ABSTRACT
The US environmental protection agency (EPA) has a number of ongoing research efforts that relate to sustainable agriculture. New research initiatives, such as the environmental monitoring and assessment program, are evolving towards a more integrated approach for solving environmental/agricultural problems. These efforts provide a foundation for an integrated program in sustainable agriculture research. Each EPA program office is responsible for the implementation of one or more laws addressing a particular type of pollution: air, water, waste, and pesticides/toxics. However, focusing on specific problem pesticides or agricultural practices causing nonpoint source pollution is not the best way to develop a sustainable agriculture research program. In the industrial sector, there is a recognized hierarchy for reducing emissions of chemical pollutants to the environment. Office of Research and Development (ORD) conducts research on agricultural contamination of groundwater. ORD's global climate research program includes components on understanding and predicting climate processes, biogeochemical dynamics, and ecological systems.
