Sustainable Farming

Typology

Roberto Verzola:

Aside from agroecology (Miguel Altieri), there are many other well-documented strands of sustainable farming.

They differ in terms of emphasis, but they are all generally earth-friendly.

These include

• Korean natural farming (Han Kyu-Cho, emphasizes the role

of microorganisms and how to culture and multiply them);

• natural farming/do-nothing agriculture (Masanobu Fukuoka, emphasizes minimum

labor application);

• permaculture (Bill Mollison and David Holmgren,

emphasizes the design of farms as ecological systems);

• biodynamic farming (Rudolf Steiner, emphasizes the remote--including

cosmic--influences on farming);

• organic farming (IFOAM, focused on a

commonly-agreed set of written rules and standards that farmers must observe and follow in a verifiable way);

• soil food web approach (Helen

Ingham, focus on aerobic soil organisms and compost teas);

• biointensive gardening; etc.

It is important to keep in mind and to inform the public about this diversity, so that practitioners and beginners who want to leave the chemical approach behind can choose the methods/approaches that they are most comfortable with." (email, March 2016)