WHAT is sustainable agriculture?
Sustainable agriculture is the cultivation of crops in a manner that balances out human activities and nature so that humans as a whole can continue to use the arable land many years from now (EPA: United States Environmental Protection agency).
“As we search for a less extractive and polluting economic order, so that we may fit agriculture into the economy
of a sustainable culture, community becomes the locus and metaphor for both agriculture and culture.”
― Wes Jackson, Becoming Native to This Place
of a sustainable culture, community becomes the locus and metaphor for both agriculture and culture.”
― Wes Jackson, Becoming Native to This Place
Background
When focusing on the agricultural practices from an island's past civilizations we see many ways in which these practices can influence how sustainable we can make agriculture today. Some ways, from Japan's simplistic yet innovative seed balls to Iceland's use of its natural resource of geothermal energy to grow industrial sized greenhouse crops, and New Zealand's Maori culture's growing of the common sweet potato, can give positive means in which to change up agricultural systems to be more sustainable, while other tried and perhaps not so successful methods, like on the field crops in various English isles can prove that technological advancements also play a
major role in development of the best sustainable practices to be used.
major role in development of the best sustainable practices to be used.
Importance
This topic is important because the question is not how can one feed the world because that answer in and of itself is a simple one. We have to share what the world provides. Our question is can past agricultural practices aid in creating a more sustainable agriculture today. This is important because the process of growing food is not a simple one (unless you count the seed ball of course) because it always comes at a price to the farmer as well as the land. This question matters because if we do not find a way to maintain agricultural sustainability by creating new techniques or just implementing old ones. Then we face multiple risk including starvation on a global scale, famine, war. The list goes on and on but this problem will arise if we do not find a solution because poor agricultural regional maintenance will destroy the arable land.
the past can inform the present
It does not matter what island was chosen to do research on because each islands agricultural history had a different story to tell. Some islands agricultural histories can help to improve agricultural sustainability today like that of Iceland, and New Zealand. While others are still being studied like that of the seed ball in Japan. There are even some where the past cannot necessarily hand us the answers we seek like that in the English Isles. For more click on a island's tab above.
Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."
-Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington (1787)
About Us
We are a group of students from the University of Texas at Arlington and this semester we have each been studying our chosen islands to determine if ancient practices in those regions help to improve today's agricultural sustainability.