USA

For generations, American farmers have worked to protect and improve the land and the quality of rural life. Early farmers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, seeing a need to change some standard agricultural practices, became leaders in adopting new farming methods. Washington was among the first of his generation to practice crop rotation, compost livestock waste and help pioneer the use of new planting methods. Jefferson remained a fervent advocate of testing new crops and varieties throughout his life, always seeking plants best suited to the land and people's needs. Washington and Jefferson's search for alternative methods that would improve agriculture, the land and the lives and health of the citizenry is emulated today by producers who farm with an eye toward sustainability. The approaches many of today's farmers and ranchers take as they grapple with these tough issues has come to be known as sustainable agriculture.

Community-supported agriculture to maintain profitability in farming and to forge community ties - Carol Eichelberger and Jean Mills Coker, Alabama

Each produce pick-up day, as the customers flood Carol Eichelberger and Jean Mills' community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm, the owners renew their commitment to this rapidly expanding form of cooperative farming. The enthusiasm of their customers partners of a sort who pay in advance for fresh produce harvested from spring through fall recharge the hard-working CSA partners.

"We love the whole CSA package," says Eichelberger, who opened the four-acre venture with Mills in 1989. While the women grow and harvest the produce, many of their customers volunteer to wash, weigh, bag and distribute, all the while learning more about how their food is produced and how buying locally helps create a sustainable food system in their Alabama community.

	The involvement of the community in the farm gives them something more than vegetables and gives us energy we don't get just from growing.

The CSA concept premiered in the United States in the mid-1980s, uniting a non-farm public that craved great-tasting, locally grown fruit and vegetables with farmers who want a secure customer base. This new trend among small vegetable farms helps maintain profitability for growers, who sell fresh food often to specification directly to their neighbors in exchange for money up front and a local buyer's empathy for drought, floods or pest outbreaks. CSA's, most of which are organic, also are considered sustainable because they rejuvenate rural communities and can help bridge the widening gap between rural and urban America.

Located outside Tuscaloosa, Ala., Eichelberger and Mills' CSA draws a steady crowd of customers from the University of Alabama and the surrounding community. Eichelberger and Mills, who grow organically, provide a specialized market for customers who want organic produce as well as a greater variety than can be found in the average supermarket.

Eichelberger and Mills work hard to improve a soil that receives 57 inches of rain a year and bakes under the Alabama sun. "We tend to think locally when it comes to sustainability," Eichelberger says. "We have relatively poor soil, and we're trying to do what we can to build it up and preserve what we've got."

The first year, they left some walkways between the rows unplanted and bare. To avoid exposing the soil to the harsh southern conditions, the following year they planted white dutch clover as a living mulch between vegetable beds. The clover cover keeps the soil from compacting and washing away while providing habitat for beneficial insects. As part of a SARE producer grant, Eichelberger and Mills mow the clover and compost it with sawdust, straw, grass clippings and vegetable waste. They apply the compost, rich in nitrogen and organic matter, and hope to eliminate the need to buy fertilizer.

	People around here refer to the fact that they've 'used up' their soil. We wouldn't grow food here if we thought we would make things worse. If we continue to improve the soil, we will continue to farm it.

Source: Adapted from Sustainable Agriculture Network.