Redesigning Animal Agriculture

The Systems
Idea in
Agriculture
Systems as
ways of being
Systems as
formal entities
Systems as
metaphors
phone methodologies indicated here (Sands,
1986). In a similar vein, systems simulations
can be conducted for at least four distinctly
different purposes (Rykiel, 1984), each of
which demands slightly different methods
of conduct. There is also a variety of methods
within agro-ecological approaches to
agriculture.
A fourth domain of work, associated
with management aids to decision making,
has also been included in this diagram,
with indications of two sources of its origin.
The first identifies it as another branch of
problem-solving applications of the formal
entity systems idea in agriculture, in common
with the work in ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ systems,
while another links it back directly to
the notion of system as a metaphor in contrast
to a formal entity. This ambiguity reflects the
argument that endeavours such as expert systems,
operations research, systems dynamics
and decision support systems are more accurately
regarded as systematic procedures
rather than systemic ones (Jackson, 2000).
A key aspect of that argument relates to the
typical lack of explicit recognition of emer-
A Systemic Perspective 7
3 rd Order
Work in
cognitive
systems
Systemic Development
Systemic Intervention
Total Systems Intervention
Critical Learning Systems
2 nd Order
Theory development
Work in
(enquiring)
Critical Heuristics
Human General systems theory ‘soft systems’
Soft Systems Methodology
chaos, complexity,
Social general evolutionary theories
cybernetics, autopoeisis
panarchy
1 st Order
Natural Work in
Problem solving
applications to ‘real world’
situations
Emergence of
new ‘disciplines’
Application of
systems principles
to support disciplines
economics, agronomy
engineering, entomology
geography, ecology, biology
Systems
Descriptions
Fig. 1.1. The systems movement in agriculture.
agro-ecology
farming systems
systemic agri-science
Agricultural systems
Component
subsystems
(engineered)
‘hard’ systems
Proto-systemics
Work in
management
aids to decision
making
Social Systems Analysis
Agro-ecosystems Analysis
Francophone FSR&D
Anglophone FSR&D
Cropping Systems R&D
System Simulations
Viable Systems
Decision Support Systems
Operations Research
Expert Systems
Systems Dynamics
gent properties in any of this work, while
the notions of boundary and of environmental
embeddedness are also often less than
clearly articulated. Because of these features,
the work in this domain is regarded here as
being proto-systemic, which in no manner is
intended to diminish the importance of the
work, but is introduced simply to classify it
within a ‘systems movement’. The same can
be said for the other areas within the ‘map’
that relate to the expression of system as a
metaphor, with the importance of systems
descriptions and applications to other disciplines
again not to be denied, especially in
the context of a consciousness-raising orientation
to interconnectedness and wholeness,
while nurturing at least a naïve sense
of systemicity.
It must be emphasized that the typology
of systems approaches illustrated here
itself has systemic characteristics! What are
shown as simple linear connections and
causal pathways are in reality much more
interconnected and non- linear than they
appear. Moreover, there are also many interconnections
which are not shown here but