SUSTAINABLE FARMING
What Is Sustainable Farming?
Sustainable farming is a broad, umbrella term for
growing food using methods that will also nurture society,
the environment, and the economy. It is an alternative to
mainstream, industrial agriculture practices. Sustainable
farmers seek to support community health and well-being
and to work with nature, while still being profitable
businesses—though farms can also be run as non-profits or
recreational projects.
By changing your relationship to how food is made, you
can rewrite the story of your life. In doing so, you
may renew civilization and save it from collapse—by
reversing soil degradation processes caused by industrial
farming practices. People who are into sustainable farming
are doing just that while feeding themselves and others.
They are carving out an unlikely path of reclaiming land,
nourishing ecosystems, and recentering the stories of
oppressed peoples.
What Is Sustainable Farming?
Sustainable farming is a broad, umbrella term for
growing food using methods that will also nurture society,
the environment, and the economy. It is an alternative to
mainstream, industrial agriculture practices. Sustainable
farmers seek to support community health and well-being
and to work with nature, while still being profitable
businesses—though farms can also be run as non-profits or
recreational projects.
Why Is Sustainable Farming Important?
Sustainable farming is important because it offers a
solution to the problems caused by the way most of our
food is grown today. Today’s industrial farming methods,
many stemming from the Green Revolution of the 1950s
and 1960s, are depleting our natural resources through
monocultures and the overuse of pesticides and fertilizers,
among other practices, while leaving people with unequal
access to food and nutrition around the world.
Environment. Soil is considered a non-renewable
resource, and sustainable farming promises to
protect and preserve soil health.
Public Health. Putting food production in the
hands of disenfranchised communities, as sustainable
farming advocates often do, is one way to correct
food system injustices that result in continued
health disparities among people of color.
Animal Welfare. Most animals raised for human
consumption are grown and processed in conditions
that are bad for their health. Sustainable farmers think
about how to reform those industrial practices, such as
reducing the use of antibiotics.
Local Economies and
Workers. Farmers and farmworkers are often
exploited for their labor in industrial agriculture. The
sustainable farming movement is creating the space
for a food system that respects the dignity
of farmers and workers.
Most Efficient Use of Non-Renewable
Resources. Coal, nuclear, oil, and natural gas are
non-renewable energy resources that we use to
drive cars and trucks, to cook, to heat our homes, and
to run power plants that light our tablets and
screens. The use of non-renewable energy resources is
the leading cause of climate change, and food
production is a primary sector contributing to
greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable farmers seek
to be careful in their use of such resources, in
alignment with their goal of protecting the
environment.
Like the biodiversity of a forest, sustainable farmers are
also diverse and creative as they attune their practices to
their local communities and environments.
What Are Sustainable Farming Practices
and Methods?
The term “sustainable farming” describes a general
approach, and there is not an exact recipe for how to
operate a sustainable farm. Growers apply methods that
make sense to them and that reflect their values. The
following are some popular terms you may hear as you
learn more about sustainable agriculture.
Adopting Agroforestry Practices. Forests have
multiple layers, have a diversity of species, and store
carbon. Agroforestry is when farmers plant crops
using patterns observed in natural forests. See Soul
Fire Farm’s video for some of their agroforestry
practices, including alley cropping and terracing.
Applying Integrated Pest Management
(IPM). Farmers can use biological and mechanical
ways of keeping away unwanted animals and insects
from their crops. Chives, sage, and mint plants are
examples of natural insecticides.
Aquaponics and Hydroponics. Aquaponics is
when people grow fish and vegetables in a mutually
beneficial system of sharing water and
nutrients. Hydroponic farmers grow plants without
using soil and instead use materials like clay balls,
coconut hair and fabric. See Charles Collins’
outdoor aquaponics and hydroponics systems in
this video. These practices can also be used indoors
with electric light.
Avoid Soil Erosion. To prevent soil erosion,
sustainable farmers can plant cover crops,
use stones or logs to build terraces, and limit how
much soil they dig up where there is already plant
cover. Farmers can also avoid overgrazing and
deforestation.
Better Water Management. Farmers can take care
of the ecosystem by minimizing their use of fertilizers
and pesticides, so that runoff from their farms does
not contribute to water pollution. Instead of using
sprinklers, for example, farmers seeking to conserve
water can install drip lines to irrigate their plants,
as Matt Romero Farms did.
Food Forests. To create a food forest one grows
food in vertical layers that mimic the layers of a forest.
The goals of an established food forest are to be low
maintenance and to feed people with edible plants.
