Transitions Toward Sustainable Agriculture And Food Chains And Peri-urban Areas
by Krijn J. Poppe /
2009 / English / PDF
3.6 MB Download
Agriculture is changing rapidly. The greatest current challenge to
the agricultural sector is for it to become sustainable in all
three of the dimensions profit, people and planet. This is
certainly the case in highly urbanized countries like the
Netherlands, where agriculture is confronted with high land prices,
rising consumer concerns for issues like animal welfare and
negative environmental effects but also with new demands from the
city for recreation, health care and local food products. These are
some of the developments in our society that are forcing
agriculture to change. The government, farmers, the agri-food
industry and the retail sector struggle to meet this challenge and
find new forms of governance. In the Netherlands, the government
has called for a ‘transition towards sustainable agriculture’ and
it is investing in this programme with its research and education
policy. Similar trends have been observed in other countries.This
book presents the expertise that has been accrued from at least
five years of Dutch research in this area. The aim is to collate
the results of the experiments, to learn from them, to confront
them with existing theory and to share them with a larger audience
in order to foster learning about transition. Given the leading
position of the Netherlands in global agriculture, in a highly
urbanized setting, and its leading position in the study of
transition theory this should be of significant interest to
students and researchers of the transitions in agriculture.
Agriculture is changing rapidly. The greatest current challenge to
the agricultural sector is for it to become sustainable in all
three of the dimensions profit, people and planet. This is
certainly the case in highly urbanized countries like the
Netherlands, where agriculture is confronted with high land prices,
rising consumer concerns for issues like animal welfare and
negative environmental effects but also with new demands from the
city for recreation, health care and local food products. These are
some of the developments in our society that are forcing
agriculture to change. The government, farmers, the agri-food
industry and the retail sector struggle to meet this challenge and
find new forms of governance. In the Netherlands, the government
has called for a ‘transition towards sustainable agriculture’ and
it is investing in this programme with its research and education
policy. Similar trends have been observed in other countries.This
book presents the expertise that has been accrued from at least
five years of Dutch research in this area. The aim is to collate
the results of the experiments, to learn from them, to confront
them with existing theory and to share them with a larger audience
in order to foster learning about transition. Given the leading
position of the Netherlands in global agriculture, in a highly
urbanized setting, and its leading position in the study of
transition theory this should be of significant interest to
students and researchers of the transitions in agriculture.