permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] more on ANSI sustainable ag standard
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:16:29 -0500
From: Michelle Miller <mmmille6@WISC.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

My take on the initial standard discussion is that there is need for
scope control if any sort of ANSI sustainable ag/food standard is to be
created. As we are all keenly aware, agriculture and the food system are
incredibly complex, site-specific, product-specific, and embedded in
relationships that stretch far back into the past. Listening in on the
initial standards meeting led me to think that some parts of agriculture
are ready and capable of developing a sustainability standard, most
notably specialty crops (veggies, fruits, flowers & maybe other
horticultural crops). These farmers (and the rest of their supply
chains) are already grappling with multiple sustainability standards
w/certifications. An "uber standard" for specialty crops has the
potential to help farmers (and others in the chain).While the scope of
such an effort would be daunting, it seems do-able to me, and would
benefit from lessons learned in developing the USDA organic standard.
However, commodity farmers have much less incentive and readiness to
enter into such a discussion, as was clear from the posturing at the
meeting. (Cotton may be an exception.) To get a specialty crops standard
off the ground will require building a standards committee that involves
key businesses in the supply chain who are already developing such
standards for their farmer-colleagues. I didn't see many of them
actively involved yet. While a focus on production is understandable,
building an entire supply chain on sustainability principles is
necessary for product integrity.

Another thing that was abundantly clear from that meeting is that it
will be next-to-impossible for the currently assembled group to define
sustainable agriculture for use as a standard. (One of the participants
stated at the outset that it felt as though the League of Nations was
meeting, laying ground work for the United Nations.) Sustainable
agriculture can best be defined by what has transpired in the activist
community over the past 25-odd years, not by those who aspire to simply
market themselves as sustainable. (We need to self-define here, rather
than be defined.) Perhaps the community has not sufficiently told its
story? Who are the historians of our efforts? How can we better bring
our stories to the front lines of change? (Anyone know Lewis Lapham???)

If you or your organization have the capacity to participate in this
ANSI process, please do. These are important discussions and each is an
opportunity to continue our work building bridges with those yet
unconnected. The risk is always that, as in game theory, if one player
chooses competition (the default setting in business) over cooperation
(modus operandi for the sustainable ag movement), the win-win bubble
bursts. Yet, it seems to me that confronting these issues is our next
step as a movement, however difficult.

Michelle Miller
Associate Director
UW-Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
www.cias.wisc.edu