Agriculture 3.0

Development of the concepts around an Agriculture 3.0 is an ongoing, fluid process. We welcome your input and inquiry! Please contact Steffen.

One hundred and fifty years since Rudolf Steiner's birthday and almost ninety years since his groundbreaking lectures on agriculture commonly known as the "Agriculture Course" have passed. This anniversary provides an opportunity to express gratitude and appreciation for a work that has shaped and continues to shape life at Hawthorne Valley Farm. However, it is the larger context that is much, much more important.

Our planet is in dire straits, facing multiple crises (climate, water, ecosystem diversity, pollution). Agriculture across the globe is facing huge challenges, needing to feed an ever growing population. On the other hand, more awareness around agriculture and food has arisen in our part of the world in the last five to seven years and resulted in a very dynamic and burgeoning local agriculture and food movement.

In light of these facts, there is an emerging need to look at agriculture and food in a radical new way, a complete "re-branding" and re-framing of our concepts and perceptions. It seems this emergent future can be called "Agriculture 3.0".

What is Agriculture 3.0?

Agriculture 1.0 was and still is rooted in traditional ways based on peasant wisdom and the practices that have developed over thousands of years in all parts of the world. This is still the most prevalent form of agriculture practiced in the world today. Its paradigm is locally adapted, labor intensive, relatively small, diverse, and agro-ecologically sound farms that are very much at the heart of their respective communities and societies. Many family farms are part of this tradition as well. Slow Food, as an example, is one organization that is trying to preserve this wisdom and the products it creates, through its Arc of Taste programs.

Agriculture 2.0 is, and hopefully soon was, the application of an industrial efficiency mindset into the living realm. This has created what we call agribusiness or industrial agriculture. One of its main paradigms is "get big or get out". It has also pushed farming onto the economic fringe, solely there to produce lots of cheap food. While it has undoubtedly provided growing amounts of food (of sometimes questionable quality), it has done so with significant social and environmental costs.

Agriculture 3.0 then is the emergent future form. In order for us to transcend and transform 1.0 and 2.0, we must redefine what agriculture actually means and what context it really needs today and looking forward. Steiner's assertion of agriculture being the foundation of both cultural and economic life and affecting all of social life could be seen as his way of expressing this concept.

It is noteworthy and encouraging that the need for a more fundamental step is being recognized and formulated in more and more places. International studies and UN reports speak about the "multifunctionality" of agriculture and stress the need to create agro-ecologically sound farming systems in order to meet future demands. But we might have to go even further than that - to form and firmly grasp and penetrate new imaginations around agriculture and its place in nature, our economy and our society. There are three distinct but intimately tied areas that encompass and frame Agriculture 3.0.

Framing Agriculture 3.0

The first of these three realms is the ecological/biological foundation of all farms. What can be the driving paradigm in this area, beyond ecologically sound methods? Is it a real understanding of the farm organism/individuality, and what new reports call agroecology? Don’t we have a long way to go to appreciate and understand all the forces and interactions present on a diverse farm and their effects on the food grown there? How well do these farms fit into the surrounding land- and farmscapes in forming interpenetrating holons? In this area some of the main questions have to do with size, scale, diversity, and local adaptation of operations.

The second realm encompasses the economic parameters that govern our food system today. What is the future paradigm in this area? Is it what Rudolf Steiner calls associative economy or in Otto Scharmer's nomenclature, Awareness Based Collaboration (ABC)? How do we practice this at our farms and then in the wider economy? What social skills and techniques do we need to have and apply to achieve this? It is worth interjecting here, that one main impulse for the CSA movement comes from this source. It is also fair to say that many CSA's are still struggling to implement these economic ideas and practices.

Can we redefine the concepts of value, quality, and food itself? How can we develop better ways to have capital flow into areas where it is really needed and could help create real values, not just paper value and thus support new ways of land access and land tenure? Charles Walters, the founder of ACRES put it succinctly in 1975, emphasizing the role that the consumers play in this dynamic: "The old agriculture of the 19th and 20th century is dying, and consumers can hasten that death, and they should. They are, after all, the walking wounded, offended by the chemical amateur. The consumer cannot hide in an organic garden or sleep in a subway of ignorance. Consumers will get clean agriculture when they demand it, casting their demands in knowledgeable terms and nailing those terms to the market door."

The third realm encompasses the whole social/cultural environment. Presently the status of agriculture and related activities is valued at or near the bottom of our societal structures. Can we change this paradigm and make agriculture a more recognized, compelling, modern and viable vocational choice for the younger generations all over the globe? Innovative answers and new imaginations are necessary to inspire the next generations. This has become a leading thought and question for me as its answer might provide solutions all over the world. In countries like ours the average age of the farming population is in the high 50's and very, very few people are engaged in agriculture. In more traditional societies the youth is migrating to urban centers as they are the places where modernity and many diverse cultural and economic opportunities are located. One interesting challenge and possibly a direction for an answer in this regard will be to look at manual labor and value it in a whole new way. As Vandana Shiva put it so beautifully: "We need to worship the Earth with our labor."

Looking to the Future

New developments around farm- and place-based learning, urban farming, agri-tourism, concern around food security and safety, new rural/urban connections and innovative urban design point to a growing awareness around the need of a raised stature of land stewards. Also, in the United States, 2010 was the first year in many decades that the number of farms in the country actually increased after years of annual decreases. Applying the latest farming knowledge, peasant wisdom, cutting edge systems design thinking, and true insight within an inclusive, meaningful dialogue process will hopefully begin to provide fruitful glimpses into the formation of new paradigms, concepts and imaginations. Not the least critical component of this process will be the ability of each of us to really reflect on and penetrate into what drives and motivates us in the context of the world.

As Rudolf Steiner said, "There is no realm of human life that is not affected by agriculture". Linking and understanding these statements with his socio/economic, pedagogic, and even medical thoughts creates a context within which to think about the future. A real difficulty and challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity, lies in holding all the many viewpoints and angles in one's consciousness while trying to create an agri-culture for the future, an Agriculture 3.0.

Questions for Consideration

Below are a few "litmus" questions that, depending on how we might answer them, could show us if we really have a new picture, not more of the same:

• What's beyond the call for "cheap food" and can we achieve real food justice?
• Can we look at live power in a cutting edge way and not as hopelessly romantic and stuck in the past?
• Will a truly modern education inherently need a place/nature/farm-based component in order to be complete?
• What are new farm and land tenure structures besides the family farm and the "get big or get out" agribusiness model?
• Can farmers be considered "primary health care practitioners"?
• What kind of training and mentoring/support systems need to be in place to create a vocational path and guarantee success for all the new, beginning farmers?

The Need for Dialogue

In the recognition of the need for a collaborative dialogue, your feedback, thoughts, and questions are most welcome. Please contact Steffen.