Agricultural research is too focused on increasing production and needs to consider impacts on water pollution, air contamination, and other public health concerns, according to a report issued Tuesday by a federal advisory group.
U.S. farmers are producing 158 percent more food than they did half a century ago, the National Academies’ National Research Council report said. And federal farm subsidies encourage farmers to increase yields and plant the same crops year after year. But there is inadequate existing knowledge about whether these practices are sustainable, or if there are better alternatives.
“If farmers are going to meet future demands, the U.S. agriculture system has to evolve to become sustainable and think broadly — past the bottom line of producing the most possible,” said Julia Kornegay, who chaired the committee that wrote the report.
The report recommends that agricultural researchers pursue future research in a more interdisciplinary manner. Most agricultural studies target a particular problem — maximizing crop yields while using less water, or clearing fields of a specific weed — without focusing on how a certain practice may impact economies, land and water in the long-term.
Sustainable practices, however, can also come at a cost.
“Tradeoffs can occur among different types of environmental impacts,” the report noted. “Some practices designed to minimize negative impacts of farming practices on water quality can worsen problems with air quality.”
Fred Hoefner, policy director for the Washington-based National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said the report doesn’t go far enough to promote good practices, and does not differ very much from the council’s 1989 “Alternative Agriculture” study. Agricultural economist Gary Schnitkey, however, cautioned against shifting away from agricultural productivity.
“We’re still looking at a situation where we have population growth, so we’ve got to meet those needs,” Schnitkey told the Associated Press. “I think there’s too little research on agricultural productivity. We’ve got to keep increasing output from these acres.”
