2004 edition
The goal of this book is to identify and analyze several concrete
examples of ways that a wide range of commodities are being produced around the
world that reduce their environmental impacts. The goal is to show that there are
new ways of thinking and acting that reduce agricultural impacts. These ways of
thinking are relevant to most crops produced on the planet, but they cannot be
adopted whole cloth—they will have to be adapted to different crops and circumstances.
The most important thing to take away from the book, then, is not what to
think in any specific circumstance but rather how to think. And of course, while
most of these actions make sense for farmers in their own right, there are also important
roles for governments, buyers, environmentalists, investors, researchers, and
consumers.
This book will stimulate dialogue and discussion among producers and between
producers and others genuinely interested in these issues. Such discussion, based on
new facts, will amplify, redirect, and focus the debate on sustainable agriculture. As
such, the book should encourage the identification of BMPs from around the world
and stimulate their analysis so that the lessons can be more widely disseminated to
reduce the impacts of global agriculture and increase its sustainability and profitability
at the same time.