Sustainability in the Balance
A Series on Social Issues
in Sustainable Agriculture
Raising Fundamental Issues
by Patricia Allen and Debra Van Dusen
Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture
University of California, Santa Cruz
Issue Paper #1, November 1990
This report summarizes social issues critical to sustainable
agriculture identified at a 1990 conference sponsored by the
University of California, Santa Cruz. The following discussion is
organized around twelve issues, each described briefly and followed
by a series of questions. We hope it will provoke thought and further
discussion among those working on scientific, policy, and practical
dimensions of agricultural sustainability.
Introduction
A few years ago, "sustainable agriculture" was a little-known term
used by a small group of people. Today the sustainability concept has
entered mainstream thinking and become a major agricultural theme.
This broad engagement of the concept deepens the need to clearly
identify the goals we attach to it.
Addressing this need was the purpose of a conference sponsored by
the Agroecology Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz
in June 1990. The conference, "Sustainable Agriculture: Balancing
Social, Environmental, and Economic Concerns," sought to expand the
discussion of agricultural sustainability, both in terms of the
issues considered and the diversity of those involved in the
discussion. The conference was a working meeting designed to elicit
the ideas of the participants&emdash;160 researchers, farmers,
farmworkers, policymakers, educators, public interest group
representatives, consumers, and others involved in the food and
agriculture system.
Ongoing sustainability efforts continually deepen our
understanding of agricultural sustainability and strengthen its
implementation. They also indicate areas in which much remains to be
learned and integrated into current activities. In this context,
conference participants affirmed that the next step is to formulate
the questions - sometimes overlooked - most important for clarifying
sustainability goals and translating them into action. The following
discussion reflects their perspectives.
1. Do We Need to Define Sustainability Priorities?
A number of sustainability concepts are in use today. Many center
on farming practices such as biological control or organic farming
methods. Some concentrate on food safety; others on better working
conditions. Some emphasize land stewardship and restoration of the
family farm. Others focus on access to land and food security. Still
others stress economic profitability. The diverse groups working
toward sustainability frequently do not agree on which goals are most
important.
Although there is a tendency to want to "get to work" on
sustainability rather than taking more time to discuss its goals, a
clear meaning of sustainability is basic to future work. How we
conceptualize sustainability forms the framework essential for
establishing objectives, defining problems, posing questions, and
deriving solutions. Until we define clearly what and whom we wish to
sustain, efforts toward sustainability will lack the coherence needed
to make effective changes.
Questions to Explore:
How do we determine our top sustainability priorities? How much
should we emphasize conserving soil, maintaining production capacity,
safer labor conditions, preserving family farms and rural
communities, nourishing human beings, safeguarding wildlife, ensuring
farm and other agricultural business profitability? Should we focus
on all of these? Are any of these goals mutually exclusive? How are
they complementary or interdependent? How can we obtain greater
consensus on sustainability priorities?
2. What and Whom Do We Want to Sustain?
At the root of clarifying and prioritizing sustainability goals is
specifying who and what we want to sustain, and at what levels. Only
then do "how" and "where" questions become relevant. While the what
is generally agreed to be production capabilities and the
environment, the who needs further exploration. Many at the
conference argued that we should sustain all human beings, both
present and future generations, without degrading natural ecosystems.
Implicit in this is identifying how we can live within our ecological
means, that is, what standard of living and dietary patterns allow
adequate food and shelter for everyone without using unsustainable
amounts of resources.
Questions to Explore:
How can we change production and distribution methods which
increase pressure on natural resources? How can we abolish hunger?
Beyond feeding people, how do we ensure a decent quality of life for
all? Are inhumane and damaging conditions for living beings as
undesirable as environmental problems? How can we determine what
standards of living the biosphere can support? And how do we globally
adopt those standards in ways that are equitable and respectful of
human rights?
3. What Should Be the Geographic Dimensions of Sustainability?
It is important to define how far we need to extend our boundaries
of concern for sustainability. The possibilities for developing
sustainable agriculture in one region are dependent on other parts of
the world. Today agriculture is a global system&emdash;food is often
produced on one continent and consumed on another, with resources
imported from yet another. Regionally located resources such as germ
plasm, rainforests, and mineral resources are important to all
nations, not just those that house them.
