"Designing Green Support Programs" is the second in a series of reports on Green Support Programs from the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture. The first report in this series, "Lean, Mean and Green .. Designing Farm Support Programs in a New Era," by Sarah Lynch and Katherine...

As new policy concepts emerge, their informed evolution is often hampered by unarticulated differences in individual and group interpretations of what they embody. Such is the case with "whole farm planning (WFP)," a systems-based concept for agroenvironmental management. If WFP is to move from...

Farm planning has been championed by land grant universities and the Extension Service since the turn of the century. The predominant focus of early planning efforts was on improving the farmer's management skills and the farm's natural resources, especially soil. Some farm planning experts...

Past farm policies have not encouraged a sustainable agriculture in the U. S. However, the 1985 and 1990 farm bills began to move in a more supportive direction, and the Clinton Administration has promised a new commitment to sustainability. There are several reasons why past policies have not...

From its inception, the Hemy A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture has regarded soil quality as a central issue related to the sustainability of agriculture. Current, reinvigorated research that focuses on both private and social benefits of soil quality now provides the seeds for a...

Sales of "natural" foods are rising much more rapidly than any other segment of the food market. Evidence of this leading edge of growth comes from a variety of indicators - the exponential rise in farmers' markets, the expansion in natural foods grocery stores, consistently strong stock market...

There is little that stirs more debate today in the countryside than the spread of large confined animal facilities. At a recent Congressional hearing, Dan Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture, said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture gleans several stories on such debates from the nation's...

Organic agriculture offers expanding market opportunities for many farmers, processors, distributors, and retailers in the food system (Anton Dunn, 1997a; 1997b). The recent launch of an organic breakfast cereal line by General Mills, complete with a multi-million dollar advertizing budget,...

Among alternative agriculture's basic tenets is the notion that the long-term health of our food and fiber system depends upon maintaining sufficient diversity in production, processing, and marketing. Such diversity ensures open access, competition, and innovation. The rationale is similar to...