Multifunctional Agriculture: More Than Bread Alone

A preeminent group of scientists, after studying what it called "alternative agriculture," found that "reduced use of these inputs [chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and antibiotics] lowers production costs and lessens agriculture's potential for adverse environmental and health effects without necessarily decreasing-and in some cases increasing-per acre crop yields and the productivity of livestock management systems" (Committee on the Role of Alternative Farming Methods in Modern Production Agriculture, Board on Agriculture, National Research Council 1989). In April 2008, a group of 400 experts from around the world, known as the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology, concluded in a report that there must be a global drive toward more sustainable farming systems, if we are to feed people and protect the very resources that will ensure food security in the future (www.agassessment.org).