Growing Heirloom and Older Varieties. Beyond
different-tasting vegetables and genetic diversity,
heirloom seeds offer a connection to ancestors who
thought to save their seeds. The Cultural
Conservancy maintains a “living seed library” in
relationship with a diasporic Native community. Chief
Program Officer Sara Moncada explains in this
KCET video, “I think about what it meant for our
ancestors who were being relocated, who were facing
an unknown future. They didn’t just take what they
could grab. They took the seeds. They tucked them in
their pockets and wove seeds in their hair, knowing
that that seed could be the revitalization of a people.
A seed is immense and it’s an immense system of
knowledge. Within that system of knowledge is our
capacity to connect, to learn, to flourish, to grow, to
shift, to adapt, and to feed ourselves.”
Integrating Livestock and Crops. Farmers can
plant cover crops to help them to manage manure
and to feed domesticated animals like cows,
goats, and sheep.
Managed Grazing. Farmers who raise livestock such
as cows can seek to reduce the animals’ harm to the
land on which they graze by limiting their access to
the land. Read more about the trend of regenerative
grazing, and its critics.
Managing Whole Systems and
Landscapes. Holistic approaches to farming are an
Indigenous practice. The Cultural
Conservancy bought land that was intended
for return to Native people and turned it into
a farm and cultural center. They transformed the land
using ancestral farming practices that focus on the
relationship between people and the ecosystem. The
land stewards grow native edible and medicinal
plants, support wildlife habitats, and honor the
“sacredness of life.”
Permaculture. Permaculture is a set of ecological
design principles and methods that scientists took
from Indigenous communities and codified. It is now a
worldwide movement. One of the 12 principles of
permaculture is to observe and interact. Indigenous
community members of the Cultural Conservancy
dedicated a year to listen to the land and to each
other prior to naming their farm, as a way to re-
engage with ancestral traditions of land stewardship
while unlearning internalized oppression.
Planting Cover Crops. Cover crops such as rye,
clover, oats, buckwheat, and mustard grass protect
soil from erosion and stop earthworms from dying of
frost in the winter. Cover crops can also help with pest
management and soil fertility.
Polyculture Farming. Farmers can plant more than
one crop in the same area at the same time. The
Three Sisters growing technique is an indigenous
method of farming where plants demonstrate
“interconnection and interreliance,” says Maya
Harjo, Native Foodways Director of The Cultural
Conservancy. Read more about polyculture
farming here.
Reducing or Eliminating Tillage. Farmers can allow
the soil to stay intact and allow crop residue to protect
it through no-till farming. Learn about the harms of
tillage introduced by settler colonialism in the United
States and how to build a no-till bed here.
Removal of Weeds Manually. Farmers can use their
hands and hand tools, and even plows and tillage, to
remove unwanted plants.
Rotating Crops and Embracing Diversity. Crop
rotation, or changing the type of crop you grow in the
same location, helps growers manage pests, weeds,
and soil health. In this Soul Fire Farm video, Amara
Ullauri of Rock Steady Farm explains, “There is no
single way to create a crop plan.” They give examples
of Indigenous farming practices and demonstrate how
an Excel spreadsheet or a journal can help plan for a
variety of crops.
Save Transportation Costs. Farmers can find ways
to reduce their use of tractors, and the cost of fueling
them. At The Cultural Conservancy, for example,
Three Sisters crops are not grown in rows,
requiring harvesting by hand. Adherents to the eat
local or local food movement care about reducing the
greenhouse gas emissions caused by transporting
food from farm to table.
Urban Agriculture. Urban farmers are reviving the
notion of farming within city limits in places like
Shanghai, Havana, and other cities around the world.
In the United States, some of the best examples
of urban farming are community gardens.
Using Renewable Energy
Resources. Permaculture practitioners value the re-
use of materials and avoid single-use products. Is
Organic Farming Sustainable?
Because organic farming rejects the use of harsh
pesticides and herbicides, and because of its focus on
environmental health, it is generally considered a type of
sustainable farming.
How You Can Help
You have taken a leap and seen a menu of trendy terms in
sustainable farming. The options of how to support
agriculture that embraces nature and uplifts ordinary
people are limitless.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to make farming
more sustainable, check out this article based on
interviews with three leaders in the food justice
movement. Soul Fire Farm, a leading sustainable
farming organization, has also developed a set of
resources for its supporters here.
To learn more about Indigenous farming practices
promoted by the Cultural Conservancy, watch
this video.
And if you’re looking to try your hand at sustainable
farming, consider checking out your local library for
how-to manuals, or YouTube for tips on getting started
in urban farming.
Towards a More Sustainable Future
Whether high-tech or low-tech, larger- or smaller-scale, and
regardless of where the growing happens or their
underlying philosophies, sustainable farmers rely on
methods that go beyond industrial agriculture, to grow food
in ways that are both more just, and more tenable over the
long term.
