Subject: WSAA NEWSLETTER PART 2 of 3
From: [email-masked] (World Sustainable Agriculture Association)
Date: 1 Jul 1994 20:43:03 -0400
Newsgroups: alt.sustainable.agriculture

PART II     WSAA NEWSLETTER    SUMMER 1994

FOCUS ON POLICY: 
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE and FOOD SECURITY WATCH

     Leveraging Change for Agriculture in International Institutions 
     Call for Input:  Indicators of Sustainability
     Protecting the Earth for Sustainable Development

Leveraging Change for Agriculture in International Institutions

     Dr. Charles Benbrook, consultant to UNDP, spoke at the WSAA 
Washington Brown Bag in February.  He focused on the complexity 
of bringing about change within the UN system, a process which 
requires both clarity of thought and diplomacy to forge consensus 
among many players with deep-set feelings about priorities and 
policy directions.  A synopsis of his remarks follows.

     Change is difficult in the UN system because of the large
numbers of players and multiple relationships, and growing demands
on UN resources for peace-keeping, humanitarian relief efforts,
and "crisis intervention" in the world's hot-spots.  Despite
widespread recognition of the need to shift the development
paradigm of institutions to achieve sustainable agriculture and
rural development (SARD), as envisioned in Agenda 21, the task is
difficult and vital financing remains hard to secure.   The donor
community is looking for new initiatives and a deeper commitment
to cooperation within the system, so that development activities
are administered more efficiently and responsively to local needs
and initiative.

Conflicts Between Policies and Actions

     The soon to be released FAO report "Strategies for
Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD):  The Role of
Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries," an extensively revised
version of the one I wrote at FAO's request after attending the
den Bosch meeting in April of 1991, is an  FAO monograph on what
is required to accelerate progress toward SARD.   The Capacity 21
document of UNDP addressing SARD is a "work in progress," and will
strive to highlight the new sorts of development activities, and
participatory approaches to development, that are called for in
Chapter 14, Agenda 21.  Together, the FAO SARD report and the
Capacity 21 document need to communicate a consistent, practical
vision of how to move along the path toward SARD.  

Using Leverage to Achieve SARD

     There is a recognition that changes are needed within the UN
system, and that cooperation across the entire development
community is going to be vital to secure additional resources and
make better use of those that are available.  For instance, both
the UNDP and FAO, and USDA's ARS (Agricultural Research Service)
must change how they spend their money.  UNDP works with
governments and invests money in a long chain of actions and
decisions.  At the state, federal and UN levels all institutions
are struggling with the same problem in operationalizing
commitment to SARD.  Through project design and new evaluation
techniques, however, it will be possible to help direct the
process more effectively, and to engage beneficiaries in a more
meaningful way.  This will require new patterns of money flow from
UNDP, FAO, and other development agencies to projects, people,
institutions, and NGOs in the field.

     Another way to leverage positive change is to develop a
mechanism to shift money from low-priority or dysfunctional
projects to high-priority, dynamic projects in line with emerging
needs.  A redirection of 10-15% of UNDP money, for instance,
replacing capital intensive projects like dams with
agriculture/forestry projects, would often be an improvement.

The Need for Indicators

	Indicators are essential in the effort to shift thinking and
change the paradigm.  We need to develop indicators of SARD to
help recognize where problems are arising, to help study whether
interventions are working, to trace the causes of non-sustainable
uses of land, and to help guide the allocation of funds.
Indicators raise key questions such as: What are the most relevant
measures of success in a project, or country?

	Since January, there has been underway an Internet electronic
conference dialogue involving as many as 200 people, primarily
research scientists, NGO representatives, and academics.  The
teleconference, capably managed by Bob Hart of INFORUM, has
generated both ideas and a growing net-work of individuals and
institutions.  A SARD indicators conference is scheduled in early
August in Washington.  (See invitation for farmer, community
groups and NGO input to this discussion this issue).

