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Alternative agriculture in an energy- and resource-depleting future

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2010

Frederick Kirschenmann
Frederick Kirschenmann*
Affiliation:
Leopold Center For Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA. Stone Barns Center For Food and Agriculture, New York, NY, USA.
*
*Corresponding author: leopold1@iastate.edu
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Abstract

Industrial principles of specialization, simplification and concentration began to be applied to agriculture after the Second World War with positive production results. But it is now widely recognized that this agriculture and food system faces daunting challenges in the decades ahead, including increased human population growth, natural resource depletion, ecological degradation, climate change and escalating energy costs. These challenges have refocused the attention of agriculturalists and food scientists on the question of how we can continue to feed the human species. But these challenges also provide opportunities to rethink and redesign our food system. Agriculturalists are recognizing that resilience is at least as important to food security as maximum production, and consumer concerns provide us with unprecedented opportunities for farmers and consumers to come together as ‘food citizens’ to determine appropriate changes in our food system. To that end it is important to examine the various production systems and infrastructures in an effort to select the most viable options for long-term sustainability.

Keywords

population growthindustrial agricultureagro-ecologybiodiversityresilience
Type
Commentary
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 25 , Special Issue 2: “Sustainable Agriculture Systems in a Resource Limited Future” , June 2010 , pp. 85 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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