Amy Bastian

excessive use of fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides. Zoning systems can be used to protect the best agricultural soil from urban sprawl. Subsidies could be used to encourage people to purchase tools and other inputs that have a less harmful impact on soils, while certifi cation of sustainable crop and livestock practices can make produce more commercially attractive at higher prices.” Addressing taxes and incentives are particularly important, because existing ones, including those under the EU’s common agricultural policy, perversely encourage practices that enhance soil erosion, as explained above. Even some supposedly environmental subsidies, such as those for biofuel production, ended up supporting vast unsustainable monocultures that don’t even meet the original goal of improving the carbon balance. Alternative agricultural practices, including ‘no tillage’ approaches, crop rotation, and permaculture exist but are insuffi ciently known and promoted. Permaculture, for example, offers a complete philosophy of human activities fi tting in with the ecological context. The concept of ‘permanent agriculture’ as a system that can be indefi nitely sustained corresponds to what would