Topics in Sustainable Agriculture
Index:
The Assault on Alternative Agriculture
Needs of Sustainable Agriculture:
The Promise of Sustainable Agriculture:
Promise of Sustainable Agriculture in First World:
Promise of Sustainable Agriculture in Third World:
Problems of Sustainable Agriculture in First World:
Problems of Sustainable Agriculture in Third World:
The Assault on Alternative Agriculture
There is a battle waging within agriculture today, a battle that is pitting large segments of agribusiness against the sustainable agriculture movement. Opponents of sustainable agriculture control much of the media and therefore their opinions dominate the debate and the minds of the masses. They assert that if farmers stop using chemicals (that they just happen to produce) the world would starve. They cite biased economic studies, such as the one conducted by Thomas Foster (an agricultural economist for the Tennessee Valley Authority and the National Fertilizer Development Center) in which he claims "Taking chemicals out of agriculture could mean cutting exports in half, 217,000 fewer jobs, rampant inflation, and a huge increase in food costs. . . Yields generally fell in all scenarios while costs per unit of crop increased in all cases." (Omaha World-Herald 15 November 1990, 19). This type of economic study (even if totally correct) is extremely irresponsible. It is obvious that the conversion away from chemically based agriculture "is a slow, methodical, step-at-a-time procedure"(p.94 Future Harvest). Even if these claims are "true", it needs explanation why so. Clearly, sustainable agriculture has received very little funding relative to conventional systems. A study conducted by the National Research Council in 1989 found that:
Little recent research, however, has been directed to alternative agriculture, such as the relationship among crop rotations, tillage methods, pest control, and nutrient cycling. Farmers must understand these interactions as they move toward alternative systems. As a result, the scientific knowledge, technology, and management skills necessary for widespread adoption of alternative agriculture are not widely available or well defined.
In order for agriculture to become sustainable on a world scale, it is necessary for researchers, as well as civil society as a whole, to have a deeper understanding of the issues and economics behind sustainable agriculture.
The mission of this home page is to discuss general issues surrounding sustainable agriculture, and to do so in a way that is informative and helpful to both the general public and to academia.This home page is focused on issues surrounding the application of sustainable agricultural systems to the Third World. In order to do this, this home page will analyze the general needs of sustainable agriculture, especially considering issues surrounding technology, and then will briefly examine some case studies in "sustainable technologies".
Needs of sustainable agriculture:
"A farmer should live as though he were going to die tomorrow;
but he should farm as though he were going to live forever"
East Anglian proverb, in George Ewart Evans, 1966
Conditions of sustainable agriculture(Table on p.21 Regenerating Agricuture)
Favorable Policy Environment:
Most policy frameworks still encourage types of farming that are dependent on external inputs and technologies, and are not sustainable in the long term. In the face of these policy frameworks sustainable agriculture has become a worldwide movement, including people of both the First and Third World, and focused around the "islands of success" that have been "lighthouses of hope" to those attempting to promote a more sustainable world.
A widely used tool for measuring the sum total amount of monetary assistance given to farmers is the producer subsidy equivalent (PSE). This measures "all the transfers to an examination of PSE values most industrialized countries give very large amounts of agricultural support. Agricultural support in the North, acts to promote the increase of production levels above what is necessary for the market. In the South, agriculture is almost always given a very low priority. Often times, through "macro-economic policies that incure high real exchange rates and by protecting industry" developing countries turn the turns of trade against agriculture. These "bad terms of trade" for agriculture have very real implications for the possibility of shifting to sustainable agricultural systems, for real prices of agricultural goods are so low that it is nearly impossible for farmers to obtain the capital (in the form of profits) in order to shift to new production systems.
