Essential Steps to a Sustainable Agriculture
What is a sustainable agriculture?
And once
you know what it is, how do you practice it?
These are the questions my staff and I first addressed in the mid-80s.
There are dozens of definitions of a sustainable agriculture. But
I'll go with a simple one: A sustainable agriculture is a system
of agriculture that will last. It is an agriculture that maintains
its productivity over the long run.
In order to endure, our national system of agriculture must use
our natural resources wisely-so they are not used up or permanently
damaged. It must protect the health of the natural environment.
And it must enable farmers and ranchers to make a profit and have
a good quality of life. Independent producers of modest means should
be able to make a profit, not just those producers with sizable
resources or those allied with corporate structures.
If this is the kind of agriculture we want-how do we get there
from here? I have formulated eight steps that will get us started. Later I added two more steps.
These points first came into being when I thought about the areas
of perennial concern to farmers, such as controlling weeds and insects,
conserving soil, and making a profit. Unless we addressed these
areas in ways that a farmer could understand and use, I reasoned,
we at the Kerr Center, as advocates for change in agriculture, would
not be successful in getting our message across. So after many discussions,
we came up with these simple, yet comprehensive guidelines that
would help my staff evaluate "the sustainability" of proposed
projects at the Center. We soon began to pass them along to farmers
to use to evaluate their own farming practices.
Ten years ago, area producers had little information about sustainable
agriculture and little was forthcoming from traditional sources
of information like the Cooperative Extension Service. We were the
first group in Oklahoma to tackle the ideas of sustainable agriculture
in any substantial way, committing money and our whole staff to
the notion. We were groundbreakers, in part because our status as
an independent, non-profit foundation allowed us to be. We had no
bureaucracy to sway or legislators to convince or donors to please.
Our ideas have not always been popular, but despite this, we have
stuck to our principles. Over the years I have expanded and contacted
these points, thinking of them sometimes as steps to be taken, and
other times as goals to be met. The current list has stood the test
of time and usage at the Kerr Center and in consultation with farmers
and ranchers.
Farmers make decisions every season, based on their experience,
the markets, the weather, government guidelines, tradition, time,
the condition of fields and pastures, and any number of other factors
that are always changing. Farming is an art as well as a science,
a complicated mix of hard knowledge and intuition.
Just how valuable these criteria are will be determined by how well they work for the farmer every day. They are guideposts for thinking about a farming operation, arrows that point the way to the long-term viability of a farm. They also serve as guideposts for the public-- a template for understanding sustainable agriculture and sustainability in rural communities.
 
1.
Conserve and Create Healthy Soil
2. Conserve Water and Protect Its Quality
3. Manage Organic Wastes and Farm
Chemicals So They Don't Pollute
4. Manage Pests with Minimal Environmental Impact Weed Management
5. Select Plants and Animals Adapted to the Environment
6. Encourage Biodiversity (of domesticated animals, crops, wildlife and native plants,
microbic and aquatic life)
 7.
Conserve Energy Resources
8. Increase Profitability and Reduce Risk
9. Ensure equity for farmers and give farm families a good quality of life
10. Develop strong, vibrant and resilient rural communities
Resources
The following Kerr Center publications offer more detail on each of the steps to a sustainable agriculture:
For more information, visit our Sustainable Agriculture Resources page.
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