Sustainability: How Thinking Long-Term Can Turn Tradeoffs Into Win-Win-Win Scenarios

Written by Miriam Gay, Class of 2027

People. Planet. Profit. It seems like most folks in agriculture would agree that the ability to care for all three pillars for years to come is what defines sustainability. Yet, it also seems like we tend to get hung up on trade-offs: can we actually succeed in doing what's best for all three? Or does one (or two) of those three have to give in order to maintain the other?

I won't claim our Martin L. Andreas Energy, Ecosystems, and Sustainability Seminar in Mattoon, Illinois answered these questions once and for all. However, I now have more confidence than I ever have that maybe we can succeed in doing what's best for people, the planet, and profits; it just requires a shift in how we look at tradeoffs.

None of our speakers shied away from addressing barriers to change, whether from the farm level to supply chains to the energy that powers the whole system. Folks from the American Farmland Trust (including one of our very own fellows, Marlee Giacometti) addressed barriers to building local supply chains and infrastructure for crops like miscanthus (which have incredible ecosystem service benefits), while a local rural electric co-op CEO gave us a deep dive on current grid capacity and challenges associated with various forms of energy production. Social barriers, the fear of being seen as the "crazy farmer," were addressed by several speakers, and some of our fellows who are actively farming shared some of the challenges they face from restrictive cash rent agreements. Many conservation practices or employee well-being initiatives have an upfront cost.

Yet, as we learned from farmers and program specialists from the Illinois Stewardship Alliance and Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, the barriers we face in the short term don't necessarily have to have the last word. In many cases, incorporating prairie strips or wetlands on marginal acres not only provided an alternative source of income from CRP, but also showed improved yields on the acres left in row crop production. Ball Horticulture has instituted on-site lunches and healthcare programs in some of their facilities, and while there was an upfront cost, they have vastly improved their turnover rates and quality of work in those facilities, on top of the well-being benefits their employees are experiencing.

Throughout the seminar, which was generously hosted primarily at Lakeland College, with cooperation from Eastern Illinois University and supported by the Lumpkin Family Foundation, we also got to spend time deepening our connections with our cohort. Having learned about changes to SNAP at earlier seminars, we worked in groups to plan, cook, and serve a meal given a realistic scenario and budget, opening our perspectives to how policy shapes the real world. Then, from a trivia night to a workshop on leading difficult conversations, we were reminded that all this talk about ecosystems comes down to people working together for a common goal.

Our tours at the Mattoon Water Treatment Plant and a local farm run by Michael Gass tied everything together, showing us challenges in water quality and some of the ways local farmers (and homeowners and business owners) can make a difference. It's not simple; ecosystems are, by definition, complex. Yet, by choosing to think beyond this quarter, or this year, there are folks building for the long term and creating win-win-win scenarios for profit, for people, and for the planet. There's more work to be done, and after this seminar, those of us in the IALF Class of 2027 are even more energized to tackle it.