Coalition releases papers on conservation, sustainable food
The AGree initiative unveiled five “Point of View” papers, written by its members, that urge collaborative work to preserve environmental quality while meeting food, feed, fiber and fuel needs of the world. “Each paper presents a unique viewpoint around the idea that productivity, profitability and environmental outcomes go hand in hand,” said Jim Moseley, AGree co-chair and former deputy agriculture secretary. “A cooperative approach is a central feature of all.” AGree focuses on long-term agriculture policy. Its sponsors are nine foundations active in the field, including the Gates, Ford and Rockefeller foundations.
Out of the five papers, Moseley was co-author of one that proposes conservation cooperatives whose members would work together to preserve soil and water quality on “working lands” in a watershed. Co-op members would be immune from regulatory action. Another of the papers says sustainable food production “is inherently collaborative,” says an AGree synopsis. “The public sector should support private sector success through landscape-scale data aggregation, articulation of thresholds for an adequate pace of improvement in each landscape, and incentives for practices with off-site impacts.”