New York Times: A 50-Year Farm Bill
Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry write in an editorial for the New York Times about the importance of an agricultural policy based upon ecological principles.
In an editorial for the New York Times Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry, prominent authors and leaders of the sustainable agriculture movement, write about the problems inherent in our current agricultural policy, which allows massive amounts of soil to be lost or poisoned and which relies on technology for the fix.
They write,
Industrial agricultural has made our food supply entirely dependent on fossil fuels and, by substituting technological “solutions” for human work and care, has virtually destroyed the cultures of husbandry (imperfect as they may have been) once indigenous to family farms and farming neighborhoods.
Clearly, our present ways of agriculture are not sustainable, and so our food supply is not sustainable. We must restore ecological health to our agricultural landscapes, as well as economic and cultural stability to our rural communities.
They recognize the important work underway by citizens' grassroots efforts, but insist that a reformed agricultural policy is also necessary - one that includes ecological principles. They declare, "We need a 50-year farm bill that addresses forthrightly the problems of soil loss and degradation, toxic pollution, fossil-fuel dependency and the destruction of rural communities."
