Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
pillar of support (Robinson, 2008; Brouwer and van der Heide, 2009). The reasons for this
are manifold. First, increasing global demands due to the rapidly changing diets of almost
half of the world's population (especially India, China and other transition economies) ha ve
led to intensive dairy and meat production which leaves little room for agricultural
extensification. Indeed, this is one of the key drivers for the development of
environmentally harmful super-productivist agricultural pathways geared almost entirely
towards global agri-commodity chains (Robinson, 2008). This change has been exacerbated
by the use of agricultural land for production of biofuels, which has taken more agricultural
land away from production, thereby increasing pressure on the remaining land for food
production. Second, as Potter and Tilzey (2005) have amply demonstrated, increased
pressure from the World Trade Organization and increasing pressure to open European
agricultural markets to global trade (especially from the USA) has put additional pressure
on rural areas in Europe, with the fragile 'family farm' model becoming an anachronism in
an increasingly globalized and neo-liberal world (Wilson, 2007). Yet it is the low-intensity
family farm that has often been praised as the model for an environmentally sustainable and
locally well embedded farm. Third, the global population is increasing by c.75 million
people per year, meaning that an additional population of equivalent size to that of
Germany needs to be fed every year. European agriculture must therefore play its part in
increasing production to satisfy rapidly changing food needs. Fourth, these processes are
exacerbated by the threat of climate change which not only limits the capacity of some
European agricultural areas to increase production (through limited water availability, for
example) but may also change what can be grown in certain areas (Cline, 2007; Mestre-
Sanchis and Feijoo-Bello, 2009). In combination, these processes may suggest that super-
productivist (or indeed neo-productivist) pathways of agricultural change may begin to
dominate, leaving less and less room for more environmentally sustainable non-productivist
areas in many European regions - an issue that lies at the heart of the European case studies
presented in this topic.
Sustainability as a regionally defined concept
In light of the number of potential functions and challenges facing agriculture in Europe,
we propose that increasing sustainability is best addressed by enabling flexible
combinations of farming models, which vary to reflect the specific opportunity sets
embedded in regional culture, agricultural capability, diversification potential, ecology,
historic ownership, and governance structures. The definition of sustainability at regional
level reflects a shift away from the notion that individual farms or farming systems can or
should be expected to meet the full range of public and industry demands on agriculture.
Instead, we propose that these demands should be met at regional 1 level, through flexible
combinations of approaches to farming. The notion that sustainability is achieved at
regional level not only takes into account that there will be regional differences in the forms
1 We acknowledge that the definition of 'region' is highly contested: the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units
for Statistics) subdivisions, while an important distinction for the delivery of EU structural funds, do not
necessarily adhere to geographic or administrative boundaries. In terms of scale our definition of 'region' is at
NUTS 3 or 4 classification levels (i.e. sub-national divisions). In practice, transition towards regionally sustainable
agriculture could be expected to involve increasing the authority of regional governments over agricultural funding
and intervention.
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search