Politicians make the policy. But it’s often left to business to implement it. For this reason RioPlus Business is featuring submissions from the private sector across the globe in the lead up to Rio+20.
In this article, a team from Lund University in Sweden attempts to answer the tricky question, how can we create sustainable agriculture, capable of feeding the soon to be 10 billion people on earth and at the same time preserve the ecosystems of the species that coexist with us on this planet?
By Marianne Hall, Georg Andersson, Henrik Smith and Markku Rummukainen
We use the landscapes surrounding us to produce food and fibre, but our efforts to increase this production in the short run often comes at a cost to the plants, animals and biological processes that provide us with sustainable ecosystem services such as nutrient retention, carbon storage, fresh water, waste decomposition and recreational experiences.
How we manage the balance between our demands and what the Earth can provide constitutes an important set of questions for scientists, practitioners and policy makers. One of these questions relates to the sustainable agricultural sector and is of particular concern to farmers in a changing world.
One tool for helping to make the agricultural sector sustainable is to use labels on food products to guide consumers who wish to make more environment-friendly choices in their everyday life.
Niklas Torle is the owner of the Vegadal Farm in southern Sweden. He delivers vegetables labelled with the Swedish Seal of Quality. This guarantees that the food has [...]
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