Extending the application of fuzzy sets to the problem of agricultural sustainability

While there is no consensus on a definition, it is widely recognized that the concept of sustainability has economic, environmental and social dimensions. This multidimensionality has impeded the development of empirical applications of the concept of sustainability. The specific problem of modeling agricultural sustainability is described. It is argued that fuzzy methods offer important advantages in overcoming at least three of the inherent difficulties in modeling agricultural sustainability: (1) the problem of noncommensurate units can be effectively handled through the use of linguistic variables; (2) information that is vague or imprecise can still be included in a problem when this information is modeled as a fuzzy set; and (3) the interrelationships between the dimensions of sustainability can be incorporated into a model by means of a fuzzy rule base. The application of fuzzy sets to the problem of agricultural sustainability is illustrated with a brief example of a mixed crop-livestock farming system in Missouri.