Sustainable Agriculture in the United States

The US Department of Agriculture’s Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming (USDA) cited increasing concern among farmers, environmental groups, and the general public about the adverse effects of the US agricultural production system, particularly the intensive monoculture of cash grains and the extensive and often excessive use of agricultural chemicals, both fertilizers and pesticides. The USDA report found that many farmers had shifted away from conventional farming systems to a less intensive, low-input approach based primarily on sod-based rotations and mixed crop-livestock enterprises. Sustainable farming systems in the United States have developed and continue to perform remarkably well, despite a formidable array of specific policy disincentives and broad institutional and structural constraints. The heightened activity in sustainable agricultural research and education programs within the USDA/land grant community is beginning to address the urgent need for reliable and readily available information on low-input farming technologies and systems.