When defining sustainable
agriculture we need to look at the history of organic farming, since
sustainable agriculture (and thus sustainable viticulture) arose out of this
movement. The present paradigm of organic farming began as a melding of several
different schools of thought that were supported by European and English
scientists active in the 1920's, 30's and 40's. The essential role of a
healthy, fertile soil in viable agriculture was the common thread that linked
these schools of thought. In particular, an Englishman, Sir Albert Howard
developed many ideas that became some of the foundation of sustainable farming
prior to World War II in India where he was trying to meet the challenge of
improving farmers' yields in order to feed a rapidly increasing population. He
believed that the best way to increase food productivity at a moderate cost was
to return the organic by-products of crop production as well as animal manures
to the soil. Howard also had concerns about the changes in soil chemistry
caused by the use of synthetic fertilizers and the use of chemical poisons to
solve all pest problems.
The Emergence of
Sustainable Agriculture
In the 1950's and 1960's
another movement, called the green revolution, evolved to meet the challenge of
providing food for a rapidly expanding world population. This movement met the
challenge from a direction that was diametrically opposed to that of organic
farming. It emphasized genetically enhanced plant varieties and high energy
off-farm inputs such as mechanization, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. In
time this movement became 'conventional' agriculture and resulted in high food
production at a low cost to the public, particularly in the United States. As
this movement developed some people became concerned that this type of
agriculture could not be sustained in the long term. They felt that although
the cost of food production was low, the dollar value of food produced with
conventional agriculture did not reflect the true cost from an ecosystem and
societal perspective. The true cost takes into consideration issues like air
pollution from producing and using fossil fuels, soil degradation due to
intense cultivation and use of synthetic fertilizers, habitat destruction, air
and ground water contamination with fertilizers and pesticides, and the steady
decrease of the farmer population as family farms were out-competed by
corporate farms. These concerns over the long-term sustainability of
conventional agriculture resulted in the development of the sustainable
agriculture movement, which owes many of its farming approaches to the organic
farming movement.
Definition of Sustainable
Agriculture
In 1989 the American Agronomy
Society adopted the following definition for sustainable agriculture: "A
sustainable agriculture is one that, over the long term, enhances environmental
quality and the resource base on which agriculture depends; provides for basic
human food and fiber needs; is economically viable; and enhances the quality of
life for farmers and society as a whole." The Sustainable Agriculture Research
and Education Program at University of California, Davis (UC SAREP) emphasizes
that sustainable agriculture integrates 3 main goals-environmental health,
economic profitability, and social and economic equity. UC SAREP also points
out that a systems perspective is essential to understanding sustainable
agriculture. Farming does not operate in a vacuum. Each farmer's field is part
of a complex community ecosystem, which in turn can effect or be impacted by
global economics and even global ecological processes (eg. El Nino). A systems
perspective involves viewing multiple factors when considering field and
farm-level decisions.
Things to keep in
mind
Although the concepts of
sustainable agriculture, organic farming and IPM (integrated pest management)
have been around for a long time they are often misunderstood and can be
controversial. It is important for everyone to realize that none of these is
going to solve all problems all the time. Keep in mind that most crops are
exotic (ie. non-native) to the farms on which they are grown, and most pests on
these crops are non-native, too. This creates a potentially unstable ecological
situation regardless of the type of farming being practiced. There are some
crop/pest systems that are inherently unstable and crop damage is unavoidable
without some outside intervention. A good example is codling moth in many
orchard crops. Pests can even get out of hand in some fairly undisturbed,
'natural' ecosystems, as illustrated by periodic destructive epidemics of
forest insects in certain forest ecosystems.
For a more detailed
discussion of Sustainable Viticulture click
here.
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