TY - JOUR
T1 - Time for a shift in crop production
T2 - embracing complexity through diversity at all levels
AU - Østergård, Hanne
AU - Finckh, Maria R.
AU - Fontaine, Laurance
AU - Goldringer, Isabelle
AU - Hoad, Steve P.
AU - Kristensen, Jens Kristian
AU - van Bueren, Edith T. Lammerts
AU - Mascher, Fabio
AU - Munk, Lisa
AU - Wolfe, Martin S.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - A radical shift in our approach to crop production is needed to ensure food security and to address the problems of soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, polluted and restricted water supplies, coupled with a future of fossil fuel limitations and increasingly variable climatic conditions. An interdisciplinary network of European scientists put forward visions for future crop production embracing the complexity of our socio-ecological system by applying the principle of diversity at all levels from soil micro-organisms to plant varieties and cropping systems. This approach, integrated with careful deployment of our finite global resources and implementation of appropriate sustainable technology, appears to be the only way to ensure the scale of system resilience needed to cope with many of our concerns. We discuss some of the most important tools such as (i) building soil fertility by recycling of nutrients and sustainable use of other natural and physical resources, (ii) enhancing biological diversity by breeding of crops resilient to climate change and (iii) reconnecting all stakeholders in crop production. Finally, we emphasise some of the changes in agricultural and environmental regulation and policy needed in order to implement the visions. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry
AB - A radical shift in our approach to crop production is needed to ensure food security and to address the problems of soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, polluted and restricted water supplies, coupled with a future of fossil fuel limitations and increasingly variable climatic conditions. An interdisciplinary network of European scientists put forward visions for future crop production embracing the complexity of our socio-ecological system by applying the principle of diversity at all levels from soil micro-organisms to plant varieties and cropping systems. This approach, integrated with careful deployment of our finite global resources and implementation of appropriate sustainable technology, appears to be the only way to ensure the scale of system resilience needed to cope with many of our concerns. We discuss some of the most important tools such as (i) building soil fertility by recycling of nutrients and sustainable use of other natural and physical resources, (ii) enhancing biological diversity by breeding of crops resilient to climate change and (iii) reconnecting all stakeholders in crop production. Finally, we emphasise some of the changes in agricultural and environmental regulation and policy needed in order to implement the visions. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry
U2 - 10.1002/jsfa.3615
DO - 10.1002/jsfa.3615
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0022-5142
VL - 89
SP - 1439
EP - 1445
JO - Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
JF - Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
IS - 9
ER -
