中文摘要 |
Sustainable agriculture seeks to create an economicallyviable, socially supportive, and environmentally soundfarming system. However, there is limited empiricalresearch on measuring agricultural sustainability, itscomponents, and spatial distribution. Drawing data fromthe 2012 Census of Agriculture, a confirmatory factoranalysis helps identify a three-factor structure ofsustainable farming across counties in the United States:the environmental sustainability component refers topractices that reduce environmental degradation; theeconomic dimension highlights the efficiency ofagricultural production; and the social component identifies practices which tend to promote economicviability and social support for communities. A clusteranalysis on factor score indexes further indicates that thetypology of sustainable agriculture includes: a majority ofcounties in the high environment & low economy andmoderate intensity categories are widespread in thiscountry; a low environment & high economy group isconcentrated in the Northern Great Plains and in Iowa andIllinois; a few counties in the extremely low environment& extremely high economy cluster are located along theLower Mississippi Valley, and dispersed throughout theMidwest, California, and Florida; and a small number ofcounties in the high social group are primarily concentratedin the New England, along the Pacific Coast, and aroundthe Northern Great Lakes. In general, an agroecosystemframework that focuses on the interplay between socialand ecological process of the agricultural system providesinsights at the systems level and explicitly interprets thecore attributes of sustainable agriculture, both in definitionand measurement.
永續農業尋求創造一種在經濟上可行、具有社會支持性,並且無害環境的農作系統,然而當前對於農業永續性的測量及其組成內容和空間分布的實證研究仍相當有限。藉由2012年農業普查資料,驗證性因素分析指出美國永續農業在郡縣層級的多元結構:「環境」的永續性是有關減低環境破壞的農作實踐,「經濟」的永續性彰顯農業生產的效率,「社會」永續性趨向於促進社區的社會支持和經濟活力。依據各郡因素分數之集群分析進一步發現,永續農業的類型包括:大多數屬於「高環境低經濟」及「中等強度」集群的郡縣廣布於全國各地、「低環境高經濟」集群集中於北美大平原北部和愛荷華州與伊利諾州、屬於「極低環境極高經濟」集群的幾個郡縣主要位於下密西西比河谷,並分散在中西部及加利福尼亞州和佛羅里達州、以及主要集中在新英格蘭、太平洋海岸、和大湖區周圍的「高社會」集群的少數郡縣。整體而論,「農業生態系統」之概念架構著重於社會和生態間的相互作用,不僅提供系統層面的洞察力,在定義上和測量上皆明確解釋了永續農業的核心內容。 |