Sustainable Agriculture
The principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
What is sustainability.
Once common on farms, this type of system combined crop and livestock operations but has declined due to increasing specialization.
What is an integrated farming system.
An agreement signed in 2015 to reduce the impact of climate change and not reach 2 degrees C of warming.
This common practice in sustainable farming helps conserve soil, reduce pests, and increase farm resilience by growing more than one type of crop.
What is crop rotation or crop diversification.
This term refers to the careful management of both human and natural resources to ensure their long-term health.
What is Stewardship.
In sustainable livestock systems, this is the largest variable cost and can be managed by monitoring animal condition and seasonal forage quality.
What are feed costs.
A successful agreement to stop using CFC's and repair the ozone layer.
What is the Montreal Protocol.
In sustainable systems, this living resource is managed using compost, cover crops, and reduced tillage to ensure long-term productivity.
What is soil.
A sustainable agricultural system should be viewed broadly from the individual farm to global communities through this kind of perspective.
What is a systems perspective (or approach).
This aspect of herd management helps prevent overgrazing, reduces fire risk, and matches the number of animals to the land’s capacity.
What is grazing management.
Signed in Japan, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
What is the Kyoto Protocol.
Cover crops can reduce chemical input needs by doing this, providing habitat for helpful insects that control pests naturally.
What is increasing beneficial arthropod populations?
These four groups are all responsible for creating a sustainable food system.
Who are farmers, consumers, researchers, and policymakers.
Ruminants like cattle and goats are well-suited for sustainable systems partly because they can digest these types of non-traditional feed sources.
What are crop residues, weeds, shrubs, or cover crops.
Goal of protecting biodiversity. included sections on GMO contamination.
What is CBD or Convention on Biological Diversity.
This type of animal can turn crop residues into a useful food source during dry periods and improve soil fertility through manure.
What is ruminants.
The path to sustainable agriculture usually involves this kind of gradual progress for farmers.
What is a series of small, realistic steps.
This modern livestock practice raises ethical concerns and often requires expensive waste management to prevent water pollution.
What is confined livestock production (Confinement Farming).
The first climate change agreement made by the UN, which established the United Nations environment Programme in 1972.
What is the Stockholm Declaration.
Sustainable farmers don’t just replace conventional inputs, they focus on this instead, using knowledge and management to reduce environmental harm.
What is maximizing biological efficiency (or enhancing management over input substitution).