Agriculture,%20environment%20and%20sustainability:%20Notions%20of%20sustainability

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Agriculture, environment and sustainability
Notions of sustainability
Objectives of session

• to discuss the concept of sustainability
• to outline the issues associated with managing
  for sustainable futures

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Julian Park Ex 6686 Web site www.rdg.ac.uk/aaspar
kj/ j.r.park_at_reading.ac.uk
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Sustainable a textbook definition The word
sustainable appears to originate from the French
verb soutenir, meaning to hold up or
support What are we trying to sustain and how do
we decide what to sustain? Some systems are
sustainable but undesirable What temporal and
spatial scales do we attach to sustainability? Eve
n if a system is deemed to be sustainable how
do we manage it so that it continues to be so?
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Some definitions associated with sustainability.
.exploration into a tangled conceptual jungle
where watchful eyes lurk at every
bend (O'Riordan 1985) .in order to be
sustainable land use must display a dynamic
response to changing ecological and
socio-economic conditions (Fresco and
Kroonenburg 1992) .monitoring of progress
toward sustainability depends on the
identification of system characteristics that
either support or decrease sustainability (Sloco
mbe 1990) .a sustainable system is one that
can evolve indefinitely toward greater human
utility, greater efficiency of resource use and
a balance with the environment which is
favourable to humans and most other
species (Harwood 1989)
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Giampietro et al 1992 make the following comment
with respect to some forms of land use "He/she
the land user is acting like a truck driver who
is short of cash and sells pieces of his truck to
improve his income but who will soon no longer
make a living out of being a trucker of goods"
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A BRIEF HISTORY IMPACTING ON THE SUSTAINABILITY
DEBATE

• Early 1900's some people were already questioning
  what was termed "industrial agriculture"
• Concerns in America about soil degradation The
  Dust Bowl of the 1930's in the American plains
• 1950's, 1960's a period of rapid mechanisation
  and increase in productivity
• 1960's worries about chemicals, The book "Silent
  Spring" seen by many as the work of a crackpot
• The green revolution increasing output of mainly
  rice and wheat in Asia

• 1970's Oil crisis in developed world
• 1970's Forrester and Meadows "World Dynamics
  Model" predicted difficulties ahead
• The Brant Commission The North South Divide
  (1978-79)
• 1980's Rapid expansion of developed economies,
  widening of the North South divide, The Bruntland
  Commission,
• 1990's Rio Convention, Agenda 21, NFFO's, CAP
  reforms
• 2000 Another energy crisis/ Middle East crisis?

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Main pressures relating to the sustainability of
land use today

• 1. The projected growth in world population and
  demand for food, fuel and fibre
• 2. The impact of agriculture on soils, water and
  air (erosion, degradation, pollution)
• 3. Continued increase in use of non renewable
  resources in production, (fossil fuels,
  phosphate, potash)
• 4. Social and cultural aspects of agricultural
  change (depopulation, loss of landscape and
  amenity)

• 5. Depletion of biodiversity (monocropping, loss
  of habitats, widespread use of pesticides)
• 6. The impact of climatic change on agriculture
  and vicevera
• 7. Global markets, falling commodity prices and
  changes in support mechanisms

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So what can we say about the concept of
sustainability in practical terms?

• Popular- few people would openly advocate a
  concept of unsustainability
• Involves thinking about the future- i.e. it has
  temporal characteristics
• Systems interactions make planning in a
  sustainable manner difficult
• Need to deliver strategies for assessing the
  (degree of) sustainability of a system