This statement of AJP's vision was published in 2003 as part of the first edition of our standards. It was adapted from Elizabeth Henderson's keynote address at the Eco-Farm Conference in the 1990s.

We believe that the current neoliberal industrial globalized model of the food system has failed small farmers, farm workers, indigenous peoples, rural communities, and the public alike. Around the world, the family farmer is rapidly disappearing, unable to compete with an agribusiness supported by various direct and hidden subsidies, including the abundance of cheap labor. Under the racial capitalism of the US, farmers of color have suffered the most ruthless exploitation, violence, and loss of land. Myriad governmental and international policies have had an overall effect of driving down the prices paid to farmers and driving up the prices people pay for food. Despite growing populations, the quantity of food is still adequate to feed everyone on the planet, but inequities of power, wealth and access to land are causing hunger to spread. The increasing consolidation of food production and trade has led to ecological devastation and social desperation in agricultural communities. In the Global South, countries are losing food security based on local self-sufficiency and sinking into dependence on imported grains. The international system of intellectual property rights based on patents and plant variety protection deprives indigenous farmers of the genetic diversity that their communities have created and freely shared over millennia. This Western model does not serve its supposed original objectives of promoting innovation and general prosperity. It is biased to favor the interests of the rich and powerful and structurally incapable of protecting and supporting the intellectual integrity of informal innovators. This is a recipe for uprooting people from the land. 

As fundamental as the economic issues are the cultural implications of the current industrial food system, which separates those who eat from those who grow their food. In this alienating system, food is reduced to a commodity, plant varieties are reduced to genetic property, farmers are reduced to producers, farm workers are reduced to wage laborers, and community members are reduced to consumers, while agribusiness manipulates all these elements for maximum profit. Communities have lost contact with the growers of their food and the soil from which it comes. Farmers and farm workers may still work closely together, but the current model compels farmers to view their workers as but one of many economic resources on the farm. Meanwhile the farmers themselves are losing their rights to save and share seeds and to make decisions over their own farms. 

In contrast, we envision a food system that begins with stewardship of the land; that produces food with respect for the ecology of the field, the farm, the watershed, the region, and the earth; that uses appropriate, non-violent technology and distributes that technology’s benefits fairly. Such a food system would be based upon agriculture that is “respectful of the soil and the environment, harmoniously situated in the landscape, and creating living wage jobs through livestock, crop, and horticultural enterprises.”¹ 

In this food system, the larger society would value farm work in direct proportion to the importance of food in people’s lives. The farmer would receive a fair share of the retail price of food, allowing them a stable and dignified life. The farm worker would receive a living wage and be able to provide their family with a dignified life. And finally, all communities would enjoy the universal right of access to high quality, culturally appropriate food and develop a bond with those who work the land. 

In our future food system: 

• Access to a healthy supply of food will be considered a basic human right, and no one will suffer from malnutrition.

• International law will guarantee food sovereignty, the right of each nation to maintain and develop its own capacity to produce basic food for its population.

• While intellectual property rights will ensure that innovators obtain benefits from their creative work, there will be no patenting of life forms and biopiracy will be outlawed.

• Traditional knowledge and the contributions to biodiversity by indigenous peoples and rural farmers will receive the respect they deserve on an equal footing with institutional scientific research.

• The right of farmers and gardeners to produce and exchange seed will be protected along with the collective rights of indigenous peoples and their local communities to maintain control of local germplasm, varieties, and seeds.

• An ethic of respect for the farmer’s labor will be promoted.

• In matters of food commerce, the rights of all farmers and farm workers to timely collective bargaining with all parties involved on an equal basis will be guaranteed.

• The rights of consumers and retail food purchasers to know where, how, and by whom their foods were grown and the right to choose foods which are culturally, ethnically, and regionally appropriate will be safeguarded.

• The children of farm families will happily choose to stay on the farm.

• Vital rural communities will become distinctive cultural centers.

• The rural economy will thrive with many fulfilling job opportunities for local inhabitants, young and old, able-bodied and disabled.

• Farmers will have secure tenure on their land, and no one who wants to farm will be denied access to fair acreage of decent farmland.

• Reparations for historical harms against indigenous peoples, farmers of color, Black and Latinx farmers will ensure that land and farming resources are distributed fairly among all sectors of the population.

• Rural economic development will be guided by a policy of maximizing local food security, and imports will be used sparingly.

• There will be an array of culturally and regionally appropriate cheeses, breads, fruits, meats, drinks, and other specialty food items to replace those imported from abroad which undermine local production.

• Processing plants and community kitchen and storage facilities will make it possible to preserve local food for year round use.

• Food packaging will be designed so that it can be recycled, reused, composted, or eaten.

• All heavy metals and other pollutants will be carefully separated from organic wastes so that those wastes can be efficiently composted and returned to the soil.

• Proposals for new processed foods will be judged for their contribution to nutritional needs and local self-sufficiency.

• Stores, schools, and other institutions will have a policy of purchasing locally produced food first.

We will replace the current subsidies and pricing mechanisms with a system of full cost accounting, parity pricing and supply management that gives incentives for reductions in energy use and penalizes pollution or depletion of the commons of air, water, and soil in the production and distribution of food. Agricultural trade will be based on raising incomes of both producers and low income consumers, first maximizing local consumption and production capacities and only entering into trade when there are surpluses or the need for commodities that cannot be grown locally. The terms of trade will not undermine the farmers or rural communities of importing countries. Trade will also be based on “food miles” energy evaluations. The “polluter pays” principle will be enacted, and all harmful effects of new or existing technologies will be the sole liability of the patent holder or primary beneficiary/owner. 

There will be an underlying ethic of love and respect for nature that will mean respect for the breed specific needs of all livestock. Animals will enjoy the five freedoms: freedom to stretch all limbs; freedom to groom; freedom to turn around; freedom of access to adequate ventilation, to the out-of-doors, and to pasture, light, food, and water, and freedom of access to company of like kind. 

A commitment to social justice and social and ecological responsibility will characterize this food system. Farming decisions will be made with knowledge and recognition of the constraints of the farm’s ecological systems and the value of the services provided by natural cycles. Decisions will reflect a dedication to recycling; conserving energy; maintaining genetic diversity; and improving the quality of air, water, and soil. Decisions will embody a commitment to place: the farm as an integral part of the neighborhood and landscape. Farming goals will respect farm family needs and personal values and aspirations. They will address community, environment, education, and quality of life as well as profit. This new agricultural system will be committed to the regeneration of rural and farming communities and will acknowledge that farming is a way of life, not simply a means of making a living. 

And, in place of the alienation caused by our current food system, we envision an intimate relation with our food and the land on which it is grown, a sense of reverence for life, a spirit of cooperation and justice, an appreciation for the beauty of the cultivated landscape, and a fitting humility about the place of human beings in the scheme of nature.