Summary
Reganold's 2017 perspective argues that whilst organic agriculture offered multiple sustainability benefits, it occupied only ~1% of global agricultural land and could not alone feed the world. The paper contends that achieving future food and ecosystem security requires a portfolio approach combining organic production with agroforestry, integrated farming, conservation agriculture, mixed crop–livestock systems, and other innovative approaches. The analysis identifies policy barriers to adoption and calls for diverse policy instruments to facilitate implementation of these blended systems.
UK applicability
The findings are relevant to UK agricultural policy, particularly debates around sustainable intensification, organic farming subsidies, and multi-system approaches to meeting food security and environmental targets. However, the paper's global-scale arguments require contextualisation within the UK's existing ~3% organic land area and specific agro-climatic and regulatory environment.
Key measures
Global organic agriculture land area (proportion of total agricultural land); sustainability metrics (ecosystem, food security, production capacity); policy instruments and adoption barriers
Outcomes reported
The paper examines organic agriculture's potential contribution to global food and ecosystem security, and discusses barriers to adoption of organic and other innovative farming systems. It synthesises evidence on the sustainability benefits of organic production and the need for diverse farming approaches.
Topic tags
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