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Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices

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TLDR
A doubling in global food demand projected for the next 50 years poses huge challenges for the sustainability both of food production and of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide to society.
Abstract
A doubling in global food demand projected for the next 50 years poses huge challenges for the sustainability both of food production and of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Agriculturalists are the principal managers of global useable lands and will shape, perhaps irreversibly, the surface of the Earth in the coming decades. New incentives and policies for ensuring the sustainability of agriculture and ecosystem services will be crucial if we are to meet the demands of improving yields without compromising environmental integrity or public health.

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Intensified agriculture favors evolved resistance to biological control

TL;DR: It is concluded that low plant and enemy biodiversity in intensive large-scale agriculture may facilitate the evolution of host resistance by pests and threaten the long-term viability of biological control.
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Food and land use. The influence of consumption patterns on the use of agricultural resources

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assessed the relationship between consumption patterns and land requirements for food and found that expenditure and the use of specific foods can change rapidly over time and result in shifts in related land requirements.
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Leveraging total factor productivity growth for sustainable and resilient farming

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the role of total factor productivity (TFP) in the evolution of global agriculture and suggest two pathways for future growth: technology-based and ecosystem-based.
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Food security and sustainable resource management

TL;DR: The potential adverse environmental impacts of increased agricultural production include unsustainable depletion of water and soil resources, major changes in the global nitrogen and phosphorous cycles, human health problems related to excessive nutrient and pesticide use, and loss of habitats that contribute to agricultural productivity as discussed by the authors.
References
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Climate change 2001: the scientific basis

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an overview of the climate system and its dynamics, including observed climate variability and change, the carbon cycle, atmospheric chemistry and greenhouse gases, and their direct and indirect effects.
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Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems

TL;DR: Human alteration of Earth is substantial and growing as discussed by the authors, between one-third and one-half of the land surface has been transformed by human action; the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has increased by nearly 30 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; more atmospheric nitrogen is fixed by humanity than by all natural terrestrial sources combined; more than half of all accessible surface fresh water is put to use by humanity; and about one-quarter of the bird species on Earth have been driven to extinction.
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Human alteration of the global nitrogen cycle: sources and consequences

TL;DR: In this article, a review of available scientific evidence shows that human alterations of the nitrogen cycle have approximately doubled the rate of nitrogen input into the terrestrial nitrogen cycle, with these rates still increasing; increased concentrations of the potent greenhouse gas N 2O globally, and increased concentration of other oxides of nitrogen that drive the formation of photochemical smog over large regions of Earth.
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Nonpoint pollution of surface waters with phosphorus and nitrogen

TL;DR: In this article, a review of the available scientific information, they are confident that nonpoint pollution of surface waters with P and N could be reduced by reducing surplus nutrient flows in agricultural systems and processes, reducing agricultural and urban runoff by diverse methods, and reducing N emissions from fossil fuel burning, but rates of recovery are highly variable among water bodies.
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