TY - JOUR

T1 - Time for a shift in crop production

T2 - embracing complexity through diversity at all levels

AU - Østergård, Hanne

AU - Finckh, Maria R.

AU - Fontaine, Laurance

AU - Goldringer, Isabelle

AU - Hoad, Steve P.

AU - Kristensen, Jens Kristian

AU - van Bueren, Edith T. Lammerts

AU - Mascher, Fabio

AU - Munk, Lisa

AU - Wolfe, Martin S.

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - A radical shift in our approach to crop production is needed to ensure food security and to address the problems of soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, polluted and restricted water supplies, coupled with a future of fossil fuel limitations and increasingly variable climatic conditions. An interdisciplinary network of European scientists put forward visions for future crop production embracing the complexity of our socio-ecological system by applying the principle of diversity at all levels from soil micro-organisms to plant varieties and cropping systems. This approach, integrated with careful deployment of our finite global resources and implementation of appropriate sustainable technology, appears to be the only way to ensure the scale of system resilience needed to cope with many of our concerns. We discuss some of the most important tools such as (i) building soil fertility by recycling of nutrients and sustainable use of other natural and physical resources, (ii) enhancing biological diversity by breeding of crops resilient to climate change and (iii) reconnecting all stakeholders in crop production. Finally, we emphasise some of the changes in agricultural and environmental regulation and policy needed in order to implement the visions. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry

AB - A radical shift in our approach to crop production is needed to ensure food security and to address the problems of soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, polluted and restricted water supplies, coupled with a future of fossil fuel limitations and increasingly variable climatic conditions. An interdisciplinary network of European scientists put forward visions for future crop production embracing the complexity of our socio-ecological system by applying the principle of diversity at all levels from soil micro-organisms to plant varieties and cropping systems. This approach, integrated with careful deployment of our finite global resources and implementation of appropriate sustainable technology, appears to be the only way to ensure the scale of system resilience needed to cope with many of our concerns. We discuss some of the most important tools such as (i) building soil fertility by recycling of nutrients and sustainable use of other natural and physical resources, (ii) enhancing biological diversity by breeding of crops resilient to climate change and (iii) reconnecting all stakeholders in crop production. Finally, we emphasise some of the changes in agricultural and environmental regulation and policy needed in order to implement the visions. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry

U2 - 10.1002/jsfa.3615

DO - 10.1002/jsfa.3615

M3 - Journal article

VL - 89

SP - 1439

EP - 1445

JO - Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

JF - Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

SN - 0022-5142

IS - 9

ER -