Resource conserving technologies:
A wide range of "green technologies" do exist,
but in reality the number of farmers using them are small. These technologies
involve the substitution of labor, knowledge and managerial skills in place
of previously used external inputs. The shift to sustainable technologies
means sometime very large adjustment costs, and so many farmers see little
benefit in the short run from adoption of these policies. A lack of information
and skills is oftentimes a major barrier to the adoption of green technologies
(Information from Ch. 5 Regenerating Agriculture. The most
important thing to realize about technologies, especially "green"
ones, is that technology does not in fact exist in a vacuum. Technology
is not "value free". Every technology "has inherent and
identifiable social, political, and environmental consequences"(p.49
IAS). In modern times, it is often assumed (both by scientists and the general
public) that the "problem is not with technology itself, but with how
we use it, and who controls it". The idea that technology is somehow
"neutral" is not only false, but dangerous. For in believing in
the neutrality of technology, we allow technology to develop "without
analyzing its actual bias."(p.35 IAS). The graph above, shows the effects
the shift to conventional farming has on the labor pool. By decreasing the
need for labor in the countryside (through mechanization), conventional
farming increases the overall supply of labor in the market and drives down
wages. A large movement away from conventional technologies towards more
sustainable ones would do the exact opposite, it would increase demand for
labor in the countryside. This increase in demand would both decrease unemployment
and increase wages for workers.
Enabling external institutions (see Organizational difficulties)
The changes involved in shifting from a conventional agricultural system to an agroecological one are complex and sometimes very difficult. These changes mean that "organizations will have to adopt new ways of working". Organizations need to be more multidisciplinary, including more structured participation with farming communities in research, extension and development activities and services, and the development of a whole new "agricultural professionalism itself". (p. 163 Regenerating Agriculture).
What is really needed is a complete redefinition of what it means to be a scientist. This "new scientist" must be held accountable to the general public for their research and should include a larger role for participation in their research. There has been a large push for these reforms internationally, especially for the increasing in Participatory research. Within this reform process, there has been the creation of two schools of thought. One school sees participation as a "means to increase efficiency" and another that sees "community participation as a right". The school that has focused on efficiency, has done so in a way that overshadows the role of participatory research as a "means of empowerment and institution building" (p. 168 Regenerating Agriculture). The more radical school of thought that focuses on community rights can be seen as very threatening to the inequitable power structures that dominate most of the countries of the world. Participation has become a catch phrase in development projects, one that lacks real meaning for "more often than not, people are asked or dragged into participating in operations of no interest to them, in the very name of participation"(Rahnema 1992 in Sachs The Development Dictionary. Zed books Ltd, London). Participatory research is a very important means of building local skills, interests and capacities.Without it, "local people have no stake or desire to the maintenance of structures or practices recommended once the flow of incentives stops". (p. 168 Regenerating Agriculture).
The specialist in agriculture has a very interesting and specific role. As in all sciences there is a certain notion of "science for the sake of science". Oftentimes, on the research end of things, changes to crops and animals are "made without regard to the real-world context of these crops/animals."(p.164 Regenerating Agriculture). This focus on research that is not applicable, or appropriate to real world conditions, is reinforced by the fact that "disciplinary work generally receives greater recognition and acceptance than does multidisciplinary work in peer-oriented professional journals, in university tenure and in promotional processes." (Thomas Dobbs 1990).
Within work in the developing world, the agricultural specialist often falls prone to problems surrounding what has been referred to as "development tourism visits". These visits, and their accompanied focus on questionnaire surveys and brief stays, lead researchers to believe that they have a deep understanding of a subject they really only understand on a cursory level. Researcher's understanding is shallow due to the "selective nature of information coming from them (their visits)". (p.164 Regenerating Agriculture.).
The Promise of Sustainable Agriculture:
Agriculture faces a new challenge in the coming century, to feed more people on less land, without degrading the natural resource base.The very definition of sustainable agriculture points to a major problem with conventional agriculture, in that it is inherently unsustainable in the long run. There are many reasons why conventional agriculture are unsustainable, but most of them are due to the focus on short term profit that the huge majority of firms in a capitalist world system have. This focus on short term profits has been different facets, and has been exponentially increased with the development of multinational agricultural corporations and the decline of the family farmer.
GRAPH: Effects of Technological Change on Demand for Labor
This graph portrays possible changes in demand due to technological
change in agriculture. If a country shifted to a more labor intensive sustainable
agricultural system, the demand for labor would increase, and wages would
also increase to point w3. If a country were to shift to a very mechanized
conventional system, then demand for labor would decrease and wages would
fall to point w2. Sustainable agricultural systems not only demand larger
amounts of labor, but they also demand a steadier flow of that labor. The workload on a sustainable organic farm is fairly evenly
distributed throughout the year, as opposed to conventional farms, in which
the demand for labor is much higher in fall and spring. There are many advantages
to having a steady demand for labor, both for the grower and for the worker.
