Agriculture accounts for around a quarter of green house gas (GHG) emissions and is responsible for a tremendous loss of wild habitat. In other words, agriculture kills. I'm not just talking cows. Virtuous organic veggie farmers kill, too. But humans need to eat. What to do?

Narrow that question down to what specific farming practices lower GHG emissions and use less land. Then ask what prevents farmers from adopting those practices. Like  in this survey of Michigan corn-soybean farmers (Swinton et al, 2015), in which researchers asked 1408 farmers if they engaged in the following environmentally beneficial farming practices:

  • Scout for pests to guide pesticide decisions
  • Reduce tillage
  • Practice more complex crop rotations (wheat-corn-soy)
  • Apply manure
  • No tillage in some years
  • No tillage for 4 or more consecutive years
  • Precision-apply Nitrogen (N) fertilizer
  • Precision-apply herbicide & insecticide
  • Pre-test soil to guide N application rate
  • Plant any cover crop before corn
  • Plant legume cover crop before corn

The researchers then asked the farmers why they did or did not engage in said practices. Long story short:

  1. A practice was widely adopted if it was a win-win for farmers (benefits environment and farmer). Scouting for pests and reduced tillage were the only win-wins in the above list.
  2. A practice was moderately adopted if it was only an occasional win-win. Applying manure and no tillage in some years were in this category.
  3. A practice was infrequently adopted if it was usually a win-lose proposition. The rest of the practices go here.

What's a winning proposition for a farmer? Saved labor or input costs (e.g., pesticide and fuel) without reducing expected crop revenue. What's a losing proposition? Additional labor/input costs and increased management time, with no revenue payoff.

Why are so many environmentally good practices bad for farmers? In the case of corn-soybean farmers in Michigan, winter cover crops can delay or complicate spring planting; land that is not tilled for years might be invaded by difficult-to-control weeds; reducing fertilizer, insecticide, and herbicide use may  sacrifice crop yield and boost the risk of herbicide-resistant insects and weeds. These are real concerns in a low-margin business.

Next: How to transform win-lose to win-lose less, at the very least.

Reference:

Swinton, S. M., N. Rector, G. P. Robertson, C. B. Jolejole-Foreman, and F. Lupi. 2015. Farmer decisions about adopting environmentally beneficial practices. Pages 340-359 in S. K. Hamilton, J. E. Doll, and G. P. Robertson, editors. The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes: Long-Term Research on the Path to Sustainability. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA.