Political and Economic Challenges to Creating a Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

There are many barriers that stand in the way of established conventional farmers who want to adopt sustainable techniques, and young people who want to become sustainable farmers. For established farmers, barriers include:

• Concerns about transition costs

• Termination of government subsidies

• Lack of tariffs that protect production

• Lack of knowledge about sustainable techniques

• Need to break ties with conventional farmers

• Loss of investment in conventional equipment

• Need to increase labor force

• Family is risk-averse

For young people who want to farm sustainably, barriers include:

• Regulations that are designed for industrial farmers

• Price of Land

• Leasing land is risky – improvements might increase lease payments.

• Marketing. Raising produce leaves little time for marketing

• Competition from other young organic growers

• Getting a loan

• Help from Colleges of Agriculture has limited applicability. Very little local research

• Need for specialization to develop a niche market

Barriers that affect both types of farmers include:

• Vested interests that support industrial agriculture

• Reductionistic science that does not answer sustainability questions

• Misdirected government policies that subsidize unsustainable farming

• Failure of the economic system to recognize environmental services

• The law of supply and demand

• The discount rate discourages farmers from investing in sustainability

• The abundance of resources encourages people to waste them

• Attitude that nature needs to be conquered