TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE:

Sustainable agriculture is an essential precursor to any sustainable community past, present and future. The achievement of a sustainable agroecosystem is one that addresses the increasing concerns over industrial agriculture’s impacts on the environment, economic and social systems while framing it at bioregional scales. Increasingly there is both a social desire and environmental need for sustainable agriculture as integrated into rural landscapes and communities. Despite this need, there has been little initiative to develop sustainable agriculture systems within major land-grant universities. In particular, there is little progress in capacity to provide research on existing sustainable agricultural models, developing tools to assess sustainability in rural systems or creating these living laboratories for outreach or education in sustainable practices. This thesis propounds development of a collaborative and sustainable master plan for University of Illinois Dudley Smith Farm. The plan proposes a farm model which functions as an educational research center for sustainable agriculture as well as a site to assess agroecosystem sustainability through energetic and economic assessment