THE CONCEPT OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainable agriculture has become a popular code word for an environm entally sound, productive, economically viable, and socially desirable agriculture. This paper reviews reasons for growing interest in agric ultural sustainability (mainly the unanticipated, adverse side-effects of conventional farming), examines the proposed ends and means of sus tainability, and discusses two issues frequently debated - the profita bility of sustainable farming and the adequacy of food production from sustainable systems. The concept of agricultural sustainability does not lend itself to precise definition, partly because it implies a way of thinking as well as of using farming practices, and because the la tter cannot be specified as final answers. Consequently, people's beli efs and values will continue to mold public understanding of the conce pt. Two different views of sustainable agriculture are held. One is th at fine-tuning of conventional agriculture - more careful and efficien t farming with sensitive technologies - will reduce or eliminate many undesirable effects of conventional agriculture. The other is that fun damental changes in agriculture are needed, requiring a major transfor mation of societal values. Those who believe that only fine-tuning is needed tend to argue that sustainable farming is inherently unprofitab le. If widely adopted, it would not feed the world's expanding populat ion as well as conventional agriculture. Those who see a need for more fundamental changes in conventional systems believe that sustainable farming, on the contrary, can be even more profitable than the convent ional, especially when the calculation of profit counts all of the ben efits and costs of farming. Further, resource conservation, protection of the environment, and farming in partnership with nature - all requ irements of sustainability - will enhance, not reduce, global food pro duction. Other issues, such as the connections between sustainable far ming and the rest of the food and fiber system, and the implications o f sustainability for rural communities and society as a whole, have ye t to be addressed significantly.