From: Emilio Caminero Martín [SMTP:ecaminero@ikt.es]
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 1998 3:25 AM
To: hhamilton@centerss.org
Subject: Looking for some information !
I would like to get a whole copy of the paper
'Agriculture, A Necessary Turn, The Group of Bruges
Introduction and Summary, by Hal Hamilton when you get it
finished.
Moreover, and related to one of the main matters (in my
opinion) treated in this paper, let me please ask you about
some information. In one of the paragraphs you write down
in your e-mail it makes reference to:
The necessity of planning for complex systems requires...
..."Production should not be thought independent of
production methods. Income must not be dissociated from
the value of the given service. It is necessary to
strongly integrate economic, environmental, and social
considerations."
I´m really interesting in getting to know about any
article, paper, project or empirical
implementations of some models that integrate the different
aspects covered
by this kind of agriculture models (which actually we try
to give priority in oor region Basque Country, in spain), I
mean, would you be able to send me any information about,
and especially with social considerations included ? or
Could you give some suggestions where i should adress for
a satisfactorious searching ?
I would be very grateful for any help!
Best regards
Un saludo
Emilio
ecaminero@ikt.es
Our colleague wants to know about models that integrate
social considerations with environmental and economic
considerations. Here are a few of my ideas to kick off a
discussion, but first, by the way, my brief summary of the
Bruges document is only a summary. We're working on a
translation of the whole document, written in French. I
like it, but I didn't write it. So back to the issue at
hand:
On the ground: Some of the Kellogg funded Integrated
Farming Systems projects around the US blend farm income
issues with shifts toward sustainable ag practices. Many
of these and other initiatives around the country include
marketing and value-adding as key to enlarging the farmer
and rural community portion of the food dollar. Some of
these projects are among particularly disadvantaged
communities-South Georgia, for example, and former
farmworkers in the Salinas Valley. One of the most
money-making examples, always cited, is the cooperative
pasta operation in ND.
Policy: The Small Farm Commission made major
recommendations here. I can't help but also mention the
tobacco region initiative that has brought all major farm,
rural development, government, and community stakeholders
in several states together to define a community
development/farm diversification portion of any tobacco
settlement legislation. The group developed a proposal for
value-adding, leadership development, and support for
entrepreneurship governed by community councils and
regional foundations. This concept has now been drafted
into language for the legislative process if political
events unfold. The traditional tobacco leadership accepted
very unusual players as equal partners in the policy
development process, and all have endorsed the results.
This policy plan for regional transition, blending rural
development with sustainable agriculture in a community run
process, could be a significant model for other regions.
Research and education: Here we're not as far along as we
are on-the-ground, I don't think. I suppose my
anti-academic bias will show, but it seems that our
colleagues in Academe enjoy writing about how agriculture
is no longer a motor of rural development (which sort of
agriculture?), that the trends toward industrialization are
inevitable (is this a self-fulfilling prophecy?), and that
we promoters of the possibility of renewed rural
communities including modest scale agriculture are
manipulating one another and others through the use of
pastoral myths (are we supposed to give up on our deepest
values?).
Hal Hamilton
Center for Sustainable Systems
433 Chestnut St., Berea KY 40403
Phone: (606) 986-5336
Fax: (606) 986-1299
Hhamilton@centerss.org
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