What is Sustainable Agriculture?

Sustainable Agriculture is based on the idea that agriculture should seek to balance three long-term goals: Quality of Life, Economics and the Environment. The diagram to the right shows how these three elements can work together to create an agricultural system that meets all of these goals. Although my research connects with each of these goals independently, it is most closely aligned with creating a healthy environment, as I strive to understand complex below-ground relationships between organisms that dwell there.

My Research Philosophy

I base my research projects on the premise that science should be used to promote the well-being of small-scale farms and help farmers develop more ecologically friendly farming systems by providing alternative management practices. Since solutions to agricultural problems are neither wholly technical nor wholly social, I attempt to integrate both technical and social approaches in my research and its applications. Dovetailing the mission of the New World Agriculture and Ecology Group (NWAEG), I believe that that most recurrent problems of the human condition, including hunger, poverty, disease, and war, result from power differences between classes. By studying one small aspect of global environmental issues - soil processes and the microbes involved in nutrient cycling - I hope to better understand these problems and thereby improve the ecological basis of our farming systems. As we increase our understanding of below-ground proceses, we move closer to creating sustainable agricultural systems worldwide.

Adapted from the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture website