Community-supported agriculture must develop at a moderate scale to be sustainable
In recent years, the development of agriculture in the United States has taken two completely different directions: one is traditional industrialized agriculture, which is currently the mainstream of American agriculture; the other is sustainable community-supported agriculture, which emphasizes small scale, organic methods and a community-supported model, and has now developed across the United States and spread to many countries and regions around the world. These two different models and development directions have sparked debate.
Criticism of sustainable community-supported agriculture focuses mainly on the following two aspects: the first is declining yields. Because organic methods are used, yields fall by about 20%. The second is reduced efficiency. Sustainable community-supported agriculture requires ecological methods to control pests and weeds, and some steps require a great deal of manual labor, so its production efficiency is somewhat lower and the final price of food rises.
Criticism of industrialized agriculture focuses mainly on the following aspects: first, the industrialized agricultural production method is unsustainable. Second, the food produced by industrialized agriculture is safe but not healthy. Third, industrialized agriculture increases residents' risk in accessing food. Only a localized, short-chain food supply system has a stronger capacity to withstand risk. Fourth, industrialized agriculture cuts people off from a way to connect with nature.
The lessons for China's agricultural ecological transition from the practice of agricultural ecological transition in developed countries, especially the direction of American agriculture and the debates around it, are: (1) Industrialized agriculture can only be one of the goals of China's agriculture. The status and role of small-scale ecological agriculture should receive the attention it deserves. (2) Sustainable community-supported agriculture will be an important part of China's agriculture. If all localities can actively cultivate senior agricultural talent and encourage them to create community-supported farms that can produce healthy, fresh, nutritious and delicious food, China may be able to achieve leapfrog development in some areas of agricultural production. (3) Change urban design concepts to achieve sustainable agricultural development. If urban design concepts can be changed, through redesigning the garbage collection system, urban kitchen waste can be converted into fertilizer needed by agriculture; through redesigning urban household sewer systems, residents' feces can be collected and converted into organic fertilizer needed by agriculture. Then not only can current problems such as garbage surrounding cities and deteriorating water quality be alleviated, but it would also help solve problems such as food safety and resource shortages.
To this end, we suggest supporting the ecological transition of agriculture through the following economic policies: (1) Support researchers in studying the production and operation of ecological and organic agriculture, laying the foundation for promoting sustainable community-supported agriculture. (2) Change the policy bias of focusing support on large-scale agriculture and actively support small and medium-sized agriculture. We suggest that relevant departments encourage moderate scale in staple grain production, but encourage small and medium scale, sustainable and organic production in vegetables, fruits and livestock farming. (3) Actively publicize community-supported agriculture and encourage college graduates to start businesses based on the CSA model. Community-supported agriculture is a mature agricultural business method proven in practice around the world, and it helps raise levels of food safety and health. The government can provide policy support in areas such as entrepreneurial knowledge, production technology, financing, land leasing and market development.