Sustainability In Agribusiness

Accomplishing sustainability in the agribusiness sector is a significant, yet time-sensitive, challenge, especially when balanced with the need to grow sufficient quantity and quality of food to keep the growing global population healthy. Through both quantitative and qualitative methods, this book explores the extent to which the agribusiness sector is already evolving to become sustainable and the ways in which innovation in the industry can help address sustainable development goals, particularly around zero hunger, gender equality, decent work, responsible consumption and production, and climate action. The contributors to this volume address the following key questions: What are the drivers and barriers for the agribusiness sector to become sustainable? Which business models best facilitate the implementation of sustainable goals? How can we measure the extent to which the agribusiness sector is becoming more sustainable? How can the agribusiness sector leverage recent technological advancements to achieve its sustainability goals? The analysis of the sustainability challenges for the sector ranges across various facets of the industry including employment, pre-production industries, agriculture, food processing, distribution, and trade. This book will be of significant interest to readers in agribusiness, innovation management, and sustainability.

The industrial agrifood system is in crisis regarding its negative ecological, economic, and social externalities: it is unsustainable on all dimensions. This book documents and engages competing visions and contested discourses of agrifood sustainability. Using an incremental/reformist to transformation/radical continuum framework for alternative agrifood movements, this book identifies tensions between competing discourses that stress food sovereignty, social justice, and fair trade and those that emphasize food security, efficiency and free trade. In particular, it highlights the role that governance processes play in sustainability transitions and the ways that power and politics affect sustainability visions and discourses. The book includes chapters that review sustainability discourses at the macro and meso levels, as well as case studies from Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe, South America and the USA.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. As we realize the ways in which our food systems contribute and respond to climate change, sustainable agriculture becomes increasingly crucial. It is a complicated, multi-dimensional issue, which should be considered from a variety of angles. This compendium includes the perspectives of science, economics, sociology, and policy. The editor and contributors present an international and comprehensive perspective that examines the concept of sustainability as it applies to the food supply chain from farm to fork.

With all of the environmental and social problems confronting our food systems today, it is apparent that none of the strategies we have relied on in the past―higher-yielding varieties, increased irrigation, inorganic fertilizers, pest damage reduction―can be counted on to come to the rescue. In fact, these solutions are now part of the problem. It is becoming quite clear that the only way to keep the food crisis from escalating is to promote the conversion processes that will move agriculture to sustainability. Under the editorial guidance of agroecology experts Martha Rosemeyer and the internationally renowned Dr. Stephen R. Gliessman, The Conversion to Sustainable Agriculture: Principles, Processes, and Practices establishes a framework for how this conversion can be accomplished and presents case studies from around the world that illustrate how the process is already underway. The book provides a four-stage transition process for achieving sustainability and an in-depth analysis of the global efforts to make farms more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. An international team of chapter contributors explores ways to lessen dependency on fossil fuels and pesticides, and examines each step in the conversion process. They also describe the process of monitoring change toward sustainable agriculture while integrating social and economic analysis within scientific practices. Serving as both a core textbook for students and a comprehensive reference for agricultural practitioners, this volume is a valuable resource for the change that is needed in our food system now and in the future.

Showing how the method of sustainability assessment plays a key role in choosing the best agricultural productive mode, this book guides the reader through the process of selecting, from among the various approaches for building farming systems, the method of decision-making that will result in the most appropriate outcome, given the context. Case studies hail from polities as diverse as Portugal and Canada, Argentina and Lebanon. The work thus offers a valuable critical survey of the assessment methods that account for sustainability and economics, and which have developed considerably in the last two decades. The heterogeneous approaches covered here make this volume appropriate for consultation in a wide variety of social, political and geographical contexts.

The recent CTA workshop on ‘catalysing actionable knowledge to enhance next-generation ACP agribusiness through digitalisation’ identified five intersecting drivers that explain what farmer-oriented agribusiness expect to achieve by investing in digitalisation: reduce risk, raise productivity, increase efficiency, improve decisions, and enhance market access. Participants argued that digital interventions all serve one or more of these, depending on specific local needs and situations. A critical factor underpinning what works in all these areas is the economic sustainability of the business models used to deliver value and services. This brief by Valarie Pilgrim argues that the sustainability of digital agribusiness projects can be enhanced through three main steps: 1) plan for sustainability in the initial project design, 2) monitor sustainability readiness throughout the life-cycle of the project, and 3) verify that indicators of sustainability have been achieved during the project close-off process.

This book deals with the important topic of policies for sustainable agriculture, since food insecurity is a growing concern for policy makers and will affect the quality of life and well-being of generations to come. The authors provide a theoretical background to the concept of sustainable agriculture including its recent developments; monitor the current state of sustainability in agriculture in different regions of the world; and evaluate current agricultural policies to propose new solutions. They show practical ways of sustainability measurement that could be applied to different regions. The book takes into account sustainability indicators based on economic, social and environmental aspects and discusses the trade-offs between these three dimensions. It also answers the question of whether current agricultural policies contribute to balancing between the goals of agriculture---that of not just providing food but of contributing to the greater good---and how policies differ and have evolved across the world. Finally, it puts together the best practices of sustainability for the use of policymakers. The book pays particular attention to least developed countries where hunger and malnutrition are high, but where productivity should not come at the expense of environmental and social goals. This book is of use to a wide readership of policy makers, professionals and academics in the social and environmental sciences interested in the improvement of human life through sustainable agricultural policy implementation.

This volume is a ready reference on sustainable agriculture and reinforce the understanding for its utilization to develop environmentally sustainable and profitable food production systems. It describes ecological sustainability of farming systems, present innovations for improving efficiency in the use of resources for sustainable agriculture and propose technological options and new areas of research in this very important area of agriculture.