The publicly sponsored agricultural research system in the United States has always had to deal with the tension between public expectations and scientific practices and standards. The equilibrium it established between those two contradictory demands has been unraveling since the 1960s. The contemporary challenge to the system is to redefine its public and scientific roles in an environment of rapid scientific change and of public debate and disunity.

Interaction between farmers and researchers has benefits for both groups. Researchers gain an understanding of farmers' needs and the production system into which new techniques must fit; farmers are helped in adopting new techniques, and get insights into why some techniques are more successful than others. However, communication between farmers and researchers usually has been just from the university to the farmer. The recovery of information from farmers, integration of techniques into whole production systems, and the research priorities of farmers have not been very important to researchers.

An exception has been in sustainable agriculture, where some researchers have been asking farmers what they are doing and what they want the university to do, and spending time observing existing practices before they design research trials. Ideally, farmers and researchers interact as equals, sharing information and expertise. We present examples from California and New York that show that this approach is highly effective, and recommend policie s to expand on this approach in researchfunding, training of research and extension personnel, and the dissemination ofinformation. We also discuss practical ways to carry out those policies, drawn from the experiences of both university and private non-profit organizations.

Reviews of historical and organizational literature provide the backdrop for a general discussion of citizen input into land-grant universities and for a specific case study: the Citizens Advisory/Oversight Council of the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This strong citizens' council, established in 1989, took its form in response to institutionally structured fears among university personnel, on one hand, and farmers and citizen groups on the other. Each group's recognition that the other's concerns were legitimate led to an acceptable resolution. We describe the principal characteristics of the resulting successful CIAS Council that is composed of farmers and representatives of the state's environmental community. Such councils facilitate new approaches to integrating the craft and science of farming, and for linking the production side of agricultural systems with policy issues.

Many farmers view with skepticism the dominant agricultural research and extension education model, in which new knowledge on f arming practices is developed by researchers and delivered through extension programs. The participatory research and education model is designed to support a shared vision of research and education as a learning process among partners working in community. The participatory model is offered as a way to achieve better communication and enhanced cooperation among farmers, researchers and extension educators.

We analyzed two sets of farm policy options, representing different ideological approaches to government involvement in agriculture, to estimate their effects on the relative economic attractiveness of “sustainable” and “conventional” farming systems. The mandatory supply control approach, through strict acreage limitations on program crops, represents a strong government role in commodity supply management. The Normal Crop Acreage approach, on the other hand, allows farmers greater flexibility in deciding what crops to grow. We used economic models of five pairs of case study farms in different agroclimatic areas of South Dakota, covering corn-soybean, spring wheat, and winter wheat growing regions. Mandatory restrictions on the planted acreage of “program” crops, including soybeans, were found to favor the conventional systems, because they induced high prices for crops that predominate in conventional systems, especially com, soybeans, and wheat. In principle, however, mandatory acreage controls could require compliance with certain sustainable agriculture practices. Normal Crop Acreage (NCA) proposals can encourage greater use of sustainable farming systems. Where conventional corn and soybean production is relatively profitable, as in parts of eastern South Dakota, NCA options by themselves appear insufficient to induce changeovers to sustainable cropping systems. In wheat growing areas of northern and western South Dakota, however, where the two systems oflen are about equally profitable, NCA policies could promote sustainable systems, particularly if deficiency payments are not reduced for harvesting legumes and other non-program crops on NCA base. To have this positive effect, NCA policies must be introduced gradually and structured to limit adverse effects on the markets for legumes and other non-program crops that are important in sustainable rotations.

Panels of 40 to 60 “non-expert” consumers attempted to distinguish between the taste of organically and conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. Wherever possible, samples of the two types of produce were obtained by picking them in the growing orchards/fields to avoid any question of authenticity, and cold-stored without treatment under the same conditions, for periods reflecting their shipping time to markets. Some physical, chemical, and instrumental analytical tests were also performed. No consistent preference pattern emerged. For grapefruit, grapes, carrots, spinach, sweet corn and tomatoes, the differences in hedonic ratings and scores between the two types of produce were not significant. For mangoes and orange juice, the conventional type was preferred, while the reverse was true for bananas; in each of these three instances the result could be ascribed to fruit being tasted closer to its optimum maturity.

Screening tests were performed to detect any traces, at the parts-per-billion level, of chlorinated hydrocarbons and organophosphorus compounds used as pesticides, or their degradation products. No traces were detected in any of the samples examined (bananas, grapes, carrots, spinach, sweet corn or tomatoes), whether organically or conventionally grown. In those samples examined (bananas, grapes, carrots, spinach, sweet corn and tomatoes) by quantitative tests for the three major fertilizer elements used conventionally (NPK), nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were not consistently greater, while potassium concentrations were either equal or greater, than in the organically grown samples. Among the anion analyses performed on orange juice, grapefruit juice, carrots, spinach and tomatoes, nitrates and particularly nitrites either were not detected, or occurred at negligible concentrations in all samples. Phosphates were found at higher concentrations, but not significantly so, in four of the five organic products tested; no phosphates were detected in either type of tomatoes.

Recognition of the environmental costs of fossil fuels coupled with concern over their depletion within the next few decades has broadened the search for alternative energy resources, including biomass energy. Ethanol produced from corn (Zea mays L.) grain currently is the primary form of biomass energy produced in the Midwest, but its net energy balance commonly is negative when corn grain is produced under conventional practices. Reducing fossil fuel inputs, particularly for nitrogen fertilizer, will improve the energy balance, but more substantial improvements involve increased efficiency of ethanol production. An alternate source involves fermentation of crops such as sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.]Moench).

Other potential biomass energy resources for the Midwest include oils extracted from seed crops, methane from waste digestion, and combustion, gasification or fermentation of woody and herbaceous crops and crop residues. These resources may serve as an energy supplement or a useful energy source for individual farms, households or rural communities. Biomass energy systems in Midwest agriculture must be evaluated regarding their long term environmental impacts and their sustainability. Externalities that must be considered include surface and ground water pollution, soil erosion, and economic and social benefits to the rural community.