A greater stability in the demand for labor means that (generally) labor
is used more efficiently on the level of the farm as well as in the economy
as a whole. This increase in efficiency makes it much "easier to integrate
family members into the operation"(p.86 Future Harvest). It
also means that there is a demand for full time laborers (who are in a better
position to bargain for wages and benefits). Steadier usage of labor generally
means that laborers will be treated better.
World Grain Production Per Person
Clearly, we live in a world in which agriculture is in crisis. Even
though the usage of pesticides and other chemical inputs has markedly increased,
world grain production levels are down from their peak in the 1980's. The
reasons behind this decrease are manifold, mostly having to do with decreasing
productivity of conventional farming techniques. This decrease in productivity
is due, in part, to the huge numbers of pests and weeds that have developed
resistances to chemicals. In the nineties, grain yields increases have slowed
down to barely .5% per year, which is less than one third of the rate of
global population growth(p.84, State of the World 1996).
Number of Species Resistant to Chemical Treatment
Farmers struck by pests, which destroy more than a third of
the world's crops, often "respond with a single-minded vengeance, attacking
the weeds, insects, and bacteria that do the damage."(p.88 State
of the World 1996). This focus on totally eliminating pests, rather
than simply controlling them, damages the natural balance that is needed
for a healthy agroecosystem to function well. This damage to the ecosystem
by chemicals creates what is known as the "pesticide treadmill".
The "pesticide treadmill" describes a situation in which farmers
spray for a pest, which becomes resistant, and so then they have to spray
even more (and so on). Between 1945 and 1989 in the United States, insecticide
applications increased tenfold, while at the same time crop losses to insects
nearly doubled in size, from 7% to 13% of the harvest. (p.88 State of
the World 1996).
Promise of sustainable agriculture in First World:
Although it is believed that the biggest gains (in terms of yields) from agroecological approaches to agriculture are to be made in the Third World, there are also reasons to believe that sustainable agriculture holds a bright future in the First World. In the conventional agricultural systems of the First World "a transition to sustainable agriculture could mean a fall in per hectare yields of 10-20% in the short term, but with better levels of financial returns to farmers" (p.19 Regenerating Agriculture). These increases in returns are behind the well documented success of many sustainable agricultural systems in the United States. Recently (1989) in a nationwide study conducted by the National Research Council it was demonstrated that "the economic performance of regenerative agriculture could regularly match or better neighboring conventional farms"(p.206 Regenerating Agriculture). These findings show that while inputs are substantially lower, and have been eliminated in some farms, yields are in most cases above the local county averages.
Promise of sustainable agriculture in Third World:
La gente tiene hambre. La gente tiene frio.
Lost ricos han robado la tierra.
Los ricos han robado la libertad.
La gente exige justicia. De otra maner Revolucion.
-Eraclio Zepeda
Sustainable agriculture would mean "substantially increased agricultural yiedls in complex and diverse lands based on available or local resources" that characterize Third World production systems (p.20 Regenerating Agriculture). The increase in yields would be coupled with a decrease in off farm inputs, as well as an increase in the demand for labor. Chemical inputs are very hard for many poor farmers to buy due to lack of foreign currency. The decreased amount of off farm inputs needed would mean that farmers would no longer have to sell their goods for foreign currency (i.e. produce cash crops) and could focus instead on producing foodstuffs (which would work to increase food security). The increasing demand for agricultural labor would take a huge burden off of the cities, in that not as many people would have to migrate because there would be jobs in the countryside. This shift away from the city would lead to a revitalization of rural areas, and decreasing rural poverty levels (Rural Development Newsletter). Sustainable agriculture can be practiced on very small plots of land and sometimes these small plots do even better than larger farms (due to diseconomies of scale). Because it favors small landholdings, sustainable agriculture will promote equity in land holdings. This is directly opposed to conventional farming, which promotes inequity of land holdings due to high economies of scale and large fixed costs. Many Third World countries are blessed with a large base of indigenous technologies and knowledge that can be utilized in order to create highly energy efficient and productive agricultural systems.
