permaculture Design Chelsea Green p 1 ISBN 978 1 85623 023 0 Accounts 11 March 2021 Permaculture for Sceptics The Permaculture Research Institute Retrieved 22 July 2021 Peter Harper 2003 A Critique of Permaculture Cleaning out the stables PDF Academia danubiana net Retrieved 5 March 2022 About VSS VSS Retrieved 2021 03 03 Sustainability Map www standardsmap org Retrieved 2021 03 03 Fostering Green Exports through Voluntary Sustainability Standards in Developing Countries UNCTAD unctad org Retrieved 2021 03 03 Smith W K Nelson E Johnson J A Polasky S Milder J C Gerber J S West P C Siebert S Brauman K A Carlson K M Arbuthnot M 2019 02 05 Voluntary sustainability standards could significantly reduce detrimental impacts of global agriculture Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116 6 2130 2137 Bibcode 2019PNAS 116 2130S doi 10 1073 pnas 1707812116 ISSN 0027 8424 PMC 6369756 PMID 30670643 Ferguson James J 1969 12 31 USDA Organic Certification Who Should Be Certified EDIS 2004 4 doi 10 32473 edis hs210 2004 ISSN 2576 0009 a b c Achieving food security in the face of climate change Summary for policymakers from the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change PDF CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security CCAFS November 2011 Rosane Olivia 8 November 2021 45 Countries Pledge Over 4 Billion to Support Sustainable Agriculture But Is It Enough Ecowatch Retrieved 11 November 2021 Surveillance of the impact of COP26 on COVID 19 infections in Scotland Preliminary report 16 November 2021 2021 11 16 doi 10 52487 49704 S2CID 247960201 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Pacini Andrea Rossini Stefano 2021 12 09 Tackling the Methane Quandary Curbing Emissions from Control Valves Day 1 Mon November 15 2021 SPE doi 10 2118 207337 MS Geiges Andreas Fyson Claire Hans Frederic Jeffery Louise Mooldijk Silke Gidden Matthew Ramapope Deborah Hare Bill Stockwell Claire 2021 03 04 Implications of current net zero targets for long term emissions pathways and warming levels EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts Bibcode 2021EGUGA 2311018G doi 10 5194 egusphere egu21 11018 S2CID 237960433 Retrieved 2022 04 19 Surveillance of the impact of COP26 on COVID 19 infections in Scotland Preliminary report 16 November 2021 2021 11 16 doi 10 52487 49704 S2CID 247960201 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help a b From Farm to Fork European Commission website European Union Retrieved 26 May 2020 Text was copied from this source which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4 0 International License a b c d e f Carlisle Liz Montenegro de Wit Maywa DeLonge Marcia S Iles Alastair Calo Adam Getz Christy Ory Joanna Munden Dixon Katherine Galt Ryan Melone Brett Knox Reggie 2019 11 01 Transitioning to Sustainable Agriculture Requires Growing and Sustaining an Ecologically Skilled Workforce Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 3 96 doi 10 3389 fsufs 2019 00096 ISSN 2571 581X a b Shaffer Timothy J 2017 08 17 Thinking beyond food and fiber The Intersection of Food and Public Health New York Routledge pp 307 326 doi 10 1201 9781315153094 21 ISBN 978 1 4987 5895 6 retrieved 2021 11 13 a b c d Carlisle Liz de Wit Maywa Montenegro DeLonge Marcia S Calo Adam Getz Christy Ory Joanna Munden Dixon Katherine Galt Ryan Melone Brett Knox Reggie Iles Alastair 2019 01 01 Kapuscinski Anne R Mendez Ernesto eds Securing the future of US agriculture The case for investing in new entry sustainable farmers Elementa Science of the Anthropocene 7 17 doi 10 1525 elementa 356 ISSN 2325 1026 S2CID 190434574 a b c d e f Forestry summary report prepared by U S Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service Economic Research Service Forest Service in cooperation with Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation 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D Bishop Acta Hort 767 ISHS pp 19 44 Ehrlich Paul R et al Food Security Population and Environment Population and Development Review vol 19 no 1 1993 pp 1 JSTOR www jstor org stable 2938383 Accessed 19 March 2021 Rieff David The Reproach of Hunger Food Justice and Money in the Twenty First Century Population and Development Review vol 42 no 1 2016 pp 145 JSTOR https www jstor org stable 44015622 Accessed 18 March 2021 Sources Edit This article incorporates text from a free content work Licensed under CC BY SA IGO 3 0 license statement permission Text taken from The State of the World s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture In Brief FAO FAO To learn how to add open license text to Wikipedia articles please see this how to page For information on reusing text from Wikipedia please see the terms of use Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sustainable agriculture Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sustainable agriculture amp oldid 1128898411, wikipedia, wiki, book, 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