Designing a sustainable agriculture

The major focus of this two-part study will be to identify employable technologies for application in establishing a sustainable food-producing system. Part One: Research will explore the realm of sustainable agriculture--from mini-farming, to appropriate technologies, to deep ecology--in an attempt to relay its concepts and portray a design methodology for bringing about a comprehensive, wholely functional, food-production program as an agriculturally-oriented means of sustainability. Part Two: Application will demonstrate the results of employing these concepts at various levels of a sustainable community in Henry County, Indiana. It is important to note that the application portion of the study will be a team effort--a charrette headed by the Department of Landscape Architecture at Ball State University. And while my emphasis in the research portion of the study will be single, small-scale, self-reliant, predominately vegetative, food-producing systems; the objectives of the charrette have been predetermined, and will ultimately exceed those of the research portion to include three different scales and orientations towards sustainable agriculture-community demonstration site, sustainable farmstead site, and research-housing site.College of Architecture and PlanningThesis (B.L.A.