Sustainability: Sustainable Farms

Healthy, living soil is a crucial input to sustainable food production, which can support plant growth for years to come. However, the act of raising food automatically exacts a toll on soil quality, and thus farmers have always faced the trade-off between raising food and maintaining soil quality to ensure they can continue to raise food in the future. Concern for soil quality has deep roots in our history, and contributed to the passage of the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936, which is the legislation underpinning much of today’s agricultural policy, including the Farm Bill.