Which Came First; The Chicken or the Egg?
Sustainable Agriculture? or A
Sustainable World?
Goals:
1. What is sustainable thinking?
2. Define a sustainable World.
3. Sustainable agriculture and its goals.
4. Understand your personal contribution to
global equality and environmental health
Read: Chapters 40, 42, 43, 44 & 45 (Alt. Bk. – 27
to 32 not 28)
Websites: These may be helpful…
http://www.sare.org/
http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/Concept.htm
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/
http://www.factoryfarming.com/index.htm
When you think of a sustainable
USA; what does that mean to you?
Dr. Mark Whalon
Department of Entomology
Center for Integrated Plant Systems
Michigan State University
whalon@msu.edu
ContextIn the cold cruel world of life on planet earth:
• Why would we (you, me, your parents, your friends, your state, your country
all of Society) want to “conserve” natural resources
– if it’s not to sustain “useful” lands and natural systems for the future
(generations)?
• If Sustainability is what we are aiming at, will our current
measures (way we live) “hit” the target? Given:
–
–
–
–
1) Your (mine and our) attitudes,
2) What you (me and us) have bought into,
3) The way you do life, and/or
4) The way we ALL DO LIFE.
• Since current definitions of sustainability segregate into four
general, but related sectors;
–
–
–
–
1) economics,
2) social systems,
3) agroecosystems (landscapes) and the
4) environment,
• What do you know about sustainability?
What gets measured gets managed…
Sustainability
• Definition:
“the ability of a system to
continue in time”
– It’s at the least a
presumption or
presupposition about the
future:
– involves at least:
• How well are you, me, WE
measuring our own life
outcomes relative to
sustainability?
4- Economics
3- Society
2- The Ecosystem
1- The Environment
B. Observations about sustainable thinking
1. Future
2. Closed world system
3. Standard of living depends on production
4. The longer the long-term
consequences, the
less likely detected
5. Can the natural
environment be
degraded irrevocably?
What is an ecosystem?
May be easier to understand an agroecosystem…
• A unit of management.
= a spatial unit of habitat that a
producer identifies as a field, a
block, a planting, a woods or a
paddock; which he manages
as a contiguous whole.
– Applies inputs to…as a unit.
– Harvests from…as a unit.
Meso-area Biotic Exchange:
• landscape interactions
• recruitment & biotic flow
“Hey, John! Spray ‘Dad’s backten’ before the wind gets up
today! OK?”
“Yep, I’ll get ‘er done right now,
Boss…”
Jay Bruner Picture
Everybody on the farm knows that this unit of land
is ‘Dad’s back-ten’…it’s an agroecosytem.
What is an ecosystem?
You can understand any unit of earth that you have
impact on as an ecosystem, your ecosystem…
• A unit of management.
= a spatial unit of habitat that a
person identifies as a yard,
a house, a block, a township
a county or state or
continent or earth; which he
(you, me or we) manage or
influence as a contiguous
whole.
– Applies inputs to…as a unit.
– Harvests from…as a unit.
“Hey, John! Mow the lawn!
OK?”
“###%***##!!!, Ah, well, OK I’ll
do it…(under his breath, I
just got home and now this!
Doesn’t he know that I’m not
a kid anymore?”
Meso-area Biotic Exchange:
• landscape interactions
• recruitment & biotic flow
Jay Bruner Picture
Everybody in the house knows that this unit of land
is ‘the back yard’…it’s an ecosystem—a unit of managed habitat.
Ecosystems:
Abiotic and Biotic Integration
Abiotic Environment
– Physical laws and structure:
• earth, soil, water, minerals,
atmosphere…
– Cycles: H20, C, N, etc…
– Chemical Interactions…
• metabolism & synthesis
• degradation & mass action
– Energy flux: light, +/_
charge
• e.g. heat (long wave length
light)
• e.g. electrical charges
(chemical bonds &
enzymes)
• Biotic Systems
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Species
Populations
Communities
Agro-Ecosystem
Ecozones
Hemispheres
Bioshpere
Earth
Solar System
Universe
Integration
Structure + Process = Pattern
Energy Flow
Water
Cycle
Carbon
Cycle
Nitrogen
Cycle
“The Soil Ecosystem”
Earthworms
Nematodes
Arthropods
The Soil Food Web
Bacteria
Protozoa
Actinomycetes
Fungi
Trophic Levels
Herbivores
“Pests”
Producers
“Crops”
Carnivores
“Biocontrol Agents”
Spatial scales: Local to Regional to
Imagine using different
Global
Regions
(1,000,000 m2)
AVHRR
scene
Visual Tools…from a
Microscope (.0001 m2) to
Camera tripod, to an aerial baloon,
To an Airplane, to Landsat,
to AVHRR
Plants (1 m2)
Landscape
mosaics
(100,000 m2)
TM Landsat Scene
Plant patches
(100 m2)
Balloon
Field patches
(1000 m2)
Aerial Photo
Tripod
A. Definition of a sustainable land unit…
"sustain," from the Latin sustinere (sus-, from
below and tenere, to hold), to keep in existence or
maintain, implies long-term support or
permanence & YOU figure prominently in the
equation…
1. Philosophy: stewardship
of both natural and
human resources
You hold the key
to sustainability of the land,
its ecosystems and environment!
Defining Sustainable Agriculture






