Core Tenets

  1. The long-term efficient and sustainable production of food, fiber and energy is paramount to meet human needs given population growth, declining natural resources, changing climate, and increasing environmental awareness.
  2. Agricultural production must be practiced in a responsible manner, recognizing the importance of being consistent with social, economic and environmental desires as well as risks and benefits.
  3. The LTARN must:
    • Intentionally address research, engagement and education simultaneously
    • Comprise short- and medium-term experiments to achieve long-term goals
    • Emphasize resource-use efficiency and outcome-based results that are applicable across a broad range of user groups
    • Be flexible enough to remain relevant yet consistent enough to reliably assess long-term needs
    • Be nimble, scalable, intentionally multidisciplinary, and inclusive
    • Include a robust and integrated educational component that meets the needs of both consumers and producers
    • Follow a multi-value systems approach to system design recognizing agriculture’s contributions to rural economics, global food security, and the environment in addition to farm income
    • Facilitate sharing of data and ideas among existing LTER, LTAR, and other research networks