In the past 10 years there has been a large growth of literature, in academia and the popular press, that evaluates the current agriculture and food production systems with suggested strategies
for improving systemic sustainability. A number of works express the general idea of a return to massive smaller scale diversified production as a strategy to feed America. One of the most noted and influential non-academic books in this vein isThe Omnivore?s
Dilemma by Michael Pollan. In his book Pollan heavily critiques current agricultural practices and discusses the ways in which it has made the environment and the American population unhealthy. The third section
of the book provides an antidote to this critique as it profiles Polyface Inc., a Virginia farm that produces a variety of animal products using a multi-species pasture rotation system. The study reported here uses this as a starting point to understand
the land footprint and number of farms required to produce beef, chicken and eggs for the state of Michigan using similar production strategies. It is our intention that this illustration of the system?s requirements will spark more academic investigations
in order to better understand the system requirements and potential evolutionary steps if such products are to be widely available in the marketplace.
Committee:
Dr. Mike Hamm, CARRS
Dr. Jason Rowntree, Dept. of Animal Science
Dr. Jim Bingen, CARRS
Vicki Morrone
C. S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems
Outreach Specialist for Organic Vegetable and Field Crops
303 Natural Resources
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-3542/517-282-3557 (cell)
517-353-3834 (Fax)
www.MichiganOrganic.msu.edu
