'Sustainable intensification' is often advanced as a way to satisfy an expanding population's needs for nutrition, while minimising the ecological footprint of food production.
Leading sustainability scholar Johan Rockstrom and a team of researchers now suggest that this approach is inadequate to meet the dual goals of providing food while stabilising the earth's climate.
In fact, the approach must reverse its priorities. The thresholds for sustainable food production must be established first, then agricultural programmes and practices developed accordingly.
Their paper, available here, argues that this 'paradigm shift' could reposition world agriculture from its current role as the world’s single largest driver of global environmental change, to becoming a key contributor to a sustainable world within a safe operating space on Earth.
Read more about Sustain's policies for a greener, fairer food supply here.
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
