Agricultural Science and Sustainable Agriculture: a Review of the Existing Scientific Barriers to Sustainable Food Production and Potential Solutions

MacRae, Rod; Hill, Stuart B.; Henning, John C.; Mehuys, G. R.

doi:10.1080/01448765.1989.9754518

Cited by 91 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Implementing these highly technical practices is thought to require some understanding of the underpinning scientific principles and physical processes (Vanclay and Lawrence 1994;Pretty 1995). At the same time it is considered that sustainable systems and practices are highly dependent upon traditional local and 'ecosystem sensitive' knowledge, with general principles applied in a site-specific way (MacRae et al 1989;Kloppenburg 1991;Norgaard 1992). Arguably, then, the knowledge farmers need for sustainable soil management must consist of both a technical understanding of the principles of soil management or 'scientific knowledge', as well as an intuitive, local or 'tacit knowledge', or at least an ability to interpret technical knowledge in a local context drawing on experience, through observation and monitoring.…”

Section: Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are farmers in England equipped to meet the knowledge challenge of sustainable soil management? An analysis of farmer and advisor views

Ingram

2008

Journal of Environmental Management

115

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Section: Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are farmers in England equipped to meet the knowledge challenge of sustainable soil management? An analysis of farmer and advisor views

Ingram

2008

Journal of Environmental Management

115

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“…Those strategies involve various changes, from simple adjustment of the crop management sequence to fundamental changes at the farming system level. For example, MacRae et al (1989) proposed the following framework based on three strategies: efficiency -substitution -redesign (ESR).…”

Section: Future Sustainable Farming Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agronomy for sustainable agriculture. A review

Lichtfouse

Navarrete²,

Debaeke

et al. 2009

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

193

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-Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.Starving people in poor nations, obesity in rich nations, increasing food prices, on-going climate changes, increasing fuel and transportation costs, flaws of the global market, worldwide pesticide pollution, pest adaptation and resistance, loss of soil fertility and organic carbon, soil erosion, decreasing biodiversity, desertification, and so on. Despite unprecedented advances in sciences allowing us to visit planets and disclose subatomic particles, serious terrestrial issues about food show clearly that conventional agriculture is no longer suited to feeding humans and preserving ecosystems. Sustainable agriculture is an alternative for solving fundamental and applied issues related to food production in an ecological way (Lal (2008) Agron. Sustain. Dev. 28,[57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64]. While conventional agriculture is driven almost solely by productivity and profit, sustainable agriculture integrates biological, chemical, physical, ecological, economic and social sciences in a comprehensive way to develop new farming practices that are safe and do not degrade our environment. To address current agronomical issues and to promote worldwide discussions and cooperation we implemented sharp changes at the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development from 2003 to 2006. Here we report (1) the results of the renovation of the journal and (2) a short overview of current concepts of agronomical research for sustainable agriculture. Considered for a long time as a soft, side science, agronomy is rising fast as a central science because current issues are about food, and humans eat food. This report is the introductory article of the book Sustainable Agriculture, volume 1, published by EDP Sciences and Springer (Lichtfouse et al. (2009) Sustainable Agriculture, Vol. 1, Springer, EDP Sciences, in press). sustainable agriculture / climate change / biodiversity / agronomy for sustainable development / organic farming / pest control / food / water / soil / pesticide / farming system

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“…Sustainable Agriculture comprises "management procedures that work with natural processes to conserve all resources, minimize waste and environmental impact, prevent problems and promote agroecosystem resilience, self-regulation, evolution and sustained production for the nourishment and fulfillment of all." MacRae et al 1989 [24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Is Sustainable Agriculture? A Systematic Review

et al. 2015

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Abstract:The idea of a sustainable agriculture has gained prominence since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987. Yet, the concept of sustainable agriculture is very vague and ambiguous in its meaning, which renders its use and implementation extremely difficult. In this systematic review paper, we aim to advance understandings of sustainable agriculture from a social science and governance perspective by identifying areas of complementarity and concern between emerging definitions of sustainable agriculture. For this purpose, we conducted a structured literature review in combination with a cluster analysis in order to (1) identify the overall ideas and aspects associated with sustainable agriculture; (2) detect patterns and differences in how these ideas and aspects are adopted or applied; (3) evaluate how the different ideas and aspects of sustainable agriculture are combined in the scientific debate, and assess whether these different conceptions match with those that have been claimed to exist in the debate. There are two valuable outcomes from this research. The first is a framework for understanding the components of sustainable agriculture. The second outcome is in highlighting ways for actors involved with sustainable agriculture to deal with the complexity and multiplicity of this concept in a constructive manner.

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Agricultural Science and Sustainable Agriculture: a Review of the Existing Scientific Barriers to Sustainable Food Production and Potential Solutions

Cited by 91 publications

References 29 publications

Are farmers in England equipped to meet the knowledge challenge of sustainable soil management? An analysis of farmer and advisor views

Are farmers in England equipped to meet the knowledge challenge of sustainable soil management? An analysis of farmer and advisor views

Agronomy for sustainable agriculture. A review

What Is Sustainable Agriculture? A Systematic Review

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