Sustainable Agriculture - An Overview
Background
The modernization of agriculture, while increasing yield, has also created many environmental concerns. Every year more than a billion tons of topsoil erode from the nation's farmlands. This erosion reduces the productivity of the land and can cause siltation of waterways. When erosion is caused by run-off, the fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides carried with the soil can corrupt watersheds and disrupt ecosystems. Not only has water quality become an issue, but agriculture's heavy reliance on irrigation has added to the global problem of water scarcity. Similarly, heavy reliance on fossil fuel has made agriculture an industry with one the highest levels of carbon emissions. Deforestation in order to develop new farmland can have negative environmental impacts such as loss of biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Finally, if livestock operations do not properly manage animal waste it can spread disease and damage natural habitat. For more information on the law related to agriculture's environmental impact, please see the Environmental Law Reading Room.
These environmental concerns have caused many to call for a more sustainable agricultural system. The statutory definition of sustainable agriculture is "an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long-term 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; and enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole." 7 U.S.C. § 3103(18).
However, at this time there are no specific production practices dictated by law. The broad statutory definition has left the door open for farmers, authors, and organizations to interpret sustainable agriculture in slightly different ways depending on the issues they feel most strongly about. Despite variations in the details of the definition the underlying theme remains the same. Sustainable agriculture seeks to minimize the potentially negative effects that agriculture may have on the environment and consequentially on society, while maintaining agricultural production levels that provide adequate farm income. Sustainable practices may include any of the following: reducing or discontinuing the use of chemical inputs, erosion prevention plans, reduced or no tillage practices, sparing use of fossil fuels, and crop rotation.
Government Organizations
Sustainable agriculture is a way of farming and thus almost all aspects of a farming operation have components that could be transitioned to sustainable practices. Due to an increasing public interest in sustainability and this expansive opportunity for implementation of sustainable practice, many government agencies and organizations have furthered sustainable agricultural initiatives in some regard. There are relatively few government organizations, however, that deal exclusively with sustainability and conservation. Perhaps the most important from a legal perspective is the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NCRS). The NCRS is the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) agency responsible for implementing and overseeing most of the conservation-based sustainable agriculture programs. The NCRS also provides technical assistance for farmers and ranchers who wish to design conservation practices.
Another important organization is the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. SARE is a federally funded organization that helps advance farming systems that are both economically profitable and environmentally sound. SARE funds a number of sustainable agriculture programs through a project grant system in cooperation with the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES). SARE also compiles information and results from these programs and makes them available to the public.
Similarly, the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA, formerly the Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas project) provides information and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers involved in sustainable agriculture with funds provided by a cooperative agreement between the National Center for Appropriate Technologies (NCAT) and the USDA's Rural Business-Cooperative Service.
Finally, the Alternative Farming Systems Information Center (AFSIC), a subset of the National Agricultural Library (NAL), specializes in identifying and compiling resources about sustainable food systems and agricultural practices.
Government Programs
As public concerns about the environment develop, more federal programs designed to improve agriculture's impact on the environment are created. Most of these programs have been implemented by Farm Bill legislation. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act (2008 Farm Bill) continued and extended several pre-existing programs intended to help farmers transition to more sustainable farming practices in one of three ways: by subsidizing conservation improvements, by providing technical assistance for conservation planning, or by funding the research of sustainable issues.
Perhaps the program that most completely reflects the sustainable movement is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Its purpose is to "promote agricultural production, forest management, and environmental quality as compatible goals." The program provides cost sharing, payment incentives, and technical assistance to farmers and livestock producers who make conservation and environmental improvements on land devoted to agricultural production. This marriage of production agriculture and environmental foresight is perhaps the central trait of sustainable agriculture. The 2008 Farm Bill mandated $7.32 billion for fiscal years 2008-2012 to fund this program.
A similar program, the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP, formerly the Conservation Security Program), is intended to reward farmers who are already implementing sustainable practices. To be eligible, one must demonstrate that a stewardship threshold for at least one resource concern is already being met. Once a farmer is enrolled, the program provides payments for installing and adopting new conservation activities or maintaining existing ones, as well as for adopting resource-based crop rotations.
Although funding for water improvement practices is available under the general conservation programs referred to above, there are also programs designed to specifically address concerns over water quality and conservation. For example, the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program (AWEP), formerly the Ground and Surface Water Conservation (GSWC) Program, operates like EQIP, except with a specific purpose of addressing water quality and conservation concerns. There are also programs that focus on improving water quality and conservation practices in specific regions, such as the Great Lakes Basin Program for Erosion and Sediment Control, and the Grassroots Source Water Protection Program.
Along with subsidizing environmental improvements, the 2008 Farm Bill requires the Secretary of Agriculture to make technical advice available to all USDA conservation program participants. Such technical advice includes expertise, information, and the tools necessary for conservation of natural resources. The Secretary is also required to ensure that a range of conservation resources is available to specialty crop, organic, and precision producers and that conservation practice standards incorporate specialty crop, organic, and precision producers.
Finally, many programs that do not directly provide assistance for transition to sustainable agricultural practices still promote sustainability while meeting their ultimate goals. There are several grant programs designed to promote agricultural research for which projects devoted to the study of sustainable initiatives are expressly eligible. For example, the Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program allows the Secretary of Agriculture to give grants for the purchase of land that provides public benefits through sustainable forestry management practices. Similarly, one of the objectives of grants awarded under the Biomass Research and Development Initiative is to develop a diversity of sustainable domestic sources of renewable energy and biobased products.
For more information on conservation programs, please visit the Conservation Programs Reading Room. For information on organic agricultural production, a topic related to sustainability, please visit the National Organic Program Reading Room.