What is Sustainable Agriculture?

Sustainability seems to be the new buzzword of late, much like 'organic' and 'green' have been for the past few years. Now that the term ‘sustainable agriculture’ can be heard all over the airwaves courtesy of a Monsanto ad that began running a few months ago, I thought it would be illuminating to review some definitions of sustainability, and what sustainable agriculture means to those who have been practicing it for millennia.

Sustainability is a term that was only coined 40-45 years ago in response to the challenges our civilization faced such as a burgeoning population, massive industrialization, and migration to the cities. But its roots go back thousands of years and can be found in the teachings of nearly every spiritual tradition.

The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives.
--Native American proverb

In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decision on the next seven generations.
~Great Law of the Haude no saunee (Iroquois Nation)

According to Judeo Christian teachings, God brought Adam to the Garden of Eden and said: “Behold my works! See how beautiful they are, how excellent! All that I have created for your sake did I create it. See to it that you do not corrupt and destroy my world; for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you.
~ Ecclesiastes Rabba7.13

There is no one best definition of sustainability. Each one has its own essence.

To achieve sustainability, a system must be ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just and humane (embodying our highest values--how we treat animals, people and the Earth)
~ Alliance for Sustainability , Manna, 1984

Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
~ U.N. World Commission on Environment & Development, Our Common Future, 1987

Here are some ‘official’ definitions of sustainable agriculture, with their sources.

From the National Safety Council:

sustainable agriculture: Environmentally friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to the farm as an ecosystem, including effects on soil, water supplies, biodiversity, or other surrounding natural resources. The concept of sustainable agriculture is an “intergenerational” one in which we pass on a conserved or improved natural resource base instead of one which has been depleted or polluted. Terms often associated with farms or ranches that are self-sustaining include “low-input,” organic, “ecological,” “biodynamic,” and “permaculture.”
www.nsc.org/ehc/glossar2.html

Legal Definition of Sustainable Agriculture

The term ''sustainable agriculture'' (U.S. Code Title 7, Section 3103) means 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.
* Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.

Taking all of the above into consideration, it seems that sustainable agriculture would be geographically limited in order to reduce reliance on products that are shipped in / not locally available. Inputs and outputs would be renewable, as is found in seed saving through the use of heirloom nonhybrid seeds. They would not use chemical pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, or soil amendments, manufactured far away and trucked in and ecologically unsound. This would preclude the use of genetically modified seeds which are also trucked in, require the use of a multiplicity of chemicals, and cannot be saved from the current harvest but must be bought again from a distant corporation as all inputs must for subsequent harvests. The use of chemicals affects the land and water base, as well as the crop, which affects both the current generation NOT using these chemicals because of our shared resource base, as well as those as far away as the Chesapeake…as well as future generations.

True sustainable agriculture therefore would employ the use of heirloom non hybrid seed purchased one time and saved each season for the next.

Only organic compost would be used to improve the soil – green cover crops turned in and composted manure from organically raised species, crop rotation, and companion planting.

Humans coexisted in natural ecosystems since they first arrived on the planet. It was only after World Wars in which munitions waste was turned into fertilizers and chemicals that the oxymoronic ‘green’ revolution was spawned…along with industrial monocropping and its extreme reliance on petroleum and natural gas derived chemical additives. So like the term ‘green revolution’ could not be any further from the truth, so it is with the term ‘conventional’ farming.

To find TRUE ‘conventional’ farming one need only go back to remembering how our grandparents – nearly all of them – lived. Not at all coincidentally this was also before widespread obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

And so Sustainable Shenandoah is building a completely sustainable, organic and biodynamic garden in Page County, Virginia, as a group of concerned citizens who want to eat well, and want to stop traveling to Charlottesville or Northern Virginia for sustainable, organic food. (NOT very sustainable, that drive, lol!)

We CLEARLY understand that this is a learning process - or rather, a relearning process. It is our thinking that the best way to show ‘it can be done’ is by example...and that one success can build on another.