出刊年月/Date of Publishing

2018.06

所屬卷期/Vol. & No.   第48卷第2期 Vol. 48, No. 2

類型/Type                 研究論文 Research Article

篇名/Title
Identifying Sustainability—The Measurement and Typology of Sustainable Agriculture in the United States

識別永續性：美國永續農業的測量與類型

作者/Author
郭蕙如 Hui-Ju Kuo

頁碼/Pagination
pp. 195-222

摘要
永續農業尋求創造一種在經濟上可行、具有社會支持性，並且無害環境的農作系統，然而當前對於農業永續性的測量及其組成內容和空間分布的實證研究仍相當有限。藉由2012年農業普查資料，驗證性因素分析指出美國永續農業在郡縣層級的多元結構：「環境」的永續性是有關減低環境破壞的農作實踐，「經濟」的永續性彰顯農業生產的效率，「社會」永續性趨向於促進社區的社會支持和經濟活力。依據各郡因素分數之集群分析進一步發現，永續農業的類型包括：大多數屬於「高環境低經濟」及「中等強度」集群的郡縣廣布於全國各地、「低環境高經濟」集群集中於北美大平原北部和愛荷華州與伊利諾州、屬於「極低環境極高經濟」集群的幾個郡縣主要位於下密西西比河谷，並分散在中西部及加利福尼亞州和佛羅里達州、以及主要集中在新英格蘭、太平洋海岸、和大湖區周圍的「高社會」集群的少數郡縣。整體而論，「農業生態系統」之概念架構著重於社會和生態間的相互作用，不僅提供系統層面的洞察力，在定義上和測量上皆明確解釋了永續農業的核心內容。

Abstract
Sustainable agriculture seeks to create an economically viable, socially supportive, and environmentally sound farming system. However, there is limited empirical research on measuring agricultural sustainability, its components, and spatial distribution. Drawing data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture, a confirmatory factor analysis helps identify a three-factor structure of sustainable farming across counties in the United States: the environmental sustainability component refers to practices that reduce environmental degradation; the economic dimension highlights the efficiency of agricultural production; and the social component identifies practices which tend to promote economic viability and social support for communities. A cluster analysis on factor score indexes further indicates that the typology of sustainable agriculture includes: a majority of counties in the high environment & low economy and moderate intensity categories are widespread in this country; a low environment & high economy group is concentrated in the Northern Great Plains and in Iowa and Illinois; a few counties in the extremely low environment & extremely high economy cluster are located along the Lower Mississippi Valley, and dispersed throughout the Midwest, California, and Florida; and a small number of counties in the high social group are primarily concentrated in the New England, along the Pacific Coast, and around the Northern Great Lakes. In general, an agroecosystem framework that focuses on the interplay between social and ecological process of the agricultural system provides insights at the systems level and explicitly interprets the core attributes of sustainable agriculture, both in definition and measurement.

關鍵字/Key Word
環境永續性、經濟永續性、社會永續性、測量、美國郡縣農業統計
environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, social sustainability, measurement, U.S. county agricultural statistics

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DOI
https://doi.org/10.7015/JEAS.201806_48(2).0001

學門分類/Subject
社會學 Sociology