Natural systems agriculture: a truly radical alternative

The natural systems agriculture (NSA) idea was developed at The Land Institute in 1977 and was published in 1978. Less than 20 years later, research efforts at The Land Institute and by other researchers familiar with research questions had satisfactorily answered the difficult biological questions launching the possibility of a new agricultural paradigm toward fruition. This new paradigm features an ecologically sound perennial food-grain-producing system where soil erosion goes to near zero, chemical contamination from agrochemicals plummets, along with agriculture's dependence on fossil fuels. NSA is predicated on an evolutionary-ecological view of the world in which the essential's for sustainable living have been sorted out and tested in nature's ecosystems over millions of years. From numerous studies, evolutionary biologists and ecologists have learned much about how ecological bills are paid by ecosystems which hold and build soil, manage insects, pathogens and weeds. A primary feature of NSA is to sufficiently mimic the natural structure to be granted the function of its components. Domesticating wild perennials and increasing seed yield and at the same time perennializing the major crops to be planted as domestic prairies is a major goal. For the first time in 10,000 years, humans: can now build an agriculture based on nature's ecosystems. As a prototype this means we explore in-depth how the never-plowed native prairie works and then develop a diverse, perennial vegetative structure capable of producing desirable edible grains in abundance including perennializing the major grain crops. A paradigm shift of relatively easily manageable proportions is available to solve the problem of agriculture and is antithetical to solving problems in agriculture. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.