Ikerd Sees Golden Age of Sustainable Agriculture Beginning Now

Sustainable agriculture prophet John Ikerd brought a message of hope to an estimated crowd of 250 people at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa on August 21.
"Everything on earth operates in cycles and we're not going to stay in the industrialized agriculture cycle forever," he said. "I think it's actually ending now and we can begin moving to a post-industrialized mode in agriculture, without prolonging the agony of waiting any further."
Ikerd was the featured speaker at an event highlighting sustainable agriculture, sponsored by the Ad Hoc Committee for Clean Water, Clover-Stornetta Farms and the City of Santa Rosa.

Assuming agriculture continues in the direction Ikerd envisions, it will lead to a knowledge-based model that, he said, will "put people at the center of what's important." Profit occupies the center now "because profit is what industrialized agriculture is about. Sustainable agriculture is fundamentally about people."

In Ikerd's analysis, placing profit at the center of our agricultural, economic and social systems is largely to blame for the nation of disconnected people we've become.
"There's no sense of community or even being part of the same country any more," he said. "Until fairly recently, most people had some connection to a farm, either personally or through somebody else. That's no longer true, and if people don't know or care about who produces their food or where their food comes from, how can they be expected to understand the role land plays in supporting all life and how farmers bring life from the land?"

He said the industrialized model of agriculture, and its demand for specialized, standardized and centralized production, has fostered the idea that food must be as plentiful as it is cheap. "That sense that nothing else matters has left farmers feeling they've no option but to exploit their land by producing as much as possible for the lowest cost.
"And by having to focus on the bottom line to the exclusion of all else, including family, the environment - everything - the people producing our food have also become disconnected from the land," Ikerd said.

Citing figures showing that 30 to 50 percent of U.S. agriculture is under corporate control, Ikerd said the disconnection of farmers from the land is a predictable outcome "when you separate ownership of the system of production - the farm - from the ultimate decision making control. Decisions farmers used to make now get made by corporate directors, who are more concerned about the welfare of their stockholders than they are about farmers or the land."

Replacing industrial agriculture with a knowledge-based, sustainable agriculture model that is ecologically sound, economically viable and socially responsible will re-forge connections the industrial model has broken, Ikerd said.
"Shifting to a knowledge-based model will put people back at the center of things," he said. "That's the only way it will work."
Once that has happened, he said it would be possible for a sustainable system of agriculture to take root and spread.
"Basically what I'm talking about isn't radical; it's the Golden Rule," Ikerd said. "Doing unto others as you want them to do unto you. Respecting and taking care of each other. Sustainability extends that across generations by doing unto those to come in future years, as you would want them to do for you if they came before you.
"Taking care of future generations is not a sacrifice, it's a privilege."

He cautioned about getting hung up looking for a definitive sustainable ag recipe. Ticking off fingers, Ikerd named "organic, BIOS, permaculture, biological farming - it doesn't matter because they're all headed in the same direction. Their common method is enlightened self-interest."

Their common challenge, he said, "was having to create new approaches to agriculture pretty much on their own because they get little or no help from the universities and government."

Sustainable agriculture is nevertheless succeeding to varying degrees all around the country by feeding the niche markets and an expanding customer base through CSAs, farmers' markets and a variety of buy-local campaigns and programs.
"And building relationships and connectedness along the way," Ikerd stressed. "I have a feeling that what we're seeing right now is an infection of sustainability within agriculture and related areas and it's only a matter of time before is overwhelms all of society."