Sustainable farming?

Question

What is sustainable farming actually? I mean what kind of farming practices can be called as "sustainable faming"?

Is there any limitation or shortcoming about sustainable farming?

Please do not quote from the Wikipedia. I know there is an article about it and I have already read through it. I need extra information other than that.

Thank you.

Answer 1

The basics:

Soil management; given that plowing (repeatedly) and adding chemicals to the soil will ruin the structure and quality of the soil and it living component, the farmer needs to make use of animal and plant products and actions. No-till heavy mulching instead of plowing, the use of deep rooted plants to recover minerals washed too deep for crops to reach, manure additions and mineral additions to augment soil solutions and "feed" the soil living component, are just a few.

Integrated pest management (IPM) and a proactive disease and pest control that relies on natural controls and strategies coupled with a solid understanding and vigilance. Mimicking nature allows the farmer to bring into play many devices, like putting poultry out to work on wedding and insect control, embracing nature with ideas like attracting wildlife to bring them into play as a part of the farm, companion planting and rotation of crops (with or without fallow periods) as a preventative control, bringing in and nurturing livestock to provide a nature like balance to the farm community, and the long term balance and planning to bring in any and all available natural components instead of chemical short cuts. Your homesteader/ farmsteader answerer is a wonderful example of the process in both a spiritual and physical way, enjoying the best of both worlds which is such a hugely difficult thing to accomplish.

I think your first answer kind of says it all. The ability to take the knowledge gleaned from all that civilization has to offer, and put to work with true human ingenuity and the desire to work with nature, not against nature, has given us a meaningful existence on this wonderful land. It really is possible to have a thriving culture moving forward and upward, and preserve/ nurture instead of pillage/ steal the resources.

Sustainability in agriculture is a natural (as taught us by Mother Nature) method of weaving together all we know about farming and living and building on it to create, not to barely exist by tricks to stuff our pockets and flee. You read wikipedia (I have not yet) but the true sustainable agriculture, the lessons of nature but to use, is a human thing which is as much feelings and respect as it is a step by step process like putting a toy together from a box (yuk). You see with some basic knowledge how life processes in nature fit together in their little niches and how all is interconnected. We are part of all that if we allow our self to fit into that again, and then assume a management with caring and sensitivity as a parent, a friend. That never gets put into the definition, as those that follow that road find it even if they never looked for it. Some desire it and seek it out, but whether you come to, lets say, the Grand Canyon because you wanted to see that, or whether you were wandering around only to find yourself at the edge of this beautiful place (and you kind of knew it was there didn't you), it is still a wonderful view. Such is sustainable agriculture. When people can no longer feed themselves and live with nature, it is only a matter of time before they will fail and die, money will only save for so long and happiness can not be bought, it must be earned and the currency is not in pieces of silver.

Answer 2

~lol~  I'm going to answer you, BECAUSE you said not to quote Wikipedia!  I thought that was rather funny, and I'm tired of the folks who have little real knowledge on subjects trying to make answers just to get points.

My husband and I live on a farm, we cocider our farm to be a permiculture, which could also be called sustainable farming.

I raise meat goats & rabbits (also for meat).  The manure from the goats & rabbits is spread to fertilize crops, like alfalfa (food for the goats & rabbits) and rape seed (canola).  

Rape seed is mashed, to extract the oil, to make biofuels to power our trucks and tractors.  The trucks and tractors are used to harvest the crops, like alfalfa & rape seed.

(see how everything is interconected, and suports the next thing?)

We will be adding Large Black (a heritage breed) hogs also.  They will be pasture raised...in unimproved pastures.  The hogs will root out the stones and whatnot for us, so we do not need to use the tractor (and possibly break them), nor fuel to run the tractor.  The hogs will be very happy doing what pigs do naturally, which is root in the ground.

The pasture churned, and manured by the hogs will eventually be put into a crop of some kind, and the hogs moved to a new pasture, to continue the cycle.

The squeezings from the rape seed are fed to the goats and chickens, and eventually hogs.  Nothing is wasted, this is great high energy food for them.

Eventually a small orchard will be planted, and bee hives will be installed (perminatly) in the orchard to polinate all the flowers.  

We will be growing a wheat or barley crop, not for the grain, but rather because we want the straw.  The grain is just an extra bonous for us.  The straw will be used to build a straw bale house.

Basically, to my mind, only small scale family run farms can actually be sustainable.  At this point in human history however it actually takes the mega agra businessmen growing one crop over thousands of acres to feed America, and the world.  

It has become too hard for the average small farmer to make a living and suport his/her family.

Even in our world, my husband works on the commercial wind turbines, which is the real income for our family.  

Small family farms have a very hard time being competative with c**p from WalMart.  Even though we produce honest and true quality meats and such, and have to charge true production prices because we are not subsidized by the Government, people still want to buy our products at WalMart prices....that's just not reality.

I hope this information helps you...and please shop at your local farmers market, and help support the small farmer!

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Since you asked, I am in the USA, in Idaho, high mountain desert area of 4700 feet...the heart of potato growing country.

Answer 3

I just have to say

Yeah garnet! that is deffiantly sustainable farming! Her family is the real thing I would listen to her.

Answer 4

Low Til and No Til farming is conservational, avoiding the loss of more top soil.  Etc.

Ultimately "sustainable faming" is the hope of all farmers, unless their land is on a highway at the edge of town and their plan is to turn it into a shopping centre.

I didn't read Wikipedia.  It was rude to say we couldn't though.