The Challenge of Sustainability at the Farm Level: Presidential Address

Abstract

The sustainability of farming systems is currently under debate. There is concern that technological and other changes have long‐run consequences, which may compromise future levels of desired outputs from agricultural and other resources. The paper traces developments in the theory of sustainability and discusses their application at the farm level. Findings include firstly, that sustainability should be regarded as an emergent property of an agricultural system. Its operational definition at the farm level thus may not apply at other levels in the hierarchy. Secondly, whilst individual farmers may attach value to “sustainability” goods, they are unlikely to adopt socially optimal levels without regulation or incentive. Finally, since sustainability issues at the farm level are usually long‐run, dynamic and have social dimensions, a central task for farm management researchers lies in investigations which allow tradeoffs between different sustainability criteria to be determined and then optimised according to society's norms.