Agricultural systems to date have taken an industrial and a reductionist approach. The Land Institute recommends some changes. In all of our work we look to nature to what nature s ecosystems have worked out over millennia.
Natural systems are flexible.
They are resilient to changing conditions. Species and resources are interdependent. The whole is not only greater than the sum of its parts, it is different from a simple sum because of properties that unpredictably emerge at different levels of organization. The endurance of natural ecosystems stands in contrast to the impermanence of extractive industrial systems that have depleted natural resources and human communities. By consulting Nature as the source and measure of that membership, The Land Institute seeks to develop an agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned while promoting a community life at once prosperous and enduring.