	What are indicators for?  What they should measure?  At what
level?  How should distributional and social justice issues be
incorporated in indicators, and dealt with given major data gaps?
The conceptual framework must capture the dynamic relation 
between forces.  In developing indicators, there is an unavoidably
tendency toward reductionism, which makes the task more practical,
yet tends to eliminate important factors.  New methods are needed
to strike workable balances between the need and desire to capture
complex interactions, while also producing tangible results this
century.  The UNDP Human Development index provides a relative
ranking of the status of human development, based on child
survival, per capita caloric intake, and education and economic
status.  Our efforts are working toward a methodology that also
captures the capacity to feed people, sustain rural livelihoods,
and protect the productivity of natural resources.  It is a big
job which will take years.  A particularly key need is opening up
the process of developing and applying indicators to a wide range
of groups.  That's one of the positive outcomes of the indicators
teleconference.

     Please, anyone interested in joining in, sign up and join the
dialogue.  You can join by sending the following e-mail message --

     SUBSCRIBE SARD TABLE

to the address:  [email-masked]

     You can contact me with questions or suggestions at my e-mail
address:  [email-masked]; or, via phone (202-546-5089) or
fax (202-546-5028), or on foot or via mail at: 409 First Street
S.E. Washington, D.C.  20003.

	For further information:  Sustainable Human Development and
Agriculture, UNDP Guidebook Series, 1994 is available from the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bureau for 
Programme Policy and Evaluation (BPPE), One UN Plaza, DC1-2146, 
New York, NY 10017, USA; Tel: +1(212) 906-5032; Fax: +1(212) 906-
6947.  It is billed as "the outcome of a two-year process started 
before the Earth Summit ... which is supposed to orient future 
investment in agriculture."

     The FAO SARD report, now entitled "Strategies for Sustainable 
Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD): The Role of
Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries," will be available in August
from FAO, Rome.

     Dr. Benbrook is the principal analyst and President of Benbrook 
Consulting Services, representing clients in the food, agricultural, 
public policy, international development, environmental, and food 
safety arenas.   He served from 1984 through 1990 as the Executive 
Director of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Agriculture; 
and from 1981 through 1983 as the Staff Director of the U.S. House of 
Representatives subcommittee responsible for food safety, 
agricultural research, and oversight of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture in the U.S.  House of Representatives.  Before that, he 
held for two years an agricultural policy analyst position in the 
Council on Environmental Quality, an office within the Executive 
Office of the President.

NGO AND FARMER ALERT:  CALL FOR INPUT ON INDICATORS OF 
SUSTAINABILITY IN AGRICULTURE

What Does Sustainability Mean to Farms, Families, Communities?
"On the ground" views are needed to complement input on 
"indicators of sustainability" by researchers and policymakers
by Thomas Forster

	If your group has been doing any work to develop quantitative 
or qualitative measures of bio-physical, economic or social 
characteristics of sustainability (or unsustainability) in food 
production or food security, your experience and insight is needed by 
others.  This is an important opportunity to make contributions to 
discussions, being carried on electronically via computers, on specific 
indicators of sustainability in agriculture.   There has been some NGO 
(non-profit or non-governmental organization) participation in these 
discussions before, but there needs to be much, much more.

Background:

      From January to April 1994 the first electronic conference on
indicators of sustainability was held in which over 250 individuals
participated.  Most of the participation was by scientists and
researchers from many disciplines active at both the international/
national and field levels, policy makers and a few NGOs.  There was 
much discussion of the kinds of indicators needed at different levels, 
the purposes of developing indicators, and how to think about linking 
indicators from micro (the field and farm, community, village, 
watershed, province) and macro (national, regional and international) 
levels. 

Opportunity to Participate:

      Recently, two follow-up e-conferences have been initiated.  
One is focused on macro-level indicators for Sustainable
Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD) and is moderated by 
Charles Benbrook, consultant to UNDP on developing indicators for 
SARD.  The second e-conference is focused on micro-level indicators 
as they relate to macro-level indicators and is moderated by Barbara 
Bellows of SANREM CRSP (Sustainable Agriculture Natural Resource 
Management, Collaborative Research Support Project).  The first is 
called the "SARD table" and the second is called the "SANREM table."  
Both e-conferences can be accessed by anyone with email connection 
to the Internet (including all APC networks).  The instructions for 
subscribing to these conferences are included below.

