Sustainable Agriculture
Abstract
Global climate change is already affecting farmers around the world. Drought, extreme rainfall events, flooding, and sea level rise are causing crops to fail and leading to growing numbers of environmental refugees. Changes need to be made to adapt to these challenges. Even without climate change agriculture was not sustainable because it failed to account for environmental and social costs (more in the section on true cost accounting). Best practices using organic methods, improved direct-to-consumer marketing, super-efficient irrigation (see the section on irrigation), and using site-adapted cultivars and crops can make things better. Local, artisanal food production can create new jobs and improve food quality and consumer health.
Keywords
Sustainable agriculture, farming, organic, agroforestry, range management, animal husbandry, heritage species, fruit growing, vegetable production, bison, tropical forests, integrated pest management, community-supported agriculture, consumer-supported agriculture, super-efficient irrigation, agroforestry, nitrogen pollution, eutrophication, fertilizer, soil amendments, mulch, compost, tillage, soil management, groundwater, small farms, industrial farms, subsidies.
Selected Papers
✱Mitchell, S. and D. A. Bainbridge 1991. Soil management. Chapter 4 as an example from Sustainable Agriculture for California: A Guide to Information. University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Publication 3349, Oakland CA. 196 p.
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 2002 [1986]. Self-reliant Agriculture for Dry Lands. Sierra Nature Prints, Twain Hart, CA. 48 p.
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 2013. Sustainable agriculture. Introduction.
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 2012. Restoration of arid and semi-arid lands. Chapter 10, pp. 103-114. In van Andel, J. and Aronson, J. (eds), Restoration Ecology: The New Frontier, 2nd edition, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford UK.
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 1997. Agroforestry for the Southwest. pp. 35-38 in M. Merwin, ed. The Status Opportunity and Need for Agroforestry in the United States. Association for Temperate Agroforestry, Columbia, MO.
✱Gomez-Pompa, A. and D. A. Bainbridge. 1995. Tropical forestry as if people mattered. pp. 408-422. In A. E. Lugo and C. Lowe, eds. Tropical Forests: Management and Ecology, Springer Verlag, NY.
✱Gomez-Pompa, A., A. Kaus, J. Jiminez Orsonio, D. A. Bainbridge, and V. Rorive. 1993. Mexico Case Study. pp. 483-548. In Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics. National Research Council. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 2007. Sustainable land use systems for arid lands: research needs for the next twenty-five years. Annals of the Arid Zone. 46(3/4):425-452. (invited review)
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 2002. Sustainable(?) agriculture and water in tropical forestry as if people mattered California. PPT
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 2002. Nitrogen pollution: an economic assessment. PPT
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 2000. The pros and cons of genetically engineered crops. Resource: Engineering and Technology for a Sustainable World 7(1):33.
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 1988. The potential use of vegetation for selenium management at Kesterson Reservoir. Dry Lands Research Institute, U.C. Riverside, Riverside, CA. 67 p.
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 1986. Traditional crops of the drylands: Hopi corn. Drylander. 1(1):2.
✱Bainbridge, D. A. 1983. Farm Accounts 1982:A Very Bad Year. Acres USA. Sept. 13:9