Problems of sustainable agriculture in First World:
Sustainable agriculture faces serious problems if it is to become widespread in the First World. Little research has been done on large scale organic production systems. Economic incentives promote specialization in particular agricultural crops and systems, and so modern farmers have tended to not spend much time learning about the greater diversity of practices and measures that sustainable agricultural techniques requires. Large and powerful agricultural interests oppose the kinds of reforms and government policies that could enable widespread adoption of agroecological practices.
Problems of sustainable agriculture in Third World:
Many of the problems faced by sustainable agriculture in the Third World have to do with institutional failures, especially in issues involving the government. In many countries, and especially in the Third World, the government acts to subsidize the usage of pesticides. In an attempt to redress farmers for providing very poor terms of trade they subsidize farm inputs, mainly in the forms of pesticides, fertilizers and irrigation. These subsides "have clearly increased the use of these inputs" while "rarely benefit(ing) the small and poorer farmers."(p.242 Regenerating Agriculture). They have also encouraged the over usage of conventional farming inputs, at the direct expense of the environment. Decreasing the price of conventional inputs also makes unsustainable farming cheaper and more desirable from the farmers point of view. In order to promote wise usage of resources (i.e. sustainable agriculture) farmers need to pay the "real price" of a good, one that not only takes into account market price, but also takes into account external costs and benefits of the usage of a product. Attempts at promoting the usage of real prices are doomed to failure in a globalized world, for agreements such as NAFTA and GATT take away the ability for nation-states to use their power to make these prices a reality.
Recently, a commentator on trade negotiations (i.e. GATT and NAFTA) judged that;
The philosophy inherent in these accords is directly opposed to the idea of sustainable economic development [ed- and therefore sustainable agriculture] promoted in Rio... Neoliberal free trade policies are being pushed by a worldwide corporate elite bent on defining the environment as a trade barrier expressed in dollars. Governments have abetted this transformation by forging agreements that ensure a nation's powerlessness to defend itself against commercial activities that harm its citizens or the environment. (Stinson, D. 1993)
As explained by this commentator, the forces of globalization have taken away the ability of countries to promote sustainable agriculture through taxes and subsidies. It has also allowed multinational corporations to underprice indigenous and small scale farmers that have a commitment to the land they farm.
Credit is a very important factor of production, and is necessary for the conversion from conventional farming to sustainable agriculture. Small scale farmers, especially in the Third World , often have a very hard time getting the credit they need. This is a very important point to make, for it helps explain why these farmers do not choose to exploit sustainable technologies that would both increase yields and decrease off farm input costs. The lack of credit is due to two factors. First of all, banks do not like to lend to people who have few assets for they are a very big risk. Secondly, banking institutions in the Third World are often controlled by the elite, and choose who to give loans to on the basis of personal connections and for political reasons. In order to solve these problems of credit, many NGO's have begun small scale credit operations that use the "social collateral" of small scale farmers in order to provide loans to people with few monetary possessions. Social collateral is created through loans given to groups of people that guarantee each others loans and assure the NGO that someone will pay back the loan if someone defaults.
The biological processes that are so key to sustainable agricultural systems take time to become established, especially in a situation in which a farmer is attempting to make a transition from conventional agriculture to organic systems. These processes include the rebuilding of the numbers of natural predators and wild host plants, increasing the level of nutrients and improving the general soil structure and the establishment and growth of trees. (p.22 Regenerating Agriculture) Due to the nature of the conversion process, often investment costs must be incurred "some time" before returns increase. These increased investment costs often include labor costs of soil and water conservation measures, pest and predator monitoring programs, tree planting and for the purchasing of livestock. (p.22 Regenerating Agriculture ). These biological needs of converting to sustainable agriculture translate into large credit requirements that could fund the period of low productivity that would follow any conversion process.
In order to make agriculture sustainable society must focus upon reforming political institutions, creating appropriate technologies, reforming cultural institutions and enabling a sustainable external institutional framework. Key to these goals are increasing usage of participatory research methods, proper agrarian policies and local capacity building. On the worldwide level there needs to be a push towards "fair markets" which internalize negative externalities into prices. As well as price reform, there needs to be a massive shift toward democratic governmental institutions. Along with this, a focus on political stability would assist the long term planning needed by sustainable agriculture. Consumers, however ,"must ultimately be the driving force for environmentally sustainable economic development"(p.46 Reconciling Trade, Environment and Development Policies OECD Documents, France 1996). Consumers must use their "dollar votes" in order to support green technologies and systems, through a process now referred to "green consumerism."
