Spring 1996 (v8n2)
	From the Director Long-Term Research Necessary The legislation that authorized SAREP in 1986 states that the program should address long-term issues related to sustainable agriculture. The concept of sustainability implies a long-term view, which is necessary to evaluate many of the processes in nature and agriculture. It is important that society support long-term research so that we can see the effect of farming practices on the natural resource base. For example, the practice that led to the 1930s dust bowl-plowing the prairies-actually began about 100 years earlier. Maintaining California's resource base is part of an intergenerational equity question: What is our generation's responsibility to the future? (See "Sharing the Cost of Land Tenure and Stewardship," p. 4.) In many areas of the world, the environment has been severely degraded because there was little or no thought about the needs of the future. Once the environment is degraded, productivity decreases, which reduces society's ability to feed itself. In his book Out of the Earth-Civilization and the Life of the Soil ( The Free Press, 1991), soil scientist Daniel J. Hillel says: We live in an age and culture that is very sensitive to human rights, but does not grant equal weight to human responsibilities. We insist on our prerogatives, and neglect our obligations. Our attitude toward the environment is marked by careless confidence and reckless self-indulgence. These are the attitudes and actions that, in any individual, we recognize as childish. And just as a mature person must learn to consider the circumstances and needs of others, so a mature society must restrain its exploitation of resources and consider both the rights of future generations and the needs of other species. Intermediate-length research such as that being conducted at the Sustainable Agriculture Farming Systems project at UC Davis and other sites (see Technical Reviews, p.9 and p.11) begins to address some long-term issues. Nonetheless, a commitment to real long-term research is essential to fully understand the ramifications of our farming practices. As a major research institution, it is the responsibility of the University of California to address these long-term issues. In 1990 SAREP funded a group of UC Davis researchers who initiated the first 100-year irrigated farmland research site in a Mediterranean climate anywhere in the world. SAREP provided $150,000 to begin the experiment. Since that time both the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) and the UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences have committed substantial resources to keep this research going. In addition to its considerable scientific value, the Long-term Research on Agricultural Systems (LTRAS) project at UCD is a very worthy effort, for it is an acknowledgment by those of us living that we have a responsibility to the next generations. The experiments are under the leadership of Ford Denison of the Agronomy Department at UCD. Denison and other scientists have two years experience at the site, and have made good progress in the set-up of long-term research, and in experiments that can provide information that is useful right now. Important questions relating long-term sustainability and soil, air and water quality are being examined. The effect of different levels of organic matter on soil productivity will be researched over a long time period. For example, researchers will be comparing treatments for which the amount of carbon inputs varies by seven-fold. In addition to answering specific scientific questions, this comparison may also shed light on a critical issue related to the problem of global warming. CO2 is a greenhouse gas. If we learn how to trap or sequester this CO2 in soil organic matter, that would help reduce atmospheric CO2, one of the culprits implicated in global warming. The only way to identify and understand these soil processes is to study them under carefully conducted field studies over very long periods of time. Other issues that will be examined at the LTRAS are water use efficiency, nitrogen sources, organic matter management, soil health/plant health relationships, microbial dynamics in the soil, soil physical issues, and dust movement. As we have seen in the famous Rothamsted Classical Experiments in Southern England and other long-term experiments started more than 100 years ago, unforeseen issues not contemplated at the beginning of those experiments have emerged and can be understood because we have this long-term history. The LTRAS experiments began in the early 1990s, when the state and the University of California were beginning to experience financial difficulties. It took a substantial effort by many people to negotiate the finances of this important research. The experiment has many individual investigators studying the sustainability of agricultural practices within the larger context of agricultural systems. Since contributing the initial start-up money for the overall project, SAREP has funded an additional four-year treatment in the original experiment. But long-term support cannot stop. It is important to keep this experiment well-financed, as it is the only one of its type in California. This effort must be continued so we have a sound scientific knowledge base from which to draw information about the future of agriculture. Agricultural practices will continue to evolve and change in the next century, but the basic questions addressed in this research will always be timely. Because it is important to keep this work going into the future, the UC must take the lead in securing funding sources to maintain the LTRAS project and start other long-term studies.-Bill Liebhardt, director, University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. [ Back | Search | Feedback ]