Diversifying Agriculture in the Midwest

Abstract

Conventional agricultural practices prioritize yield over other ecosystem services, resulting in large monocultures with high synthetic inputs. This type of farming leads to many negative environmental externalities. As this is not sustainable, alternatives are being sought. Diversified agriculture is an alternative, holistic farming framework that prioritizes increased functional biodiversity which supports ecosystem services on the farm. An extensive literature review was conducted on common diversified agricultural practices and their related ecosystem services, culminating in a matrix detailing the number of ecosystem services each practice supported. To better understand how these practices were supported by popular conservation programs within the Farm Bill, an analysis of contract data for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) was conducted in three states in the Midwest. It was found that diversified conservation practices receive only a fraction of the total funding for EQIP. Interviews were conducted with Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) officers who oversee these programs to understand their perspective on diversified agriculture and its lack of funding. Interviews showed that many NRCS officers struggle to depart from the agency’s conservation framework when engaging with the concept of diversified agriculture. In the context of the new Climate Smart Agriculture initiative from the Biden Administration, there may be a window to increase salience and adoption of diversified agricultural practices, but under the guise of carbon sequestration, an ecosystem service that many diversified agricultural practices support.