The actions of one nation directly affect others. For example,
U.S. businesses often promote resource-intensive technologies for
export agriculture in the Third World. The benefits of this include
diverse agricultural imports for First World consumers, a steady
market for First World agricultural inputs, and much-needed foreign
exchange for developing countries. But there are costs. As
resource-intensive export farms take over the best land in developing
countries, small farmers who once grew food for themselves and their
community are forced to marginal lands where it is more difficult to
grow adequate food. Often they then must work on the export farms
under dangerous conditions for low wages. The results include
increased poverty and hunger, eco-destruction, pesticide-related
worker illnesses and deaths, the import of pesticide-tainted food
into the U.S., and increased expense to the Third World for
technological inputs. In this context of geographic
interconnectedness, we need to know how to live in ways which do not
unwittingly contribute to poverty, hunger, environmental degradation,
or cultural destruction in other societies.
Questions to Explore:
Given that agriculture is fundamentally global, how can we
effectively broaden our concept of "community" to include all those
living in the world? How can trade relations be altered to foster
more equitable distributions of costs and benefits among the world
community? How should sustainability efforts on local, national, and
global levels articulate with each other? Bioregionalism is often
advanced as a solution to agricultural sustainability problems, but
what are the practical implications of a bioregional orientation?
Where should the geographical boundaries of self-reliant areas be
drawn? In what ways should they be self-reliant: food production,
food distribution, financing, resource provision?
4. How Can We Equitably Share the Benefits and Costs of
Sustainable Agriculture?
We presume that a more sustainable agriculture will yield greater
environmental and social benefits than we have at present. Many
active in developing agricultural sustainability have targeted
growers and those able to purchase organic food as the primary
beneficiaries of their efforts. Less frequently considered are
farmworkers, low-income consumers, and people in other countries.
We also expect that a sustainable agriculture will involve lower
environmental and social costs than conventional agriculture. Some
agricultural expenses are private (such as the cost of inputs) while
others have traditionally been social (such as the cost of public
research). Currently, some social costs are considered externalities
(for example, costs of groundwater contamination, resource depletion,
and human health problems related to pesticide exposure), and are
paid by society rather than individual businesses. While the goal of
sustainable agriculture is to eliminate many of these social costs,
some, such as the costs of research and pesticide monitoring
programs, will undoubtedly remain.
Distributing costs and benefits fairly is important in sustainable
agriculture. Historically, government subsidies, regulations, taxes,
and tariffs have been methods for distributing agricultural costs and
benefits. Production subsidies for growers, for example, are paid by
society through taxes. There is increasing concern, however, that the
benefits of these subsidies may not be equitably distributed and that
they may reduce the viability of environmentally sound farming
practices. Some people argue that agriculture should be independent
of such aid.
Questions to Explore:
What are the benefits of agricultural sustainability and to whom
should they accrue? To what degree, for example, should farm labor
benefit from sustainable agriculture? We can anticipate less
farmworker exposure to pesticides, but what should be other changes
in working conditions, housing, and incomes? How can we both ensure
adequate farmer income and prevent hunger? How can Third World
countries adopt sustainable agriculture and simultaneously improve
their balance of payments? Are these goals currently in conflict? If
so, what needs to be restructured to make them complementary?
Which agricultural costs should be borne by businesses and which
by society? Should any be borne by particular groups? How can
decisions be made fairly about who will benefit and who will pay? How
can we obtain the information we need to comprehensively evaluate
costs and benefits? How can we evaluate certain costs, such as
resource contamination or depletion? What about the personal toll of
illness, malnutrition, and loss of land and livelihood?
How much do we know about the effects of regulations and subsidies
on agricultural sustainability? How would eliminating them and
relying on free market forces affect, for example, environment,
labor, rural communities, food prices, or food safety? Rather than
eliminating subsidies, is it possible to redirect funds to enhance
sustainability and benefit all social groups?
5. How Can We Address the Root Causes of
Nonsustainability?
