Why “industrial” ecology for sustainable agriculture?
Agriculture and food processing is the industry with the most immediate dependence upon ecological systems; so the industrial ecology approach of modeling human systems upon ecosystems seems particularly applicable to this field. We believe that IE has the breadth required for modeling the transition to sustainable food and fiber production. This transformation will require interdisciplinary coordination among many fields of research and practice — technical, economic, social, political, and ecological. IE’s systems approach provides an excellent context for evaluating partial and high-risk solutions, such as genetic engineering, in terms of their potential benefits and risks for the whole food and fiber system as well as for the health of humans and ecosystems. Industrial ecologists appreciate the valuable contributions of reductionist sciences, such as genetic engineering, however, we insist that a systems view is necessary to understand the appropriate application of such innovatio
