I shared this presentation with a LIFE class on 9/13/2011

1. What is “Sustainable Agriculture”???

2. Assignment #1
Exploring the meaning of sustainable agriculture through
reading profiles of sustainable ag practitioners
Read 3 profiles from 3 *different* sources
For each profile:
1) Identify the person and profile source
2) Track down contact info
3) Describe several interesting things you learned from
reading the profile
4) Write 3 questions that you would like to ask the person if
you had a chance to meet them.
After considering the 3 profiles, your personal experiences,
discussion in class this week…etc., explain what
sustainable agriculture means to you.

4. Introduction
“Illinois is blessed with many excellent farmers. Those
appearing in this publication do not constitute a complete
list. For the purposes of this book, parameters were placed
on the definition of “innovative.” There are many innovative
grain farmers in Illinois. They are characterized by a
willingness to try the latest technology, always pushing to
improve their production efficiency, and do an excellent job
of managing their operations. This book is not intended to
take anything away from them, but that was not the kind of
innovation sought out for this project. Instead, the farmers
included in this publication are engaged in alternative
entrepreneurial enterprises outside of (or in addition to)
conventional corn and soybean farming. Most are adding
value and marketing their products directly to consumers.
Most do not have off-farm jobs.”

5. Farmers profiled in “A Different Field…”

6. > 1500 families are “members” of this CSA farm!

8. ~ 50 CSAs profiled in this directory

9. Some of
these #s
seem hard to
believe !

10. 4 weeks of produce from Good Hope Gardens CSA in 2010

11. Barefoot Gardens CSA
John and Karen Curtis

14. Jack Erisman
Currently ~ 2500 acres
of grains, forages and
beef in Pana, IL

17. Student from a 4000 acre farm in MO inspects Jack’s air drill

18. “I think farming is
going in the wrong
direction” David
says. ”My grand
father told me, “If
you want to stay in
farming “you’ve got
to diversify”
David took this
advice to heart. Now
instead of looking to
get bigger he is
looking for
alternative crops and
products that he can
take on to make a
living-wage while
continuing to farm
on a smaller scale.

22. Hailing from small
vegetable farms, large
grain and livestock farms
and even larger ranches,
the 60 producers profiled
in The New American
Farmer, have embraced
new approaches
to agriculture.
They are renewing profits,
enhancing environmental
stewardship and
improving the lives of their
families as well as their
communities.

25. Terry Taylor’s
continuous NT corn
w/ hairy vetch system

26. in IL

32. Now 17 years after the Farm Crisis
Center was established each week
she still speaks with ~ 18 farmers,
mostly in the evening hours. Her
phone will ring, and in some cases
she will go to them. Sometimes she
will be the one to take the gun from
their hand.

34. Student in
the first class
I taught

35. IATP Food and Society Fellow 2002-2004

36. IATP Food and Society Fellow 2002-2004

41. What do all
of these
people have
in common?

42. innovation??
Are they “early adopters” ?
$ vs.
adopt ≠ adapt

43. What is
stewardship
innovation??
?

44. Excellence in Agriculture
Interviews with 10 Minnesota farm families
who are stewards of the land, edited by
LSP founder Ron Kroese, with interviews
conducted by Patrick Moore, Doug Nopar
and Joe Paddock. 1988 - 105
pages. $5.00

47. Allison Organic Research Farm
Twilight Tour – Fall 2008

53. The passing of Norman Borlaug in fall 2009 led to an unplanned
investigation of his life including contrasting the message in
obituaries with his own words in historical interviews

55. Most farmers are using methods which do
not allow production flexibility. American
agriculture of the conventional type "works"
only when the throttle governing energy and
input flows is pulled all the way out. Farmers
lack the option of switching-either
permanently or temporarily-to an alternate
system that performs well when conventional
production is not profitable.
Paraphrased Robert Rodale quote that caught my attention back in the 80s

56. Imagine if you got in your car one
day and discovered that it could
only be driven with the gas pedal
all the way to the floor… you
might be able to get to your
destination really fast… if there
were no curves in the road, no
pedestrians out for a stroll, no
deer, no inclement weather…

57. Student: What is the future of the small
farm?
WIU Faculty: There will always be small
farms, but it will be difficult to impossible
to make a living from only the income
generated from a small farm. Off-farm
income such as teaching or driving a
school bus will be needed to augment
farm generated income.
This is not the way it needs to be!!!

60. Personal farm management problems
vs.
farm policy problems
• When individual farmers have
financial problems, it may be
reasonable to conclude that these
farmers are poor managers
• When most farmers have financial
problems, it is reasonable to
conclude that there are problems
with farm policy

61. Rather than recognize the failure of 5
million farms as a social problem, US
farm policies have been based upon
the belief that this was a personal
problem i.e., that farm failures resulted
primarily from bad management.

62. Rather than recognize and address
the deficiencies in the structure,
conduct, and performance of the farm
economy, most policies focused on
individual rather than group behavior.

63. Adoption of new technology by
individual farmers has been
emphasized with little regard to
implications for farmers as a
group.

64. Get big
or get
out!!
Plant fence
row to fence
row!
The
Russians will
buy all the
EARL BUTZ surplus!
God put the
worm in the
apple… man
took it out !!

65. It is not possible to squeeze the cost of
production enough to consistently
generate a profit at all price levels.

66. Policy Problem – Low Prices
Persistent below-cost of production
market prices for corn and soybeans
$12
Soybeans
$10
in 1984-86 dollars
$8
$6
Corn
$4
$2
$0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Source: USDA ERS Web site

67. http://www.measuringworth.com/
$26.32 in the year 2008
has the same "purchase
power" as $2.45 in the
year 1920.
Most valuable bushel of wheat
during the last century

68. Sustainable
agriculture
The
Stewardship
Spiral