Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century

Abstract

"This report of the National Research Council Committee on Twenty-First Century Systems Agriculture reviews the state of knowledge on farming practices, technologies, and management systems that have the potential to improve the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of agriculture, and it discusses the tradeoffs and risks that might occur if more farms were to adopt those practices, technologies, and systems. The report also identifies knowledge gaps and makes recommendations for future actions to improve agricultural sustainability...This report includes case studies of different kinds of farms and farming systems in different regions of the United States that actively pursue the goal of sustainability and revisits some farms originally featured in Alternative Agriculture." (Excerpts from Executive Summary and Preface)