Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals:

1. environmental stewardship,
2. farm profitability, and
3. prosperous farming communities.

These goals have been defined by a variety of disciplines and may be looked at from the vantage point of the farmer or the consumer. Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce food indefinitely, without causing severe or irreversible damage to ecosystem health. Two key issues are biophysical (the long-term effects of various practices on soil properties and processes essential for crop productivity) and socio-economic (the long-term ability of farmers to obtain inputs and manage resources such as labor).

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The term "food system" is used frequently in discussions about nutrition, food, health, community economic development and agriculture. A food system includes all processes involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps. A food system operates within and is influenced by social, political, economic and environmental contexts. It also requires human resources that provide labor, research and education. Food systems are either conventional or alternative according to their model of food lifespan from origin to plate.

Conventional food systems operate on the economies of scale. These food systems are geared towards a production model that requires maximizing efficiency in order to lower consumer costs and increase overall production, and they utilize economic models such vertical integration, economic specialization, and global trade.

The term "conventional" when describing food systems is large part due to comparisons made to it by proponents of other food systems, collectively known as alternative food systems.

The four main Alternative Food Systems:

1. Local Food Systems – Networks of food production and consumption that aim to be proximate and direct, both geographically and economically. They contrast industrial food systems by operating with reduced food transportation and more direct marketing, leading to fewer people between the farmer and the consumer. As a result, relationships that are developed in local food systems emerge from face-to-face interactions, potentially leading to a stronger sense of trust and social connectedness between actors. As a result, some scholars suggest that local food systems are a good way to revitalize a community. The decreased distance of food transportation has also been promoted for its environmental benefits.
   
   Both proponents and critics of local food systems warn that they can lead to narrow inward-looking attitudes or 'local food patriotism', and that price premiums and local food cultures can be elitist and exclusive. [Slow Food in the U.S. is conscious of this and actively working with this in mind...]
   
   Examples of local food systems include Community Supported Agriculture, farmers markets and farm to school programs. They have been associated with the 100 Mile Diet and Low Carbon Diet, as well as the food sovereignty movement and Slow Food Movement.
    
2. Organic Food Systems – Characterized by a reduced dependence on chemical inputs and an increased concern for transparency and information. Organic produce is grown without the chemical pesticides and fertilizers of industrial food systems, and livestock is reared without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones. The reduced inputs of organic agriculture can also lead to a greater reliance on local knowledge, creating a stronger knowledge community amongst farmers. The transparency of food information is vital for organic food systems as a means through which consumers are able to identify organic food.
   
   Like local food systems, organic food systems have been criticized for being elitist and inaccessible. Critics have also suggested that organic agriculture has been conventionalized such that it mimics industrial food systems while using pesticides and fertilizers that are organically derrived.
    
3. Cooperatives in Food Systems – Cooperatives can exist both at the farmer end of food production and the consumer end. The benefits of cooperatives are largely in the redistribution of risk and responsibility.
    
4. Fair Trade – Fair trade has emerged in global food systems to create a greater balance between the price of food and the cost of producing it.

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