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.

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.

1. Conserve and Create Healthy Soil

• Stop soil erosion by terracing, strip cropping, repairing gullies
• Add organic matter to soil (with "green manure" cover crops, compost, manures, crop residues, organic fertilizers)
• Conservation tillage
• Plant wind breaks
• Rotate cash crops with hay, pasture, or cover crops
  

2. Conserve Water and Protect Its Quality

• Stop soil erosion in field and pasture
• Reduce use of chemicals
• Establish conservation buffer areas
• Grow crops adapted to rainfall received
• Use efficient irrigation methods

3. Manage Organic Wastes and Farm Chemicals So They Don't Pollute

Organic wastes:

• Test soil and applying manures and littersonly when needed
• Compost dead birds and litters
• Store litter piles out of the rain and snow
• Raise pastured or free-range poultry
• Raise hogs in hoop houses or free-range
• Farm chemicals and trash:
• Look for alternatives to chemicals
• Use the least amount necessary
• Buy the least toxic chemical
• Recycle
• Dispose according to label instructions
  

4. Manage Pests with Minimal Environmental Impact Weed Management

5. Select Plants and Animals Adapted to the Environment

• Grow crops and crop varieties well-suited to Oklahoma's climate
• Match crops to the soil
• Experiment with older, open pollinated varieties that do well without chemical inputs
• Raise hardy breeds of livestock adapted to climate
• Raise livestock that gain well on grass and native forages
  

6. Encourage Biodiversity
(of domesticated animals, crops, wildlife and native plants, microbic and aquatic life)

Diversify crops and livestock raisedLeave habitat (field margins, unmowed strips, pond and stream borders, etc.,) for wildlifeMaintain the health of streams and pondsProvide wildlife corridorsRotate row crops with hay crops

7. Conserve Energy Resources

• Reduce number of tillage operations
• Cut use of chemicals and fertilizers
• Develop production methods that reduce horsepower needs
• Recycle used oil
• Use solar-powered fences and machines
• Use renewable, farm-produced fuels: ethanol, methanol, fuel oils from oil seed cops, methane from manures and crop wastes

8. Increase Profitability and Reduce Risk

• Diversify crops and livestock
• Substitute management for off-farm inputs
• Maximize the use of on-farm resources
• Work with, not against, natural cycles
• Keep machinery, equipment and building costs down
• Add value to crops and livestock
• Try direct marketing (susbscription farming (CSA), farmers' markets, farm stores, mail order)

Back to Top