Since solving problems requires eliminating their causes, it is
crucial that we understand the fundamental conditions which give rise
to nonsustainability. Developing and implementing effective
alternatives to synthetic chemicals, fossil fuels, high-water-use
irrigation, intensive mechanization, and so forth, requires a
thorough analysis of the underlying economic, political, and social
reasons for adopting these technologies. Some of this information is
documented in scientific literature and is known through people's
experience; much more remains to be discovered. Almost all of it
needs to be interpreted and used to inform sustainability
efforts.
Questions to Explore:
What are the economic, social, and political reasons why we have
developed an agricultural system in which: groundwater is depleted
and contaminated, soil is eroded, people die of hunger even though
food is in surplus, farm laborers are often in poor health, small
agricultural enterprises are unable to survive, and rural communities
decline...? How can their underlying causes be eliminated through
local, state, national, and international policies? Which disciplines
and methodologies can help us to understand more about the reasons
for such things?
6. What Ownership Structures are Best for Sustainable
Agriculture?
Various ownership arrangements (private, community, land trusts,
etc.) exist in agricultural systems. Understanding how these
structures affect resource use, land development, stewardship, use of
labor and equipment, marketing systems, and so on is essential to
developing sustainability. In most of the world farmland is privately
owned and, along with capital, is becoming concentrated among fewer
and fewer people. As agricultural businesses become increasingly
integrated, a smaller number of people make the agricultural
decisions which affect all of society.
Questions to Explore:
How does private ownership compare to community ownership and
land trust arrangements in promoting environmentally sound land use,
agricultural productivity, and equitable access to food? If more
people had access to land would they be better nourished? Are there
alternative ownership arrangements which might improve conditions for
farm laborers, consumers, and farmers?
What about business size and management? What are the implications
of concentration for agricultural sustainability? What are the
relationships among farm ownership, size, production capacity,
environmental protection, and farm labor conditions? We know, for
instance, that large farms have been associated with rural poverty
and the declining vitality of rural communities. What about
concentration in agricultural input supply firms and distributors
such as supermarkets? Does concentration limit choices and increase
costs for those most vulnerable in the food and agriculture system,
such as small farmers and low-income consumers?
7. What Is the Role of Technology in Sustainable
Agriculture?
We have tended to regard technologies as the primary means for
solving agricultural problems. They are usually conceived in response
to specific problems experienced by growers or other groups. But once
developed, they may create new problems for others. For example,
negative technological impacts have included groundwater depletion,
pest resistance to pesticides, and farm ownership concentration.
Technologies are often not evaluated for these types of impacts when
they are being developed. Since technologies often have both positive
and negative effects, it is important that we consider their overall
ability to solve agricultural problems.
Technologies may not solve the problems they are intended to
address. For example, although technical innovations have helped
produce food surpluses, thousands of people still die each day of
starvation. Some technologies may not be relevant for solving the
core problems. Others may be appropriate, but will not be adopted
unless there are policies providing incentives for their use.
Rather than taking a broader approach to technology, many
sustainable agriculture efforts concentrate on developing new
technical innovations without examining related social and economic
conditions. More environmentally sound production methods, for
example, may result in higher food prices, making food less
accessible to those with lower incomes unless ameliorative policies
are combined with technology development. Proposing technological
solutions should include considering how they will be used, who will
benefit, and who will not.
Questions to Explore:
Is technological determinism limiting efforts toward
sustainability? How far can purely technological solutions such as
more environmentally benign farming practices go in helping to
achieve a more sustainable agriculture? How are technological
innovations confounded by social factors, such as limited access to
land and credit? While new technologies can help reduce dependence on
nonrenewable resources, what can be their effects on social problems
such as hunger, farmworker poverty, and the devitalization of rural
communities? How can we develop policy incentives for adopting
practices and institutional structures conducive to sustainability?
How can we better evaluate the effects of technologies on different
social groups before the technologies are adopted? Should we require
social and environmental impact assessments before technology is
implemented?
8. What Research Agenda is Most Relevant to Support Sustainable
Agriculture?
The kind of research we conduct is critical because it shapes the
structure and practices of agriculture and is used as a basis for
agricultural policy. Agricultural research has often focused on
developing technologies such as equipment, chemicals, or hybrid seeds
that are suitable for manufacture and sale. Less emphasis has been
placed on discovering or resolving the social, economic, or
ecological sources of agricultural problems. Concentrating on only a
part of the food and agriculture system&emdash;farm
production&emdash;has left factors such as distribution, processing,
and waste management relatively unexplored.
