But, sustainable agriculture is not low-yield agriculture. It is not necessarily less efficient over the long term than industrial agriculture, so it will not require substantially more land to produce the same amount of crops. Thus, sustainable agriculture will not require us to convert natural areas to agriculture and will not impact our ability to set aside land for parks or recreation. Encroachment on parks is simply not a real concern in this country. What is a problem, however, is the threat that development, particularly around cities, poses to agriculture.
Urban sprawl continues to gobble up prime farm land, making it unavailable to agriculture.
This is particularly important when the goal is to feed people from local rather than long-distance sources. Sustainable agriculture is firmly based in science. It uses knowledge of the complex interactions between crops, pests, and pest predators to avoid the need for costly technological fixes like pesticides and fertilizers. Such knowledge rests on research in a number of scientific disciplines, including entomology, agronomy, and weed science. Scientists in these fields are working together to understand agriculture as a system.