New Policies for a New Agriculture
A new, sustainable agriculture requires coordinated policies of the same kind as the policies that currently support industrial agriculture. Among these are- Research to support the interdisciplinary science that is needed
- Extension service that can deliver that information to farmers
- Subsidy programs that provide safety nets for farmers and incentives to protect the environment
- Marketing policies that encourage local and regional food systems and markets
Research
The Role of Governmental Research A new research agenda will be a major departure from current research priorities. Instead of expensive high-tech solutions to the problems of industrial agriculture, the focus must be on affordable processes that solve or avoid problems in agriculture. The government must take the lead on the long-term, multidisciplinary studies that create a greater understanding of the interlocking parts of agriculture systems and that further creation of profitable, sustainable, environmentally sound farms.Only government-sponsored research will investigate solutions to problems that do not involve products. For example, crop rotation may solve pest problems as well or better than pesticides, but no company will do research on crop rotation because it does not lead to products that can be sold to farmers. Research on nonproduct solutions to problems in agriculture is the special province of government-sponsored agricultural research.
The government is also a key player in developing new technologies. The private sector provides seeds and machinery for the large, well-developed markets for commercial crops like cotton and corn. But it cannot be depended on to develop products for small markets for minor crops like broccoli or kenafe. To provide for these markets, the government must fill the gaps the private sector leaves.
Finally, long-term interdisciplinary research cannot be done without government funding and encouragement. The reward structure in academia, where most fundamental research is conducted, focuses on relatively short-term research within a single discipline. An assistant professor in entomology, for example, is unlikely to earn tenure as one of ten scientists participating in a long study directed by a soil scientist. The long duration of agricultural studies also poses a problem, since funding agencies tend to operate on three- to five-year time frames, not decades. The government has special role in organizing and funding these critical studies.
Current Government Programs
Extension
Agricultural research that stays in the laboratory is of no use to farmers. The USDA has long had a strong commitment to extension -- the transfer of information from researchers to users. But, like research, a new extension agenda must be adopted to support a transition to sustainable agriculture. It must put farmers in touch not only with what researchers have found to work, but with what new techniques and successes other sustainable farmers have discovered. One important signal that US agriculture has made the turn toward sustainability will be when farmers can get information on beneficial insects and crop rotation as easily as they can now get information on pesticides.
Subsidies for Conservation and Environmental Protection
The government also has a role to play in helping farmers control and eliminate the environmental damage agriculture can cause. Under the existing marketing system, prices for agricultural products do not reflect their full cost to society. For example, the cost of pork does not reflect the damage done to coastal fisheries by accidental or deliberate release of nutrient-rich animal waste. Nor does the cost of corn reflect the cost of cleaning up water systems polluted with herbicides like atrazine. These costs are born by other sectors of society in the form of municipal water treatment or restricted supplies of fish. Because the prices of agricultural products do not reflect these costs, farmers who attempt to develop ways of minimizing waste are often at a disadvantage. By installing new waste treatment measures or biocontrol measures these farmers may incur costs that they cannot recover by increasing the prices of their products.
One response to dysfunctional markets like these is to provide support to farmers who do take steps to clean up or redesign their operations to minimize the release of pollutants. A good example of such a program is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which provides cost-share assistance to farmers who implement measures to reduce water pollution. To get the most benefit from this program, EQIP should target farms with moderate-sized livestock operations (about 2,500 pigs or 1,000 head of cattle). Providing assistance to larger livestock operations is counterproductive, since it encourages operations that create unnecessary environmental problems by overwhelming natural mechanisms for absorbing animal waste in the first place.
Another valuable governmental support is the conservation reserve program (CRP), which pays farmers to leave fallow (not plant) certain sections of farms that are vulnerable to erosion or have environmental value. Such areas include contour grass strips, land at the edge of rivers and streams, and steep hillsides. Like EQIP, CRP assistance should be targeted to protect environmentally sensitive lands and not used to limit supply and raise prices.
Marketing Policies
Finally, government policies can provide consumers with the knowledge and opportunity to make informed choices about the food they buy. Many US consumers have a growing interest in how food is grown and the relationship of production to safety, flavor, and environmental quality. Well-educated consumers making choices in the free market have a tremendous potential to transform the US food system. In addition, instead of current policies, which favor long-distance transport of mass-produced goods, the USDA needs to foster a marketing system that brings locally and regionally produced food to consumers.
Agricultural policies can help by providing consumers more information on how food is grown and facilitating the ability of farmers to offer a full range of food options including fresh, local farm products. The United States has abundant agricultural resources that would support much more locally grown food than is currently provided.
The private sector has already taken the lead by establishing community-supported agriculture systems in which farmers sell shares in their farm output directly to consumers, season by season. In these systems, consumers pay farmers directly for a set amount of food, say a bushel a week over the course of summer. Every week, the farmer supplies customers with a changing mix of fresh produce that depends on what did well on the farm that summer. The US government could help with demonstration projects and measures that enable food stamp recipients to participate. This latter is particularly necessary, since it would help ensure that all Americans, rich and poor, have access to fresh, nutritious food.
One of the most important things the federal government can do is to remove barriers faced by entrepreneurs eager to find and exploit new opportunities. Such barriers might be the food stamp program's requirements for plastic cards that cannot be used at a farmers' market or outdated credit requirements that actually require pesticide use as a qualification to get a loan. Instead, the USDA should be encouraging farmers to meet the growing demand for food produced using environmentally sustainable practices. Along these lines, the federal government recently promulgated the national standards for organic food production. These standards assure that the organic label means the same thing nationwide and will enhance consumer confidence in organically produced food. A national standard could go a long way toward helping to expand the supplies and lower the prices of organically grown food.
The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture
To push the government toward appropriate policies to support sustainable agriculture, UCS works closely with the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. This is a broad national coalition of farmers, environmentalists, researchers and consumers committed to an environmentally sound, economically viable, and socially just agricultural system. Initially, the coalition formed to work on the 1995 Farm Bill, but in 1996 it reorganized to carry its message into the twenty-first century. The campaign works on a broad agenda of federal policy issues ranging from research to credit to marketing. It has emerged as an important force shaping American agricultural policy. Among its many successes are maintaining the appropriations for sustainable agriculture research programs in the face declining budgets.
