Chapter 3: Farming in the Public Interest

Brian Halweil

Delegates at the 1992 Earth Summit envisioned farming systems that ensure an adequate and accessible food supply, provide stable livelihoods for rural communities, and help build ecological health. Today, however, even as our farms have become more technologically sophisticated, they have become ecologically dysfunctional and socially destructive. In addition to contributing to some of our most threatening environmental problems-from global warming to the spread of toxic chemicals-farm families are suffering. Roughly 100 million families-about 500 million people-lack ownership rights to the land they cultivate.

Fortunately, farmers and agricultural scientists in many parts of the world are beginning to learn how to restructure the way we produce food to better serve the multiple functions outlined at Rio, focusing less on purchased chemicals and technological fixes and more on taking advantage of the ecological processes occurring in the field.

World Summit priorities: Shifting agricultural subsidies to support ecological farming practices; taxing pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and factory farms; and assuring women equal rights and support in agriculture.

• The Rise of Dysfunctional Farming
• Hunger Amidst Plenty
• The Nature of Farming
• Why Care About Rural Areas?
• Ethical Eating