Control of agricultural policymaking by the “agricultural establishment” has been challenged by a wide range of interests concerned with the externalities of modern industrialized agriculture. An “externalities/alternatives” or “ex/al” coalition appears to be an emerging force in agricultural policy debates. We surveyed three alternative agriculture groups, three conventional agriculture groups, and a statewide sample of farmers to learn whether each category forms a distinct, unified interest group whose perspectives on agricultural policy diverge substantially from the others'. There is considerable similarity among the alternative agriculture groups and among the conventional agriculture groups, the differences between them being much greater than the differences within each category. The statewide farmer sample is generally intermediate between the two sets of interest groups, but is closer to the conventional perspective on most issues.

A Time to Choose came about in a setting of substantial turmoil. In the late 1970s, agriculture felt that it was on a roller coaster. Earlier in the decade, it had experienced the huge sales to the Soviet Union, short crops around the world, very high prices, and very high incomes. Then it came down the hill into a very unstable period that was substantially different from the relative stability of the 1950s and 1960s. Energy problems, which had begun early in the 1970s, had not had much of an effect while prices and incomes were high, but when the boom ended, the high cost of energy hurt farmers badly. The general economy was seriously overheated, and inflation was very high. The budget situation, which in retrospect seems tame compared with today's, looked very threatening at the time. In fact, from 1979 to 1980 the deficit increased 80%, something that was very much on people's minds as they were judging policy options. Finally, unusually rapid structural changes were taking place, with farms becoming larger but fewer.

Living mulches are vegetative covers that can be grown in association with row crops to reduce soil erosion, improve trafficability and suppress weeds. Interference by the living mulch can reduce yields of an associated crop. The interference between a white clover (Trifolium repens L. ‘New Zealand’) living mulch and sweet corn (Zea mays L. ‘Golden Jubilee’) was studied using an established clover sward that was mowed and then sprayed with 1 to 1.5 kg ai/ha of atrazine. Corn was planted at different densities and planting arrangements into a narrow band tilled in the clover. Interference by clover reduced corn yields by 12 to 39%. However, when corn row width was reduced from 0.76 to 0.38 m, competition among corn plants declined; they became more vigorous and clover- suppress ive and reached even higher yields than conventional (no mulch) corn in 0.76 m rows. Similarly, sweet corn planted at a range of densities into a clover mulch killed by atrazine yielded more in equidistant planting than in wide (0.76 m) rows. A near equidistant corn planting arrangement can be a low-input alternative to achieve season-long clover suppression and thus minimize clover's competition with the intercropped corn.

On-farm and farmer-directed research is claimed to lack validity when produced by methods that limit the generalizability of its results. However, farmers may consider such findings sufficiently valid for use in agricultural production even though agricultural scientists may not consider them scientifically valid. A general social-psychological theory of knowledge and information processing called lay epistemology suggests that farmers may assess the validity of any research report by its plausibility in relation to their knowledge and experience. Other communication research suggests that readers will look for cues to help them decide whether the research and findings are valid and useful.

To identify validity cues used by farmers in evaluating production research reports, we asked 56 Illinois cash-grain farmers to mark phrases and other items that influenced their confidence in a popularized research report and to explain the reasons for each mark. The kinds of validity cues that farmers used or sought had little relationship to their personal or enterprise characteristics. The researcher's name, location and affiliation were critical cues, but information on the methods and results were no more important than data about costs, risks, growing conditions, and longer term outcomes. Plausibility plays a key role when farmers decide whether production research is valid. It would be useful to farmers if research reports included more information about the system being studied, such as its costs and risks, along with data on the research methods used.

America's farmers, over the years, have received and accepted much good advice about how to value their way of life, how to become more efficient producers, how to maintain prices and incomes, how to preserve the soil and the natural environment, and how to relate to other economic sectors and to fanners in other countries.

The United States Department of Agriculture's Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming (1980) is destined to be a milestone in the evolution of agriculture's scientific paradigm. Such recognition, however, will come several years in the future and will require a key scientific breakthrough for full assessment of the “new world” its authors brought forward to the mainstream scientific community.

