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Diversity of European Farming Systems and Pathways To View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE SCHWERPUNKT Pritchard, B., 2012: Trading Into Hunger? Trading Out Diversity of European Farming of Hunger? International Food Trade and the Debate on Food Security. In: Rosin, C.; Stock, P.; Campbell, Systems and Pathways to H. (eds.): Food Systems Failure. The Global Food Cri- Sustainable Intensification sis and the Future of Agriculture. London, pp. 46–59 Reisch, L.; Eberle; U.; Lorek, S., 2013: Sustainable by Rolf Meyer, ITAS Food Consumption: An Overview of Contemporary Issues and Policies. In: Sustainability: Science, Prac- European agriculture is confronted with a tice & Policy 9/2 (2013), pp. 7–25 number of ongoing and new challenges. At Scarborough, P.; Appleby, P.; Mizdrak, A. et al., 2014: the level of crop production, sustainable in- Dietary Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Meat-eaters, tensification is proposed as the way forward. Fish-eaters, Vegetarians and Vegans in the UK. In: Two different pathways for improvement of Climatic Change; doi: 10.1007/s10584-014-1169-1 crop production are grouped under the um- SDC – Sustainable Development Commission, 2009: brella of sustainable intensification: high- Food Security and Sustainability – The Perfect Fit. tech approaches and agro-ecological ap- SDC position paper. London proaches. Because of the high heterogeneity SDC – Sustainable Development Commission, 2011: of agriculture in the EU, these approaches are Looking Back, Looking Forward – Sustainability and not equally appropriate for all European farm- UK Food Policy 2000–2011. London ing systems and are associated with specific opportunities and limitations. Agro-ecologi- SRU – Sachverständigenrat für Umweltfragen, 2012: cal approaches of sustainable intensification Umweltgutachten 2012 – Verantwortung in einer be- demand not only changes at farm level but grenzten Welt. Berlin also include a transition of the currently dom- Tomlinson, I., 2013: Doubling Food Production to inating technological paradigm and develop- Feed 9 billion: A Critical Perspective on a Key Dis- ment trajectory. course of Food Security in the UK. In: Journal of Ru- ral Studies 29 (2013), pp. 81–90 Die Landwirtschaft in Europa muss sich einer Watson, R.T., 2012: Prologue: Food Security – Now Reihe von bereits bestehenden, aber auch neu- is the Future. In: Rosin, C.; Stock, P.; Campbell, H. en Herausforderungen stellen. Im Bereich der (eds.): Food Systems Failure. The Global Food Crisis landwirtschaftlichen Produktion wird eine „nach- and the Future of Agriculture. London haltige Intensivierung“ als notwendige Weiterent- West, P.; Gerber, J.; Engstrom, P. et al., 2014: Lever- wicklung vorgeschlagen. Unter diesem Begriff age Points for Improving Global Food Security and werden zwei verschiedene Wege zur Verbesse- the Environment. In: Science 345 (2014), pp. 325–328 rung der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion disku- tiert: hochtechnisierte Ansätze und agrarökologi- UN – United Nations, 2011: World Population Pros- sche Ansätze. Aufgrund der hohen Heterogenität pects: The 2010 Revision. United Nations Department der Landwirtschaft in der EU sind diese Ansätze of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Estimate nicht für alle europäischen Landwirtschaftssys- and Projections Section. Rome teme gleichermaßen geeignet. Sie sind jeweils mit bestimmten Chancen und Einschränkun- Contact gen verbunden. Agrarökologische Ansätze der nachhaltigen Intensivierung erfordern nicht nur Dipl.-Ing. Juliane Jörissen Veränderungen in der Praxis der landwirtschaft- Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems lichen Betriebe, sondern auch einen Wandel des Analysis (ITAS) gegenwärtig vorherrschenden technologischen Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Paradigmas und Entwicklungspfads. Karlstraße 11, 76133 Karlsruhe Tel.: +49 721 608-22994 Email: [email protected] 1 Introduction Since the 1950s, the intensification of Europe- « » an agricultural production was driven by farm mechanisation and the strong increase in external (purchased) input, increasing the dependency on Technikfolgenabschätzung – Theorie und Praxis 23. Jg., Heft 3, November 2014 Seite 11 SCHWERPUNKT non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels. This impacts. Sustainable intensification is proposed was accompanied by a huge simplification of ag- as an answer to this challenge. ricultural systems at all levels, from field and farm to landscape and region. Agricultural research and development has led to the availability of larger 2 The Concept of Sustainable Intensification machines and buildings which are not only more A prominent starting point in the scientific and efficient in themselves but strongly encourage policy development of the sustainable