The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (https://sustainableagriculture.net/)

Abstract

From 1981 through 1986, agricultural communities in the United States (U.S.) experienced the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s (Barnett, 2000). In the decade prior, agricultural production had increased dramatically, encouraged by government programs and by growing international demand for U.S. agricultural commodities. Agricultural producers, particularly those just starting their businesses, took on high levels of debt to purchase equipment and land in an effort to maximize production and hedge against inflation. Heavily leveraged farmers were devastated when elevated production and loss of some export markets brought down commodity prices sharply, and drought added to the dire losses incurred by farmers and their communities (Barnett, 2000). Grassroots organizations working with rural communities during this farm crisis observed widespread interest among farmers in alternatives to trying to achieve viability through scale. Representatives from these groups came together to explore how federal research programs could better support farmers to “use more of their management and skills to cut input cost, to add value to their production, and capture a bigger share of the profit in the food system” (Hassebrook, 2015, p. 2). Drawing inspiration from seminal government research and policy recommendations on the status of family farms (United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1981), agricultural lands (United States Department of Agriculture & the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, 1981), and organic practices (United States Department of Agriculture Study Team on Organic Farming, 1980), leaders in these discussions agreed on the need for representation in Washington to advance a policy platform to more comprehensively support sustainable agriculture (Hassebrook, 2015; Hoefner, 2015). They also recognized the value of cultivating a diverse network that could engage https://doi.org/10.1080/10496505.2021.1966728