User:Egonz102/Sustainable agriculture

United States
Policies from 1930 - 2000

The New Deal implemented policies and programs that promoted sustainable agriculture. Under the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1933, it provided farmers payments to create a supply management regime that capped production of important crops. This allowed farmers to focus on growing food and not competing in the market based system. The New Deal also provided a monetary incentive for farmers that left some of their fields unsown or ungrazed to order to improve the soil conditions. The Cooperative Extension Service was also established that set up sharing funding responsibilities amongst the USDA, land-grant universities, and local communities.

The 1950s to 1990s was when the government switched its stance on agriculture policy which halted sustainable agriculture. The Agricultural Act of 1954 passed which supported farmers with flexible price supports, but only to commodity programs. The Food and Agricultural Act of 1965 had new income support payments and continued supply controls but reduced priced supports. Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973 removed price supports and instead introduced target prices and deficiency payments. It continued to promote commodity crops by lowering interest rates. Food Security Act of 1985 continued commodity loan programs. These policies incentivized profit over sustainability because the US government was promoting farms to maximize their production output instead of placing checks. This meant that farms were being turned into food factories as they became bigger in size and grew more commodity crops like corn, wheat, and cotton. From 1900 to 2002, the number of farms in the US decreased significantly while the average size of a farm went up after 1950.

Current Policies

In the United States, the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service provides technical and financial assistance for those interested in pursuing natural resource conservation along with production agriculture. With programs like SARE and China-UK Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network to help promote research on sustainable agriculture practices and a framework for agriculture and climate change respectively.

Future Policies

Currently, there are policies on the table that could move the US agriculture system into a more sustainable direction with the Green New Deal. This policy promotes decentralizing agrarian governance by breaking up large commodity farms that were created in the 1950s to 1980s. Decentralized governance within the farming community would allow for more adaptive management at local levels to help focus on climate change mitigation, food security, and landscape-scale ecological stewardship. The Green New Deal would invest in public infrastructure to support farmers transition from industrial food regime and acquire agroecological skills. Just like in the New Dea l, it would invest in cooperatives and commons to share and redistribute resources like land, food, equipment, research facilities, personnel, and training programs. All of these policies and programs would break down barriers that have prevented sustainable farmers and agriculture from taking place in the United States.