Sustainable agriculture research also focuses mainly on farm-level
technologies and strategies. While this type of research can
contribute to sustainability, it does not necessarily foster
long-term resolution of the agricultural problems whose causes are
socioeconomic. Achieving sustainability requires that we consciously
reshape research so that it is interdisciplinary (blending social and
natural sciences) and oriented toward long-term, whole-systems
solutions.
Questions to Explore:
How can the agricultural research agenda be broadened to include
more socioeconomic issues? What funding changes are needed to
generate more interdisciplinary, long-range solutions to
sustainability problems? How can the research focus be expanded
beyond the farm level to examine sustainability within bioregions,
nations, and international food systems? How can research help us
better understand how global factors such as resource use, trade
relations, increasingly unequal income distributions, and the
internationalization of capital affect sustainability? What ways can
we developto integrate this information into agricultural
decisions?
9. What Institutional Changes Would Support Public Research in
Sustainability?
Implementing a sustainable agriculture research agenda requires a
research system conducive to developing and supporting this agenda.
The nature and priorities of public research are determined by the
research community (researchers, administrators, etc.) and the
characteristics of research institutions.
The backgrounds and experiences of individual researchers and
administrators are important because, although science is usually
considered to be objective, research decisions are often influenced
by researchers' perceptions of political, economic, and ethical
factors. U.S. agricultural researchers are predominantly men,
Caucasian, and educated in the natural sciences at a handful of
agricultural universities. Those underrepresented include women,
ethnic minorities, and social scientists.
The nature of the research institutions themselves also determines
what research is undertaken. Public research institutions are
hierarchical and departmentally specialized. In order to succeed in
the system researchers must publish regularly in specialized
disciplinary journals. Their research often requires outside funding,
available primarily from private sources such as agricultural
businesses and commodity groups.
Taken together, our research community, structures, and processes
have been effective in developing methods for increasing production.
They have been less useful for anticipating and resolving
environmental and social problems in the food and agriculture system.
If we are to change this, we need to make changes in our public
agricultural research system.
Questions to Explore:
Would diversifying research and administrative personnel in terms
of gender, and economic, educational, and cultural backgrounds help
ensure that a variety of perspectives and values are represented in
research decisions? How can the process of setting priorities be
opened so that all people who are potentially affected by research
outcomes can have input?
How can the research system foster more whole-systems,
interdisciplinary studies between the social and natural sciences?
For example, much of the controversy around adopting more sustainable
agricultural practices involves assumptions that they will cost more.
Would collaboration among economists, ecologists, and sociologists
provide a more complete picture of how all costs and
benefits&emdash;economic, ecological, and social&emdash;of
conventional agricultural practices compare to those for low
external-input methods? How can peer review, publishing requirements,
and the tenure process be shifted to reward not only excellence in
traditional agricultural fields of inquiry but also in new and
innovative arenas?
10. What Types of Policies Would Facilitate a Transition to
Sustainable Agriculture?
Policies are critical for meeting sustainability goals because
they affect the decisions of producers, consumers, and nations by
creating incentives or disincentives for certain actions. They
influence, for example, which technologies are adopted, how high or
low food prices are, and what farm size is optimal. Many nations have
policies which could be modified to support sustainability. In the
U.S. relevant policies include taxes, commodity programs, water
subsidies, trade policy, indemnification programs, credit allocation,
environmental regulations, social policy, research and education
programs, food safety and marketing regulations, and international
aid programs.
Questions to Explore:
What are the roles of general economic policies, such as interest
rate determination, in developing agricultural sustainability? How
can policies be developed that provide incentives for making
sustainability the rational choice for producers, consumers, states,
and nations? How can current agricultural policies, such as commodity
programs, be modified to increase their contribution to
sustainability? What types of policies can make safe, nutritious food
more accessible to people regardless of income?
