Small-scale agriculture

Small-scale agriculture

Small-scale agriculture is an alternative to factory farming or more broadly, intensive agriculture or unsustainable farming methods that are prevalent in primarily first world countries. "Environmental Health Perspectives" has noted that " Sustainable agriculture is not merely a package of prescribed methods. More important, it is a change in mind set whereby agriculture acknowledges its dependence on a finite natural resource base--including the finite quality of fossil fuel energy that is now a critical component of conventional farming systems." [http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2002/110p445-456horrigan/horrigan-full.html#sust] Small scale agriculture include a number of sustainable farm practices such as:

* organic farming, which removes all chemical pesticides and fertilizer from agriculture
* permaculture, which provides a holistic methodology for farm design
* arable land use, arable land (from Latin "arare", to plough ) is a form of agricultural land use, meaning land that can be (and is) used for growing crops. David Ricardo incorporated the idea of arable land into economic theory.
* non-arable land use
* pastoral, pastoral refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and feed.
* rainfed agriculture

The methods of food sustainability and economics are being hotly debated. This is a question between economics and the draining of the largely unaccounted natural capital.

Dietary methods

Some dietary methods may contribute to sustainablity such as macrobiotic, vegan, vegetarianism or restricting animal products to those produced using the above methods.

ee also

*small business
*Compassion In World Farming
*agribusiness
*corporate farming
*rotational grazing


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