Agricultural practice is generally believed to have started around ten thousand years (BC), first on a small scale and then, around 5500 BC, practiced as intensive farming. Archeological evidence suggests that the transition from hunting-gathering to agricultural societies was gradual and, in some regions, developed almost independently including the Babylon, Syria, India, and China. Developed through the ages by different civilizations, agriculture seems to have arisen for more than a single reason or influence. Climate change, in combination with region-specific social factors, appears to be the main reason for the transition to farming-based societies. Whereas agriculture has transformed the whole mode of human existence, allowing rapid expansion of populations and promising basic life stuff for a longer time in future, it has brought new concerns of social, economic, and environmental circumstances. Living by agriculture in our times is, therefore, becoming a question of sustainability.

Sustainable agriculture is a broad term that covers a number of related concepts, all centered on the fundamental principle of practicing farming for the greatest possible good. Thus, we can trace the ramifications of agricultural sustainability into four main spheres of life (and education):

•    Health
•    Environment
•    Economy
•    Society.

Each of these aspects of agricultural sustainability reciprocates the rest, forming an agricultural sustainability cycle. Health, for example, generally refers to human health (disease-free living) but the recent advance in environmental research reveals an intimate connection between health and the environment. Hence, our modern concept of health includes an environmental-friendly lifestyle that does not adversely affect the life of existing and/or coming generation. Economy and society stand in a similar relation relative to each other. Economic stability, in general, means prosperity and better living conditions for the members of a society. However, the social structure (social classes, division of labor, and proportion of benefits) is a main determinant of shaping the economy of a society and the actual benefits that people get from the economic state of affairs. Health, environment, economy, and society may be thought of as the four sides of a square whose symmetry creates sustainability.

In the 21st century, agricultural sustainability refers to looking at the current and future needs for healthy living in terms of environmental, economic, and social stability. This calls for well-informed and skilled utilization of both natural and human resources in farming on all scales. Living by agriculture today translates into ‘Live Green, Live Forever!’

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