Are problems such as the demise of small agricultural operations,
increasing malnutrition, and resource degradation the result of a
global market economy or of policies which constrain free market
competition? What are the advantages and disadvantages of free
market, centrally planned, or mixed economic systems for promoting
sustainability? If obstacles to sustainability are inherent in some
economic systems, how can they be changed so that they support
sustainability goals? What globally mediated economic changes are
necessary to meet people's basic needs today as well as those in
future generations?
11. What Decision-Making Processes are Best for Developing
Sustainable Agriculture?
Since the food and agriculture system is so complex, it is
difficult to make well-informed decisions, much less coordinate these
decisions at local, national, and international levels. Through
environmental, rural development, and food safety movements people
around the world are making changes in the food and agriculture
system. However, by and large, agricultural decision making remains a
fairly closed, localized system in which mostly business interests
take part. Developing a balanced sustainable agriculture depends upon
decision makers, structures, and processes that reflect the concerns
of all members of society.
Questions to Explore:
What types of political bodies and decision-making procedures
would best create policies conducive to sustainability at the local,
state, national, and international levels? What appointment or
elective process would ensure that representatives of all aspects of
the food and agriculture system can participate actively in shaping
sustainable agriculture? How do we decide at which levels in the food
and agriculture system various sustainability decisions and
activities should take place? How can policies be coordinated
smoothly among all levels? Would sustainability councils, established
at local, regional, state, national, and international levels be
effective?
12. How Can We Improve Our Knowledge Base for Developing
Sustainable Agriculture?
If more people are to play a role in agricultural decision making,
they need better access to information necessary for making informed
judgments. All of us&emdash;as consumers, policymakers, farmers,
researchers, educators, business managers&emdash;need to learn more
about how agriculture affects us and how we affect agricultural
sustainability. This can be accomplished in part through formal
education and through accessing the experiential knowledge of those
who have long worked in agriculture.
Questions to Explore:
How can we increase understanding of the connections among the
social, political, economic, and environmental aspects of food and
agriculture systems? How can the links between individuals' food
choices and how these affect their health, the environment, and other
people's ability to meet their nutritional needs be demonstrated? How
can we increase agronomists' understanding of social issues,
economists' understanding of ecological issues, ethicists'
understanding of practical farming issues? How can we build on local,
"informal" knowledge as well as scientific information in developing
sustainable agriculture?
What kinds of educational programs would most effectively increase
knowledge about agriculture and help citizens participate in
agricultural policy decisions? Would making agricultural and
environmental education a regular part of school curricula (primary
grades through college) be a place to start? What topics should be
emphasized&emdash;ecological and social interdependence, health and
nutrition, gardening? What types of educational opportunities beyond
the classroom would facilitate a better understanding of
sustainability?
Summary
Sustainability is a product of how the food and agriculture system
is perceived and organized. It is human beings that either create, or
do not create, sustainability. We all make decisions that affect
agricultural sustainability, whether we conduct research, make
policy, develop educational programs, work in agricultural
businesses, or purchase food. Moving toward agricultural
sustainability requires a resolve to engage the kinds of questions
raised in this report and the will to make attendant changes. It is
essential that we:
• clearly define who and what we wish to sustain
• analyze the root causes behind the nonsustainable elements
of our current food and agriculture system
• begin to develop structures and processes that support
sustainability.
Over the last decade sustainability programs and activities have
been initiated all over the world, in governments, universities, and
private organizations. Most share a primary focus on environmentally
sound farming practices. Less common are efforts to identify and
transform the structures, values, and processes which have given rise
to nonsustainable aspects of agriculture.
Our challenge is to effectively integrate the social,
environmental, and economic dimensions of food and agriculture
systems. This will require developing global strategies and altering
familiar patterns of agricultural production and distribution. It
will depend upon extending our boundaries of concern beyond our
immediate family, community, and nation to embrace the needs of all
people, including those separated from us by income, culture,
continent, and the future.
Acknowledgements
Credit for the content of this publication belongs to those who
contributed their time, ideas, and energy at the June 1990
conference, both those who participated on the public day and the
researchers who met earlier to help frame the issues. Sandra Meucci
compiled and organized the information from the conference
discussions. We appreciate the support of the Educational Foundation
of America, a grant from which helped fund the conference and this
publication.
&emdash; Patricia Allen and Debra Van Dusen
Original publication date: November 1990