      Each conference has an agenda and schedule of topics for specific 
periods. When someone sends a contribution about what they are 
thinking on indicators of sustainability, the text is automatically sent 
to the email addresses of all subcribers, or participants to the 
discussion.  In the first conference, there were more "readers" than 
"contributors."  Either way, those interested in how sustainability is 
reflected on farms, fields and local communities are invited to join in. 

TYPES OF TOPICS BEING DISCUSSED 

I.  How can the identification and assessments of sustainability
(both socioeconomic and biophysical) be made more participatory 
and community-beneficial?  What processes, technologies, and 
frameworks are necessary?  How are these processes affected by 
local social, economic, and agroecological conditions?  How are these 
processes affected by data availability and monetary and 
logistical constraints? 

II.  How can community-based processes and indicators be linked to
technical assessments at the field level (soil, water,
biodiversity, agricultural)?  What processes, technologies, and
frameworks are necessary?  How will these linkages benefit
community members? extension agents/development workers?
researchers? policy makers?

III.  How can community-based processes and indicators be linked to
both community-based and technical assessments at the watershed
level?  What processes, technologies, and frameworks are necessary?
How will these linkages benefit community members? extension
agents/development workers? researchers? policy makers?

IV.  How can community-based processes and indicators be linked to 
policy indicators and policy decision-making?  What processes,
technologies, and frameworks are necessary?  How will these
linkages benefit community members? extension agents/ 
development workers? researchers? policy makers? 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

      In the last few years, the definition of sustainable agriculture has 
been talked about a great deal.  Researchers in national and international 
agricultural institutes (national agricultural research systems and the 
CGIAR) are engaging in this process.  Governmental agencies from the 
national agricultural ministry level to FAO, UNDP, UNEP and the 
mulitilateral development banks are engaged with this process and 
are providing financial support.  The goal is to come up with 
measurable indicators of sustainability to use as criteria to evaluate 
current programs and to develop new SARD initiatives for FAO and 
UNDP.  The measures will certainly include indicators for soil and 
water quality, food security or vulnerability, and equity or fairness 
issues.  Once the process of institutionalization of SARD indicators 
occurs, it will be harder to bring new or different perspectives on 
indicators of sustainability to bear on these programs.

	We need new ways of thinking about agricultural research and 
development.  There are very real differences and tensions between 
governmental and nongovernmental perspectives, between global 
mandates, national mandates and sectoral mandates in agriculture.  
The stakes in the debate over sustainability remain very high, 
impacting the actions and lives of people in all parts of the world.  
Opinions on technical, economic, and social issues and the way they 
are addressed differ widely.  

	Indicators aleady exist everywhere that a living tradition of
caring for plant and animal communities is still a part of daily and
seasonal life.   Farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk and rural people
constantly talk about "signs" of change in the landscape from
observations of soil erosion, the behavior of plants and animals, the
changing taste of food and water, the health of family members, etc. 
These folk or indigenous indicators are an important part of "early
warning systems" that indicate whether agricultural practices are
sustainable.   

GETTING STARTED:

1. To become a participant in the SANREM and SARD tables, address 
an email message to:

      [email-masked]

Then, in the body of the message, type:

      subscribe sanrem table

Use the same address to subscribe to the SARD table.  In the body of 
the message type:

      subscribe sard table

2. A paper is available providing a framework for the development of
macro-level indicators.  This framework was developed by Charles Benbrook
and Friedel von Mallinckrodt of UNDP.  For a copy send address an email message 
to:

      [email-masked]

with the message:

      send indicators fc 17

If you have any problems, here are some contacts to help:

SANREM Table Moderator:
Barbara Bellows
SANREM CRSP
email: [email-masked]
tel: (509) 335-7425
fax: (509) 335-1173

SARD Table Moderator:
Chuck Benbrook
UNDP SARD initiative
email: [email-masked]
tel: (202) 546-5089
fax: (202) 546-5028

Finally, please feel free to contact me for a more complete 
description if you have any questions:

Thomas Forster
NGO Working Group on Sustainable Agriculture
Email: [email-masked] (Internet)
Address: P.O. Box 128, Olga, WA 98279 USA