Case Studies:
Organic Coffee:
"Organic coffee production also represents a good example of how environmental considerations are sometimes combined with social aspects in trade. Most of the organic coffee currently on the market originates in smallholder plantations which have strong links with fair trade organizations in the consuming countries. In addition to their marketing function, these organizations often play an important role in providing technical assistance to help meet certification and labeling requirements, as well as to strengthen local capacities." (p.51 Reconciling Trade, Environment and Development Policies OECD Documents, France 1996)
Raised Fields in Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru
In the lake Titicaca Basin in Peru, located around 3800 m above sea level, are chinampas (or waru-warus) that were used by prehispanic farmers and continue to be in use today. These chinampas are sophisticated agricultural systems which attempt to overcome problems due to irregular rainfall, poor soils, and severe frosts. These ancient agricultural systems include diverse and highly intensive cropping on terraces, underwater gardens and raised fields. Combined with this are "social mechanisms" that help "ensure efficient and collective action to achieve high and secure levels of production."(p. 233 Regenerating Agriculture).
Organizations are hierarchical and organized within the framework of a restrictive bureaucracy. The staff of organizations "spend more time looking inwards and upwards toward seniors than towards clients." Difficult for change, people tend towards simply following long-established norms of behavior because of an institutional "fear of change". If staff have new ideas, it is difficult to get these heard or accepted. This is "chiefly because staff are afraid to make mistakes, as they expect to be punished rather than rewarded for invention." In such a constricting atmosphere, "new initiatives are bound to fail"(p.164 Regenerating Agriculture)
A typical organization is "a combination of power culture and highly centralized controls, with rigidly designed systems and procedures, produces behavior amongst managers that makes learning almost impossible. In particular, the tendency to make scapegoats out of those who made mistakes leads to a general aversion to taking risks, and managers, afraid of being punished as harbingers of bad news, tend to concentrate on providing only good news to their superiors." (Easterby-Smith(1992) "Creating a learning organization". Personnel Review 19(5), 24-28)
The government of Brazil, wishing to promote development in the Amazon, has been subsidizing ranchers to cut down the vast rain forest Not only does pastureland replace the rain forest, the rain-forest occupations provided more jobs than the ranching that replaced them. Despite this, the government provided new ranchers with 15-year tax holidays, investment tax credits, exemptions from export taxes and import duties, and loans with interest substantially below market rates. (From Panayotou, Green Markets: The Economics of Sustainable Development. San Francisco: ICS Press 1993, p.14-15. )
Links taken from Yahoo Search
Sustainable Cropping Research Study (SCORE) - SCORE will introduce you to some of the oldest sustainable cropping research plots that have been established in Canada.
Bibliography
Stinson, D. 1993. "Sustainalbe accords? Free trade and the environment". Latinamerica Press 25(no.24, July): 1.
Katzenberger, E. 1995. First World, HA HA HA! City Lights, San Francisco CA.
Bender, Jim. 1994. Future Harvest. Nebraska Press, Nebraska.
Mander, Jerry. 1991. In the Absence of the Sacred. Sierra Club Press, CA.
Trzyna, Thaddeus. 1995. A Sustainable World. California Institute of Public Affairs, Sacramento CA.
Pretty, Jules. 1995. Regenerating Agriculture. Joseph Henry Press, Washington D.C.
Gillis. 1996. Economics of Development. W.W. Norton, New York.
Commission on Developing Countries and Global Change. 1992. For Earth's Sake. International Development Research Centre, Ottawa Canada.
Altieri, Miguel. 1995. Agroecology. Westview Press, USA.
Brown, Lester. 1996. State of the World. W.W. Norton, New York.
OECD. 1996. Reconciling Trade, Environment and Development Policies. OECD, Paris France.
Easterby-Smith(1992) "Creating a learning organization". Personnel Review 19(5), 24-28
Rahnema 1992 in Sachs. The Development Dictionary. Zed books Ltd, London
Created
and Maintained by T. Selby
For Miguel Altieri's class ESPM 118, UCB
