environment/agricultural science Keith Douglass Warner is Faith, Ethics, and Vocation Project Director in the Environmental Agroecology in Action Studies Institute at Santa Clara University, where Extending Alternative Agriculture he is also a Lecturer. He is a Franciscan Friar. through Social Networks Food, Health, and the Environment series Keith Douglass Warner foreword by Fred Kirschenmann American agriculture has doubled its use of pes- “Warner demonstrates that the evolution of Agroecology in Action ticides since the publication of Rachel Carson’s ecologically sound agricultural practices is not Silent Spring in 1962. Agriculture is the nation’s likely to occur without a coordinated effort that Agroecology in Action leading cause of non-point-source water pollu- combines science-based knowledge, experience- tion—runoffs of pesticides, nutrients, and sedi- based information, well executed social dynam- ments into streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. In ics, and political support. He does a masterful Agroecology in Action, Keith Douglass Warner job of making this case, which is grounded both Extending Alternative Agriculture through Social Networks describes agroecology, an emerging scientific in sound ecological and social theory and in response to agriculture’s environmental crises, actual case studies. This book will make a signifi- and offers detailed case studies of ways in which cant contribution to deliberations on the future growers, scientists, agricultural organizations, of land-grant universities as they reinvent them- and public agencies have developed innovative, selves for the 21st century.” ecologically based techniques to reduce reliance —Frederick L. Kirschenmann, Leopold Center for on agrochemicals. Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University Agroecology in Action shows that agro- ecology can be put into action effectively only “This book addresses a quiet revolution in when networks of farmers, scientists, and other California agriculture, an important story that stakeholders learn together. Farmers and scien- few people know. It provides a powerful analytic tists and their organizations must work collabo- tool for anyone investigating collaborative ratively to share knowledge, whether it is efforts to prevent pollution and promote envi- derived from farm, laboratory, or marketplace. ronmental protection in food and fiber.” Warner This sort of partnership, Warner writes, has —David Runsten, UCLA School of Public Affairs, emerged as the primary strategy for finding Executive Director, Community Alliance with alternatives to conventional agrochemical use. Family Farmers Warner describes successful agroecological ini- tiatives in California, Iowa, Washington, and The MIT Press Wisconsin. California’s vast and diverse specialty- Massachusetts Institute of Technology crop agriculture has already produced 32 agricul- Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 tural partnerships, and Warner pays particular http://mitpress.mit.edu attention to agroecological efforts in that state, including those under way in the pear, winegrape, and almond farming systems. The book shows how popular concern about the health and environmental impacts of pesti- cides has helped shape agricultural environmen- tal policy, and how policy has in turn stimulated 0-262-73180-0 creative solutions from scientists, extension 978-0-262-73180-5 agents, and growers. Keith Douglass Warner foreword by Fred Kirschenmann Agroecology in Action Food, Health, and the Environment Series editor: Robert Gottlieb, Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College Keith Douglass Warner, Agroecology in Action: Extending Alternative Agriculture through Social Networks Agroecology in Action Extending Alternative Agriculture through Social Networks Keith Douglass Warner The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa- tion storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information on quantity discounts, email [email protected]. Set in Sabon by The MIT Press. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Warner, Keith. Agroecology in action : social networks extending alternative agriculture / Keith Douglass Warner. p. cm. — (Food, health, and the environment) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-0-262-23252-4 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-262-23252-9 (alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-262-73180-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-262-73180-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Agricultural ecology—United States. 2. Agricultural innovations—United States. 3. Alternative agriculture—United States. 4. Agricultural ecology. 5. Agricultural innovations. 6. Alternative agriculture. I. Title. S441.W28 2007 577.5'50973—dc22 2006046712 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is dedicated to Bill Friedland, a most inspiring scholar. Contents Series Foreword ix Foreword by Frederick Kirschenmann xi Acknowedgments xv Introduction: Re-Thinking the Ecology of Industrial Agriculture 1 1 Rachel’s Dream: Agricultural Policy and Science in the Public Interest 9 2 Agroecology in America: An Integrated System of Science and Farming 35 3 Cultivating the Agroecological Partnership Model 59 4 The Partners 89 5 The Practices 125 6 Agroecological Networks in Action 163 7 Circulating Agroecology 197 8 Public Mobilization 217 Notes 233 References 257 Index 271 Series Foreword I am pleased to present the first book in the Food, Health, and the Environment series. This series explores the global and local dimensions of food systems and examines issues of access, justice, and environmen- tal and community well-being. It will include books that focus on the way food is grown, processed, manufactured, distributed, sold, and consumed. Among the matters addressed are what foods are available to communities and individuals, how those foods are obtained, and what health and environmental factors are embedded in food-system choices and outcomes. The series focuses not only on food security and well- being but also on regional, state, national, and international policy decisions and economic and cultural forces. Food, Health, and the Environment books provide a window into the public debates, theoreti- cal considerations, and multidisciplinary perspectives that have made food systems and their connections to health and environment important subjects of study. Robert Gottlieb, Occidental College Series editor Foreword As conceived by the Smith-Lever Act, the role of the Extension Service was to “diffuse” useful and practical information to people engaged in agriculture and home economics. It was assumed that new technologies, developed by researchers at land-grant universities, could bring the industrial revolution to America’s farms and help the farming community interface more effectively with the evolving urban economy. The Smith-Lever Act, accordingly, defined the Extension Service as the “technology transfer” link between the research community and farmers. This agricultural paradigm defined researchers as active producers of information and farmers as the passive recipients. With the advent of industrial agriculture organization—complete with input dealers, private agricultural management field specialists, and electronic information systems—it can be argued that the Extension Service’s “technology transfer” role has become obsolete. But agriculture is changing in ways that may make the role of the Extension Service more important in the future. This emerging agriculture is based more on ecological science than on technological innovations. Such agroecological initiatives assert that many current technologies based on fossil energy can be replaced with proper interactions between crops, livestock, and other organisms. And this new approach brings with it new challenges and opportunities, and a critical need for a new kind of Extension Service. It is this re-invention of the Extension Service that makes Keith Warner’s Agroecology in Action such an important work. Industrial agriculture was based on a set of core assumptions that largely held true for the past half century. Among those assumptions were the following: xii Foreword Production efficiencies could best be achieved through specialization, simplification, and concentration. Technological innovation would be able to overcome all production challenges. Control management was effective. Natural resource depletion could always be overcome, and sinks in nature would always be adequate to absorb the wastes. Therapeutic intervention was the most effective strategy for controlling undesirable events. Cheap energy would always be available. As we enter the twenty-first century, all these assumptions are being chal- lenged. Oil, natural gas, and irrigation water, which provide most of the inputs necessary for the continued success of industrial agriculture, are being depleted. The advent of climate change promises to bring us more unstable, volatile climate scenarios, putting highly specialized, monocul- ture farming systems—which require relatively stable climate condi- tions—at a comparative disadvantage. And, as the United Nations’ 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis Report reveals, the ecosys- tem changes inflamed by our approach to acquiring food, water, timber, fiber, and fuel over the past half century has polluted or over-exploited