Intensive Agriculture and Sustainability
As globalization restructures agriculture and rural communities, theimpacts of increasingly industrialized farming make interdisciplinaryanalyses of the linkages among the social, environmental, and economicaspects of farming ever more vital. This collection analyzes thereasons for the public’s scrutiny of intensive agriculture andthe prospects for sustainable farming now that concerns are mountingabout food quality, manure runoff, greenhouse gases, extra-label use ofantibiotics, pesticide use, and rural conflict.
Intensive Agriculture and Sustainability outlines theadvantages of Farming Systems Analysis for understanding theimplications of modern, intensive agriculture. This book describes someof the major environmental and social problems connected with intensivefarming; outlines a framework for analyzing its sustainability;discusses key linkages among the environmental, economic, and socialindicators; outlines modelling trade-offs between profitability andenvironmental sustainability; and then analyzes various farming systemsusing case studies.
The authors conclude that rural conflict and government regulationare likely to continue unless the public joins with farmers to helpfund stewardship practices and stabilize farm incomes. This book willappeal to field practitioners, agricultural and environmental policyanalysts, geographers, and those scholars and students who are tired ofthe pervasive production-oriented disciplinary focus that typifies mostagricultural research.
Figures and Tables
Foreword / Murray H. Miller
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Part 1: Issues and Book Overview
1. Introduction / Glen C. Filson
2. Environmental Problems Associated with Intensive Agriculture /Glen C. Filson
3. Social Implications of Intensive Agriculture / Glen C.Filson
Part 2: Framework and Linkages
4. FSR Concepts and Methods for Addressing Social and EnvironmentalProblems / John Smithers, Ellen Wall, and Clarence Swanton
5. Developing Predictive and Summative Indicators to Model FarmingSystems / Mike J. Goss, John R. Ogilvie, Glen C. Filson, Dean A.Barry, and Santiago Olmos
6. Modeling Farming System Linkages / Alfons Weersink, ScottJeffrey, and David Pannell
Part 3: Applications of the Framework and Linkages forSolving Sustainability-Related Problems of IntensiveAgriculture
7. A Whole-Farm Systems Approach to Modelling Sustainable ManureManagement on Intensive Swine Finishing Farms / D.P. Stonehouse,G.W. de Vos, and A. Weersink
8. Balancing Environmental and Economic Concerns in ManureManagement by Use of an On-Farm Computerized Decision Support Program,MCLONE4 / John R. Ogilvie, Dean A. Barry, Mike J. Goss, and D.P.Stonehouse
9. Challenges Awaiting the Dairy Industry as the Result of itsManagement Decision Environment / Wayne C. Pfeiffer and Glen C.Filson
10. Water Quality Initiatives in the Crowfoot Creek Watershed,Alberta / Georgina Knitel and Alfons Weersink
11. The Ontario Environmental Farm Plan: A Whole-Farm SystemApproach to Participatory Environmental Management for Agriculture /John FitzGibbon, Ryan Plummer, and Robert Summers
Part 4: Lessons Learned
12. Integrating Farming Systems Analysis of Intensive Farming /Glen C. Filson and Chris Duke
Glossary
References
Contributors
Index