The combination of several measures (organic matter accumulated, soil porosity, field soil respiration, CO2 evolved during incubation, and mineral N released) shows clearly that soil biological activity was enhanced in the systems that minimized tillage. Surprisingly, the abundance of earthworms, which are considered very sensitive to damage by tillage, did not always follow the same pattern. We do not know the reason for the response of earthworms, but in part it may have been an artifact of the interaction of the collection technique with soil properties such as infiltration rate and temperature. The most dramatic improvement in porosity, organic matter accumulation and N mineralization ability came from five years' continuous growth of grass sod, underscoring the potential role of grass in sustainable cropping systems and the value of grass for soil conservation and improvement.

Interest in reducing purchased chemical inputs to reduce production costs and avoid possible environmental damage prompted this 7-year study. Two management systems, current management practices (CMP) and reduced chemical inputs (RCI), were evaluated for four crop sequences from 1985 through 1992: continuous grain sorghum; continuous corn; a 2-year rotation of corn and double-cropped winter wheat and soybean; and a 4-year rotation of corn, winter wheat/soybean, corn, and red clover hay (changed in 1989 to a 3-year rotation of corn, red clover hay, and wheat/soybean). No-till planting and recommended rates of fertilizer and pesticides were used in the CMP system. In the RCI system, N was supplied by a crimson clover green manure crop or the red clover in the rotation. Weed control was by chisel plowing, disking, and cultivation.

Crimson clover top growth accumulated from 70 to 180 kgN/ha, red clover from 77 to 130 kg N/ha. Rotating crops increased corn yield with CMP but not with RCI. lndry years, corn yields were low (less than 3000 kg/ha), corn did not respond to fertilizer N, and yields generally were higher with CMP than with RCI. With adequate rain, yield of all RCI treatments were the same as yield in CMP continuous corn receiving no fertilizer N. Johnsongrass competition was the main reason for low yields in the RCI treatments. Soybean yields were higher with CMP in 4 years and higher with RCI one year. Wheat and grain sorghum yields were higher with CMP than with RCI. A dramatic decline in johnsongrass in sorghum was noted in 1989, and several plots remained relatively free of johnsongrass through 1992.

Management decisions made during the experiment included the degree of input reduction in RCI; whether to either end or modify unproductive treatments; whether to use newly available varieties and pesticides; whether to suspend the experiment to eliminate johnsongrass; and how to add new treatments while retaining the original treatments.

As someone who was very much involved in the organic fanning study, it is interesting for me to look at the study 13 years later in relation to where agriculture stands today. I think that both the organic farming and the structure of agriculture studies have had a major impact on agricultural policy, and that Secretary Bergland should be commended for having had the foresight and courage to commission them.

Much of what has been said regarding the two USDA reports relates to social organization: How do we organize science? How is indigenous knowledge organized? How is our food system organized? Social organization implies we have choices: at the individual level, the household level, the community level, the regional level, and the national level. It also means we must be aware of the global context in which our actions occur. Social organization is context-specific; one size does not fit all.

We coupled a nonlinear mathematical programming model with sensitivity analysis and evaluated some economic barriers to adoption of low-input agriculture by farmers in Richmond County, Virginia. Collection of primary data made the model more realistic. We analyzed potential barriers to adoption, including poultry litter price, yields, labor requirements, and variable input costs. We found the adoption of low-input practices to be sensitive to the price of poultry litter and relatively insensitive to yields, labor requirements, and variable costs. However, when several of these barriers are combined, the model predicts that farmers would use conventional practices. Therefore analysis of the farm as a system rather than practice by practice is important when identifying the effects of economic barriers.

Quantitative data are needed to understand how alternative farming practices affect surface infiltration of water and associated surface soil properties. We used a rainfall simulator, double ring infiltrometer, small single ring infiltrometers, and tension infiltrometers to measure water infiltration for Clarion loam (fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Hapludoll) and for Webster silty clay loam (fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Haplaquoll) soils located on a conventionally-managed and an alternatively-managed farm in central Iowa. Steady-state measurements suggested that infiltration rates were somewhat higher for the alternative farming system. Bulk densities were sometimes lower, and volume of large pores was a little higher for the alternative farming system. Small single rings were more reproducible than rainfall simulators or double ring infiltrometers, and data trends were the same as for rainfall simulators.