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Sustainable Agriculture
by Ian Parnell, October 10, 2007
Today is Sustainable Agriculture Reading day. After deciding to actively educate myself on the concept of ‘sustainable agriculture’ several months ago, I’ve been doing lots of reading and talking to folks. I also serve on my community’s Agriculture Committee as a residential representative where we review issues of importance to the agricultural community and ways to increase understanding between residents and farmers. As far as reading goes, my growing pile of literature on agriculture and agricultural related issues requires the discipline of setting aside at least part of one day each week aside to read.
What’s my main finding to date? The more I learn, the more difficult it is to say exactly what ‘sustainable’ means when applied to agricultural systems. If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I probably would have mumbled something about organic, locally grown and seasonal produce being sold in farmers’ markets. I still believe that’s an important component of a sustainable agricultural system because it provides a living for smaller farmers, which keeps agricultural land near cities in production and educates non-famers about where their food comes from. Plus it’s healthier. But, after a year’s worth of reading and talking to farmers, I’ve learned there are lots of other facets and challenges to sustainable agriculture (e.g., economies of scale, biodiversity, biofuels, agri-food systems, etc.). I’ll talk more about these issues in future posts, but today’s topic is my morning’s reading: Michael Pollan’s fabulous book, ‘The Omnivores Dilemma.' More...
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