Systems of food, feed and fiber production
that are socially responsible, economically
viable and environmentally sound.
Social
Economic
Highly productive
Serve local needs
Provide rewarding human vocations
Perform restorative ecological functions
Viable over long time horizons
Agroecology
A. Definition of sustainable agriculture
"sustain," from the Latin sustinere (sus-, from
below and tenere, to hold), to keep in existence or
maintain, implies long-term support or
permanence
1. Philosophy: stewardship
of both natural and
human resources
It’s the same definition
Just a different unit
Of land!
Overview

Challenges and opportunities in
sustainable agriculture & world

Background

A vision for sustainable agriculture and
the role of each person in this class
Challenges




World population
Economic disparities
Globalization
Environmental degradation
Opportunities
Awareness of sustainability
 Wellness lifestyles– Apply to you?
 Michigan’s/US’s natural resources
 Personal Responsibility?

Michigan Land Resources
2040
2020
1980
Projected
Land Use
Trend
Built
Agriculture
Other vegetation
Forest
Lake
Wetland
Integrated Agricultural Landscapes
Health & Well-being
Climate
Nature &
Landscape
Production
Environment
Work & Income
Vereijken, P., 2001
C. What Sustainable thinking seeks not to do
Fail to value all of life; including the soil,
microbes, plants,
animals, people, communities,
populations, cities, regions,
continents, the Earth!
One can not value something without
Some understanding of it!
Four disciplines: 1) environmental health,
2) functional ecology, 3) social and
economic equity, & 4) economic
profitability within the system’s limits
2. Avoid long-term side effects
3. Use non-renewable resources slowly
The fate of lead in the 1970’s
4. Value the land and the people on it! That
means farmers, they are your kids future!
5. Value Self-sufficiency… could you survive in a polluted world? A
world without clean water? A world where you had to produce your
own food and housing?
D. Measures of sustainability
1. Productivity
2. Stability
3. Sustainability
4. Equity
5. Functional Ecology
Implementation of sustainable thinking in
you…
1. Ecological Efficiency & Living
simply…
2. Substitution expensive and
energy wasteful for frugal and
effective
3. Redesign your thinking,
expectations & your (our) future!
Extension has the information
you need to survive!







Insect Ecology and Biological control
MSU a resource for your future
Biological Control Programs
Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable U
Sustainable MI
Sustainable World
http://www.cips.msu.edu/biocontrol/
Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil,
and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)
US president 1953-1961
I believe that the great Creator has put ores and oil on
this earth to give us a breathing spell. As we exhaust
them, we must be prepared to fall back on our farms,
which is God’s true storehouse and can never be
exhausted. We can learn to synthesize material for
every human need from things that grow.
George Washington Carver (1860-1943)
Agricultural chemist, developer of crop-rotation and 325 uses for the
peanut
Farmers are the only indispensable people on the face of the earth.
Ambassador Li Zhaoxing (1940-present)
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's
Republic of China to the United States