212 Agroecology and Sustainability
Conclusion
This vision does not promise that a landscape of such farms will reproduce the
ecosystem that existed before white Europeans conquered the land, but neither
will it be covered with factories. When farms are factories, they produce com-
modities and profit for agribusiness and charge external costs to the land and rural
communities. When farms are natural habitats for humans, domesticated crops
and livestock, and also for wild plants and animals, they produce food and multi-
ple other benefits for society. And such farms can be the sources for further eco-
logical restoration in the landscape.
No doubt interspersing a variety of uses on farms will mean different problems
to overcome than those we now face, both ecologically and economically, because
we still have a lot to learn about farming with the wild. Creating farms as natural
habitats will require more sophisticated strategies for disease and pest suppression
in crops and livestock. It will also require greater emphasis on diversification and
resilience and less emphasis on simplification and short-term fixes. These are prob-
lems in farming that require ecological solutions.
Farming-system problems can be solved. The perhaps intractable problem is
how to influence social evolution so that a land ethic, and not pure utilitarianism,
guides land use decisions. We need all people to look at farming with new eyes, to
see the potential of the farm as natural habitat, and to refuse to accept the inevita-
bility of farms becoming rural factories to serve the global economy. We must
teach that ‘the land is one organism’.
References
Agricultural Technology and Family Farm Institute (ATFFI). 1996. Grazing in Dairy-land: The Use
and Performance of Management Intensive Rotational Grazing among Wisconsin Dairy Farms. Tech-
nical Report no. 5. University of Wisconsin, College of Agriculture, Madison
Anonymous. 2000. Farmer Chosen As Next Leopold Center Director. Leopold Letter 12(2): 6
Cambardella, C. A. and E. T. Elliot. 1992. Particulate Soil Organic Matter Changes across a Grassland
Cultivation Sequence. Soil Science Society of America Journal 56: 777–783
Community Alliance for Family Farms (CAFF). 2000. Farmer to Farmer, May, June
Council for Agriculture Science and Technology (CAST). 1999. Benefits of Biodiversity. Task Force
Report no. 133. Ames, IA
Dansingburg, J. and D. Gunnink. 1995. An Agriculture That Makes Sense: Making Money on Hogs.
Land Stewardship Project, White Bear Lake, MN
DeRosier, J. 1998. My Cover Crop Rotation Program. Jaime DeRosier, Red Lake Falls, MN
DeVore, B. 1996. An Agrarian Ecological Tour. The Land Stewardship Letter 14(4): 2–3
DeVore, B. 1998. The Stream Team. The Minnesota Volunteer 61(361): 10–19
Heffernan, W. 1999. Report to the Farmers Union: Consolidation in the Food and Agriculture System.
National Farmers Union, Ames, IA
King, T. and DeVore, B. 1999. Bringing the Land Back to Life. Sierra Jan./Feb. 1999: 36–39
Land Stewardship Project 1995. Monitoring Project Monthly Newsletter, June