United States farm policy has a long tradition of subsidizing farmers in order to achieve national goals. The issue of agricultural subsidies poses a particular challenge in terms of relevant policy design. This paper explores the potential for economic indicators to guide policies that encourage sustainable agriculture through alternative-oriented approaches. We begin by reviewing several indicators of sustainable agriculture that have been proposed previously. We then suggest a set of three economic indicators: energy and machinery use, creation of local jobs, and feed balance, and apply them to two groups of farmers: conventional farmers and those with an explicit orientation towards sustainable agriculture. Though our survey groups cannot be compared statistically, it appears that these three indicators are capable of distinguishing between the two farmer groups. We conclude with some suggestions for further research and application.
