Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture involves farming systems that produce food, feed, fiber and energy while ensuring long-term economic returns, protecting the environment, and human health and safety. Sustainable agriculture includes conventional, organic, low external input and other alternative farming methods if they conserve resources and address economic, environmental and social concerns.
The goal of sustainable agriculture is a permanent change in the way producers, agro-industries, consumers, and the general public thinks and practices food, feed, fiber and energy production while protecting the environment. Explicitly, a sustainable approach emphasizes the farm as a living, dynamic system that is in constant interaction with the environment and people. Reducing agrichemical use, land stewardship and recycling of wastes, diversifying farming enterprises, using soil and water conservation practices on the farm are some of the areas producers can make changes through the process of adopting sustainable agriculture.
