La recherche agricole trop axée sur le volume de production

Un autre rapport, cette fois soumis par The National Academies' National Research Council, prétend que la recherche dans le milieu agricole est encore trop axée sur le volume de la productivité, au lieu de se pencher sur les conséquences de la pollution de l'air et de l'eau. Le National Academies' National Research Council est un groupe consultatif fédéral des États-Unis qui maintient que l'on s'attend à ce que les fermiers produisent de plus en plus, mais que le regard ne va pas au-delà de la quantité de boisseaux ou tonnes de légumes ou de viande produits.

Le rapport recommande que l'agriculture se concentre plus sur les effets des pratiques agricoles modernes qui adoptent des mesures soutenables tout en continuant la recherche dans plusieurs disciplines, entre autres les effets sur la qualité des sols et les bassins versants.

De plus, le rapport mentionne que les consommateurs ont aidé à créer des marchés en s'intéressant aux méthodes de production de leur nourriture, et ont fait des pressions auprès de leurs détaillants. Ces marchés émergeants peuvent motiver les fermiers à adopter des méthodes agricoles qui ont des objectifs multiples équilibrés et soutenables. On peut faire de la recherche en méthodes qui augmentent la production tout en répondant aux inquiétudes environnementales. Par exemple, en obtenant une quantité accrue de récoltes sur une même surface, on aide à réduire la demande de nouvelles terres pour la culture.

Le rapport ajoute que les politiques publiques ont eu un effet mitigé sur l'agriculture durable. La USDA (US Department of Agriculture) elle-même devrait devrait se pencher davantage sur les effets des politiques publiques actuelles comme les subventions agricoles et les idées politiques dans le réseau bureaucratique.
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"Report: Ag research too focused on food production

American farmers are producing more food than ever, but agricultural research is too focused on increasing production and needs to do better at considering consequences such as water and air pollution, according to a report issued Tuesday by a federal advisory group.

The National Academies' National Research Council report found that farmers are being asked to produce more and more food to sustain the world's population, but with little focus beyond how many bushels of grain or pounds of vegetables or meat they can generate.

"If farmers are going to meet future demands, the U.S. agriculture system has to evolve to become sustainable and think broadly — past the bottom line of producing the most possible," said Julia Kornegay, who chairs the Washington-based council's committee that wrote the report and heads the department of horticultural science at North Carolina State University.

The report broadly recommends that agriculture focus more study on the effects of popular farming practices that can improve sustainability, while integrating research from a broad range of disciplines and spending more on that broader study. In particular, the authors want the USDA, National Science Foundation, public universities and farmer-led groups to set up a research initiative focused on the effects farming has on land and watersheds.

Consumers, the report says, have helped create some such markets by their relatively newfound interest in how their food is grown or raised, and the pressure they place on retailers. "Those emerging markets can motivate farmers to transition to farming systems that balance and meet multiple sustainability goals," the authors write. The University of Illinois' Schnitkey noted that production-oriented research can help alleviate environmental concerns. Finding ways to increase the amount of food grown on a given acre, for instance, can reduce the need to cultivate more land.

The report also says public policies have had only a mixed effect on agricultural sustainability. The USDA should spend more on its own study of the effects of current public policies such as farm subsidies and policy ideas in the bureaucratic pipeline, the report recommends."

Excerpts from article written by David Mercer of The Associated Press published here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iMJEj5euhKGpVw-bJDARcylBlwaAD9GL4HF00

Unfortunately, two of the three aspects of "sustainable" are too often put aside and the economic objective takes over. At the cost of the environment and the social acceptability of all things.