Small Farms and Sustainable Development: Is Small More Sustainable? Discussion

In their paper, “Small Farms and Sustainable Development: Is Small More Sustainable?” D'Souza and Ikerd examine the potential linkages between two streams of analysis—“sustainable development” and “small farms.” This is a worthwhile objective, as there has been little effort to link the two together. This is—as the authors note—a surprising gap in the thinking about forces that might lead to long-term sustainability in agricultural production. The authors are right to bring the issue to our attention.