Transforming the Agricultural System

There is an urgent need to identify the alternative agriculture methods available to assure long-term sustainability and food security (Padmavathy & Poyyamoli, 2011). The paradigm shift from an economic to an ecological one is gradually taking place in small pockets of movements of alternative agriculture all over the world such as the socio-ecological production landscapes of the Satoyama Initiative (CBD, 2010); organic agriculture in California (Schreck et al, 2012) and organic gardening in Ohio (Holben, 2011); community gardens in the UK (Holland, 2004) and urban agriculture in China (Li and YuKun, 2011); biodynamics, community supported agriculture (CSA) and farmers markets (King, 2012); permaculture in Australia (Copeman, year?) and regenerative agriculture (Rhodes, 2012); agri-ecological systems (King, 2012) and application of systems theory (Smith et al, year?); and many other alternative farming techniques (Padmavathy & Poyyamoli, 2011). All of these emphasize a gradual energy descent, reduction of consumption, localization and community-based initiatives, resiliency, and working with nature. Community-based initiatives, local efforts, and social movements are working towards self-sufficiency and are poised to change the current agrarian model. According to agroecology advocate, Miguel Altieri of UC Berkley, in his lecture on Agroecology at Cornell University in 2009, “Small farmers are [the] key for the world’s food security.” He also stated that “small biodiverse farms are more productive; small biodiverse farms are more resilient and adaptive to climate stresses.”

A major force in the move towards sustainable development was formulated in the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992 with its Agenda 21 and Local Agenda 21 or LA21 (Holland, 2004). Although the Earth Summit is more aligned towards sustainably feeding the world under an economic paradigm, LA21 enabled the facilitation of local and community-based initiatives like the community garden movement in the UK (Holland, 2004). Under sustainable practices, gardening can have a positive impact in the conservation of the natural environment and local food production (Holben, 2011). 

Another view of sustainable food production is being pushed by the field of agricultural biotechnology. The claim of biotechnology companies suggest that the research and development of genetically modified organisms (GMO) will help feed the world and end poverty (Altieri and Rosset). The rationalization for this method of agriculture is based on the call to eliminate the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides which are byproducts of fossil fuels and are believed to be dangerous to soil and human health (Altieri and Rosset). Modifying the genetic code of crops will make it more resilient to climate change and pests thus producing more yields and feeding more people (Altieri and Rosset). What concerns practitioners of alternative agriculture about this approach is not only about assurance of food safety but the preservation and maintenance of conventional large-scale mono-cropping systems that still uphold consumerism and food production within a globalized economic paradigm. “Where sustainability and community health issues are considered, the usual emphasis is on how these traditional systems might be adapted or managed to reduce environmental or health impacts (within the current economic and production paradigm)” (King, 2012).