International grain markets will keep prices low as there is an abundant global supply, but UK farmers are looking at alternative crops

A practitioner's response to Professor Dieter Helm's analysis of British farming

Farmers have recently been complaining about a lot, and in some cases with good cause. Brexit has created lots of practical difficulties, without delivering all the benefits they were promised. Migrant labour has been disrupted with as yet little sign that British workers want British agricultural jobs. The introduction of ELMs (Environmental Land Management schemes) […]

Perennial crops have a vast range of benefits, from carbon sequestration and biodiveristy, to nutritious crops for diversification of farms. Should we not have more?

New research finds meat production methods which are better for animals aren't always better for the planet, and vice-versa. How can we balance the trade-offs?

The use of antibiotics in raising livestock is complex. We could be moving towards a less-than-ideal result due to poor understanding, over-simplistic messaging and a rush for competitive advantage.

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - Pharming animals: a global history of antibiotics in food production (1935–2017)

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Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh, India, is a key cotton‐growing area in one of the most closely watched arenas of the global struggle over genetically modified crops. In 2005 farmers adopted India’s first genetically modified crop, Bt cotton, in numbers that resemble a fad. Various parties, including the biotechnology firm behind the new technology, interpret the spread as the result of farmer experimentation and management skill, alluding to orthodox innovation‐diffusion theory. However, a multiyear ethnography of Warangal cotton farmers shows a striking pattern of localized, ephemeral cotton seed fads preceding the spread of the genetically modified seeds. The Bt cotton fad is symptomatic of systematic disruption of the process of experimentation and development of management skill. In fact, Warangal cotton farming offers a case study in agricultural deskilling, a process that differs in fundamental ways from the better‐known process of industrial deskilling. In terms of cultural evolutionary theory, deskilling severs a vital link between environmental and social learning, leaving social learning to propagate practices with little or no environmental basis. However, crop genetic modification is not inherently deskilling and, ironically, has played a role in reinvolving farmers in Gujarat in the process of breeding.

Scholars have proposed agroecology as a promising method for promoting sustainable and socially just agricultural production systems. However, the extent to which agroecological practices will generate the yields required to ensure sufficient food globally remains unclear. This notion is particularly true in the context of Africa, where agricultural productivity is low but levels of hunger and malnutrition are high. To address this knowledge gap, this article undertakes a systematic review of empirical studies to assess the overall status of agroecology-related research in Africa. Using descriptive and meta-analytical methods, we evaluate empirical evidence on the effect of agroecological practices on land and labour productivity. Our analysis of 501 peer-reviewed articles reveals that the body of agroecology-related literature in Africa has been growing in the past 10 years from approximately 10 to more than 70 studies per annum before and after 2014, respectively, with a strong focus on East Africa, particularly Kenya. The majority of the reviewed studies relate to but do not mention agroecology in the title or abstract. Thus, solely relying on studies that use the term may introduce bias and overlook valuable research contributions to the field. The meta-analysis could identify 39 agronomic studies with 392 observations in which agroecological practices were compared to monocrop systems (defined as plots where similar plants grow alongside each other simultaneously and sequentially from one season to the next) with or without inputs as the control groups. The meta-analysis indicates that agroecological practices are associated with a positive and significant difference in land productivity, compared to that for monocrop systems especially so when monocrops are grown without inputs. However, the size and direction of yield differs by practice, crop, climatic factor, soil property and type of control.

This book provides a systems perspective and understanding to comprehensively address the complexities of agroecological systems and their transitions.

We take an in-depth look at how we can work towards flourishing local food systems that build communities, increase food security for all, and provide a fair return to farmers and growers.

In the suburb of Oosterwold, a living experiment in urban agriculture, the 5,000 inhabitants find different creative ways to fulfil the unique stipulation

Abstract. This book chronicles the history of food. It starts with the Columbian Exchange, a term coined in 1972 by the historian Alfred Crosby to refer to

“Eat local” is a common recommendation to reduce the carbon footprint of your diet. How does the impact of what you eat compare to where it's come from?

Visions of food sovereignty have been extremely important in helping to galvanize broad-based and diverse movements around the need for radical changes in agro-food systems. Yet while food sovereig...

The steep and stark environmental decline was not supposed to happen under the common agricultural policy

Set up to conserve traditional seeds, the Genetic Resources Research Institute is now helping smallholders diversify with crops resilient to the rapid changes in climate

The terms food security and food sovereignty originally emerged as separate terms to describe different things. The former is a concept that describes a conditi...

The decision in June 2016 by the UK to leave the EU found government departments responsible for domestic agriculture without detailed plans for a post-Brexit national agricultural policy. In Februar...

This textbook provides an accessible introduction to the market systems and governmental policies that link natural resources and the environment to food.

A special feature on reforming land for sustainable food

Transformative change is needed to align common small-scale ecological restoration approaches with expectations to restore millions of hectares of degraded lands globally. Currently, most restoration...

Regenerative grazing is overhyped as a climate solution. We should do it anyway. https://drawdown.org/insights/regenerative-grazing-is-overhyped-as-a-climate-solution-we-should-do-it-anyway

Improving soil health yields unexpected benefits for farmers https://phys.org/news/2024-06-soil-health-yields-unexpected-benefits.html

The Rise of the Carbon Farmer https://www.wired.com/story/carbon-farming-regenerative-agriculture/