intensifi- the exploitation of economies of scale, i.e. larger cation concept was the Royal Society (2009) re- fields and farms, resulting in structural changes in port “Reaping the benefits”.2 Therein, sustainable agriculture (Davidova et al. 2013, p. 30). Environ- intensification is understood as producing more mental impacts of specialisation and increasing food from the same area of land while reducing labour productivity through simplification of crop the environmental impacts (Godfray et al. 2010). management and greater use of external inputs in- The concept focuses on crop production, chiefly clude water contamination, rising greenhouse gas arable crops (Garnett et al. 2013). The need for emissions, soil degradation, and loss of biodiver- sustainable intensification is based on the recog- sity. As an alternative, it is proposed that oppor- nition of the following challenges: tunities should be explored to capture ecological interactions among different land use systems to • The global population growing to some 9 bil- make agricultural production systems more effi- lion people by mid-century and the nutrition cient at cycling nutrients, improving soil quality, transition associated with wealth growth will preserving natural resources and the environment, lead to remarkably increased food demand. and enhancing biodiversity (Lemaire et al. 2013). But the necessary extend of increased future The trajectory of technological develop- food production is challenged (Grethe et al. ment, coupled with greater market orientation 2011; Tomlinson 2013). Nevertheless, an of agriculture over time, is driving a process of overall increase in production is regarded as structural change towards fewer and larger farms. essential (Garnett et al. 2013). Despite this ongoing process, a wide variation in • Yields on existing agricultural land should farm structures across the EU-27 is maintained. be increased instead of expanding the area of With the accession of the New Member States, agricultural land to increase gross production farming in Europe is carried out primarily on because the latter would result in losses of vi- small-scale farms. Consequently, in recent years tal ecosystem and biodiversity services (Roy- small-scale farms have received increased atten- al Society 2009, p. 7). tion in the political debate, recognising the role • Agricultural production per unit of non-re- they play in rural areas and the need to improve newable inputs and impacts upon ecosystem their economic and social conditions (EC 2011). services must be improved. It is recognised The United Nations declared 2014 the “In- that there is a need for agricultural systems ternational Year of Family Farming”. Family that achieve the necessary levels of produc- farming dominates EU agriculture,1 with a vast tion with substantially lower reliance on fos- diversity in farm size, labour input and produc- sil fuels (Royal Society 2009, p. 47). There- tion approaches. The European Commission or- fore, sustainable intensification is also about ganised a conference in November 2013 entitled relative efficiencies in food production with “Family farming: A dialogue towards more sus- respect to environmental resources and im- tainable and resilient farming in Europe and the pacts (Fish et al. 2014). world” with around 500 participants (EC 2013a), • Since the 1990s, growth rates of yields and pro- followed this year by a number of events in Eu- ductivity, especially in industrialised countries, rope and worldwide. Part of the challenges fam- have slowed down (Alston et al. 2009). The ily farming is confronted with is to increase pro- 2007/08 food price spike could be the begin- duction with reduced inputs and environmental ning of a period of rising and more volatile food Seite 12 Technikfolgenabschätzung – Theorie und Praxis 23. Jg., Heft 3, November 2014 SCHWERPUNKT prices, indicating mismatching between food ciency, increasing the site-specific yield potential demand and production (Godfray et al. 2010). (Meyer et al. 2013, p. 41). The proposed sustainable intensification is not When identifying technologies or crop pro- without controversy. Major critical arguments are duction systems which can contribute to achiev- that the goals of intensification and sustainabili- ing these objectives, the diversity of European ty are considered to be incompatible; a marriage farming systems must be taken into account. This of sustainable agriculture and intensive farming is necessary because the need, the suitability and could only result in a continuation of industri- the impacts of technologies and management sys- alised agriculture which is accompanied by envi- tems of crop production depend on the specific ronmental harm and reductions in sustainability. configuration of the respective farming system. Secondly, sustainable
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