SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
by Jay Martin

When the Monsanto Corporation characterizes itself as “committed to sustainable agriculture”, as it has on NPR radio spots heard recently, it is time we understand what a sustainable food system truly looks like.

An excerpt from the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro defines sustainable agriculture as “a model of social and economic organization based on an equitable and participatory vision of development which recognizes the environment and natural resources as the foundation of economic activity. Agriculture is sustainable when it is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, culturally appropriate and based on a holistic scientific approach.”

There is absolutely nothing Monsanto is doing to agriculture that can be considered sustainable.

In any sustainable farming system, the first two things that must be sustained are the farmland and the farmer. I offer this vision of how this may evolve.

It is a simple fact that the smaller the unit, the more efficiently the unit exchanges energy and matter with its environment. Farms of the future will be small, averaging less than 20 acres, highly diversified and very efficient, employing as many as 40-50 well compensated people. Each enterprise on the farm will be carefully and effectively integrated with the other enterprises so that the farm produces no waste. The waste from one enterprise will be food for another. No waste means no pollution. These farms will dot the landscape surrounding the urban centers they serve and many of them will probably be managed by women.

Networks of farms will work cooperatively to grow their own fuel. At present, our industrial food system uses over 400 gallons of fossil fuel per person, per year, 80% of which is transportation costs. We will no longer transport our food an average of 1500 miles from industrial farms to our tables. If every person in the United States prepared and ate one locally accessed, organically grown meal at home each week we could reduce our fossil fuel use by 1.1 million barrels a week. Our farms will operate on current solar income.

Legislators will heed the words of our agricultural visionaries and realize we need a 100 year farm bill to replace the short-sighted 5 year farm bills we now operate on. The new farm bill will eliminate subsidies which encourage over-production that fuels the low prices that enslave farmers in a welfare system not of their choosing. Farmers will become the first line of defense in our health care system and be compensated fairly for their role in society.

This transition to a sustainable food system will be partially driven by the economic realities we will face in the near future. It will also be consumer driven as eaters realize they have given up their right to a safe and secure food supply by proxy to multi-national corporations who have no interest whatsoever in the well being of the consumer. Consumer choices will no longer be driven by appearance and convenience. Preservation of those who feed us and the how they tend their land will drive consumer choice and a regionally based food system supplying all of the needs of the residents of the foodshed will evolve.