SCOAR Themes: Core Research Needs and Some Big Issues

Scientific interpretation and elaboration of traditional "Best Management Principles", e.g., "Feed the soil to feed the plant."; "Building health in the soil and animals builds healthy farms."; "It's the system, stupid!"

Importance of conducting research in a bona fide organic context.

Emergence vs. extraction of beneficial organisms/behaviors: Systemic biological control paradigms.

Applied microbial ecological management: regional soil food web labs, micro-livestock husbandry, and "recombinant ecologies".

Biological capital formation: lowering the costs of soil organic matter.

Getting past weeds vs. soil: reducing/mitigating impacts of tillage in systems without herbicides. 

Explicit strategies for both conversion and post-conversion.

Applications of agricultural "rocket science" in an ecological context.

Surviving success: sustaining profitability as price premiums to farmers fall requires optimization of small-medium size production systems for long-term cost-efficacy.