transforming our food system ideals from "organic" to sustainable
Real sustainability, [Fred Kirschenmann, former director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture] argues, is defined not by a food system’s capacity to ensure happy workers or organic lima beans, but by whether the food system can sustain itself—that is, keep going, indefinitely, in a world of finite resources. A truly sustainable food system is inherently resilient—more capable of self-correction and self-revitalization than its industrial rival. Unfortunately, in the real world of farming, ideas like “resilience” must compete with realities like “costs” and “profits,” and producers and consumers alike gravitate toward simpler standards—even if those standards don’t represent truly sustainable practices.
+ mother jones +
