Summary of the National Academy of Sciences’ 2010 report:
U.S. farmers are under pressure to satisfy multiple, often competing demands, such as to produce more crops, pollute less, fulfill consumer preferences, pay fair wages, and make a living—all with increasingly scarce natural resources such as land and water. To evolve farming systems that meet all of these demands, national agricultural policy, research programs, and food markets will need to shift away from emphasizing low costs and high production exclusively and develop a more holistic perspective of how farms provide benefi ts to society. This report recommends reaching this goal through two parallel efforts: an incremental approach, in which ongoing endeavors to develop sustainable agricultural techniques are expanded; and a transformative approach, in which multiple research areas are brought together to design farming systems that balance the competing demands from the outset.
