Jordan, Jeffrey L.Constance, Douglas H.2020-07-062020-07-062008Jordan, Jeffrey L. and Douglas H. Constance. 2008. “Sustainable Agriculture and the Social Sciences: Getting Beyond Best Management Practices and Getting Into Food Systems.” Southern Rural Sociology 23(1):1-22.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11875/2810Article originally published in Southern Rural Sociology. Copyright owned by Southern Rural Sociology.This paper introduces the special issue of Southern Rural Sociology and lays the groundwork for the rest of the papers. The genesis of this special issue flows from the efforts of the Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (S-SARE) program to bring more social science research into its portfolio of projects. Our concern is that by providing best management practices (Band-Aids) to a fundamentally unsustainable agricultural system, the sustainable agriculture movement (and SARE’s granting program) favors the environmental component at the expense of economic and social “legs” of the sustainable stool. While focusing on the history and work of the SARE program, we provided a social science perspective on sustainable agriculture.Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Educationunsustainable agricultural systemssustainable agricultureArticle