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Sustainable agriculture and the challenge of place

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

David Ehrenfeld
David Ehrenfeld
Affiliation:
Professor of Biology, Department of Horticulture and Forestry, Cook College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903
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Abstract

Modern, conventional agriculture has generalized the technology of farming, minimizing the significance of the relationship between farmers and their particular land. This generalization undermines farm culture and impedes its transmission from generation to generation. To avoid making the same mistake, ecologists designing the new, lower input agriculture should: 1) reject any black box presentations of their systems that the farmer cannot understand and that interfere with the relationship between the farmer and the land; 2) make systematic efforts to rediscover traditional farm wisdom and incorporate it into the new system; 3) utilize academics in a major program of local, adult education for farmers; and 4) reorganize extension services to facilitate the lateral transfer of information from farmer to farmer, and develop methods of incorporating farmers into the agricultural research process at the planning stage.

Keywords

farmerextensionadvisortwo-way communicationindependent farm management
Type
Articles
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , Fall 1987 , pp. 184 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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