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Defining “sustainable” agriculture
One of the buzz-words in agriculture these days is “sustainability”. The interpretations of the word are as varied as agriculture itself. It was one of the topics at the Wisconsin Corn/Soy Expo this week as a panel of leaders from the sponsoring organizations discussed what it means to them. Wisconsin Pork Association president A.V. Roth defined: “Sustainability is being able to feed the world and pass my farm on to my children.”
A number of agricultural groups and organizations in Wisconsin have formed the Wisconsin Animal Agricultural Sustainability Coalition. Former Dean of the College Agricultural and Life Sciences at U.W. Madison Molly Jahn is working with the coalition; she says the main objective is to define sustainable agriculture and then get that definition to consumers. “It simply means planning for the future, setting the course for vibrant agricultural enterprises.” Jahn notes it is not just an environmental standard, it is social in the role farmers and farm families play in rural communities and it is economic in that, “a farm that is not making money is not sustainable.”
Part of the effort is to have farmers identify the practices they are already doing. The producer organizations involved in the coalition are currently surveying their members to determine producers are already doing on their farms and in their communities.
Jahn was in Geneva, Switzerland earlier this week for a United Nations conference on developing global principles of sustainability and the need to make food production and distribution more efficient.
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