PROTECTING THE EARTH FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

AGRICULTURE PANEL AT SID 21st WORLD CONFERENCE POINTS TO 
NEED FOR MAJOR CHANGES

	"How must the Earth be protected for sustainable 
development?" was one of three central issues addressed by 
Low-impact Agriculture Workshop panelists at the 21st World 
Conference of the Society for International Development, held in 
Mexico City in April.   Roger Blobaum, Associate Director, WSAA, 
addressed the imperative of focusing on the natural resource 
problems dramatized at the Earth Summit, emphasizing the 
search for people-centered solutions, and placing a high priority on a 
global transition to sustainable agriculture:  

	"Implicit in Agenda 21 is an admission that the industrial 
model of agriculture has failed.  Agenda 21 calls for the adoption of 
more sustainable practices in maintaining and improving the capacity 
of the higher potential agriculture lands.  And, in a departure from 
conventional wisdom, it calls for both increased farmer participation 
and a more Earth-friendly approach to the difficult task of 
conserving and rehabilitating the natural resources on lower 
potential lands.  What this really says is that it's time for 
governments, and for the international development community, 
to start paying more attention to the environment and to the 
productive capability of the millions of small farmers left behind."

Credibility of an Agricultural Model

	Blobaum feels that the broad spectrum of environmentally 
friendly agricultural systems and practices available is gaining 
credibility and support as a model for agricultural sustainability 
around the world.  Most governments remain sceptical of these low 
impact systems and question whether they can assure a reliable 
national food supply over the long term.  However, a growing body of 
evidence in developed countries shows that well-managed organic 
farms do produce yields comparable to conventional farms after the 
transition period needed for establishment of a more holistic system.  
Preliminary results of a new study comparing ecological and 
conventional farms in India show ecological farms are as productive 
and profitable as conventional farms, and have the added advantage 
of less dependence on external nutrients and more diversity in both 
crops and practices.

	Thomas Harding, President of the International Federation of 
Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), discussed the need for fair, 
not free trade.  He referred to the Green Revolution, which led to 
higher yields on less land through subsidies and monoculture, but 
noted the sustained equal yields of some organic farms as well.  He 
noted that the loss of 2 million family farms in the US since 
1950 must be addressed.  However, removing subsidies now would 
cause the whole system to collapse.  US cheap agriculture prices do 
not include the cost of contamination of our ecosystems, chemical 
contamination, environmental illness, etc.  

	Harding believes in trying to change the policies of UNDP, the 
World Bank and FAO (the UN's agriculture arm), pressuring them to 
meet their sustainable agriculture targets.  He encouraged people to 
lobby governments at all levels to make institutions accountable to 
use an increasing part of their research budgets for organic 
agriculture.  "Empowering people from the ground up in the 
development of sustainable agriculture and organic agriculture 
markets is key, since one of the biggest roadblocks is government 
and international level regulations, economic and financial policies 
which favor pesticide use, and the current agricultural model."

Call for People-Centered Vision

	Nicholas Hilyard, of The Ecologist Magazine, United Kingdom, 
warned of a very different agenda held by international institutions 
disguised in the language of people's organizations.  "People's 
organizations are talking about control over production, away from 
cash cropping, to growing food for their own households.   They are 
talking about control of decision making, the right to have a decisive 
say in their communities on reclaiming their land, forests, 
watersheds, and the use of their natural resources.  The World Bank 
is not talking about that."  

	He noted that the increased use by the World Bank and FAO of 
grassroots and NGO language for participation and sustainable 
agriculture may sound like the same thing, but in reality comes from 
a  very different perspective.   It is based not on people-centered, 
local food systems and self-reliance in food but increased use of the 
large plantation scale, pesticide and fertilizer intensive model of 
growing for the export market.  Hilyard argued that this view of 
implementing sustainable agriculture and rural development (SARD) 
lends itself to the new trend of transnational corporations moving 
into the South and contracting out work to farmers.  "In this model, 
corporations no longer have the risk; but the farmer does.  With the 
continued export of nutrients and limited possibilities for recycling 
locally, no biomass is available to put back on the ground.  The need 
to use pesticides and fertilizers is expected to increase 50%.

	For further information about the Conference, contact SID
International Secretariat, Palazzo Civilta del Lavoro, 00144 Rome, 
Italy, Tel: (6) 592-5506; Fax: (6) 591-9836; Email: [email-masked]