Who said it first?
Willie Lockeretz (WLockeretz@infonet.tufts.edu)
Wed, 6 Mar 96 7:26:53 EST
The recent banter between the sustainablists and the organics raises in my
mind the origin of the term "sustainable agriculture". How far back can any
of you give a citation to it? The earliest I know of is from 1977. "Towards a
Sustainable Agriculture" was the title of the first international conference
of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. (That's
right, Organic.)
It was an inspiring conference, with participants from many countries
covering an impressive breadth of topics, often with great insight. Not
included, though -- I wasn't aware that there was anything missing until many
years later -- were pronouncements of the "Here's my definition of
sustainable agriculture" or "My system is more sustainable than your system"
genre. Maybe they had more important things on their mind.
William Lockeretz