Farming for Ecosystem Services: An Ecological Approach to Production Agriculture

TLDR

Assessing ecosystem services in agriculture demands a systems‑level socioecological view of management practices across local to landscape scales. Long‑term observations at the Kellogg Biological Station demonstrate that intensive row‑crop farms can deliver high yields while also providing clean water, biocontrol, biodiversity, climate stabilization, and soil fertility, and that both farmers and citizens are willing to adopt and pay for such services, indicating the feasibility and environmental significance of a farming‑for‑services paradigm.

Abstract

A balanced assessment of ecosystem services provided by agriculture requires a systems-level socioecological understanding of related management practices at local to landscape scales. The results from 25 years of observation and experimentation at the Kellogg Biological Station long-term ecological research site reveal services that could be provided by intensive row-crop ecosystems. In addition to high yields, farms could be readily managed to contribute clean water, biocontrol and other biodiversity benefits, climate stabilization, and long-term soil fertility, thereby helping meet society's need for agriculture that is economically and environmentally sustainable. Midwest farmers-especially those with large farms-appear willing to adopt practices that deliver these services in exchange for payments scaled to management complexity and farmstead benefit. Surveyed citizens appear willing to pay farmers for the delivery of specific services, such as cleaner lakes. A new farming for services paradigm in US agriculture seems feasible and could be environmentally significant.