A global database of diversified farming effects on biodiversity and yield

Inclusive diets within planetary boundaries

Applying assessment methods to diversified farming systems: Simple adjustment or complete overhaul?

<scp>IFST</scp> vision for a <scp>UK</scp>‐wide national food strategy

An optimal diet for planet and people

The future of environmental sustainability labelling on food products

Future of food: Innovating towards sustainable healthy diets

This special issue aims to develop how Diversified Farming Systems (DFS) may contribute to adaptive capacity in order to confer resilience to agricultural systems. In this perspective article, I argue that a framework for DFS and adaptive capacity must adequately contend with the role of farmland tenure on the shape of food systems to be both internally coherent and socially redistributive. Yet, both DFS and adaptive capacity scholarship deemphasize or mischaracterize the role of farmland tenure in favor of ecosystem dynamics. In this paper, I bring together lessons from the agrarian change literature and established critiques of resilience thinking to demonstrate core problems with a framework aimed at linking DFS to adaptive capacity without adequately addressing the role of farmland tenure. Namely, applying resilience thinking as a framework to understand food systems change prioritizes concern over final “states” or processes of farming systems and may ignore who has the power to adapt or who derives benefits from adaptation. The critiques of resilience thinking inform that the result of this apolitical elision is (1) entrenchment of neoliberal logics that place responsibility to cultivate adaptation on individual farmers and (2) provisioning of legitimacy for land tenure systems that can most readily adopt DFS, without understanding how well these systems distribute public benefits. Resilience reformers call for ways to include more power aware analysis when applying resilience thinking to complex socio-technical systems. I suggest that centering the role of land tenure into the frameworks of DFS and adaptive capacity provides a lens to observe the power relations that mediate any benefits of agricultural diversification. Integrating analysis of the social and legal structures of the food system into the DFS for adaptive capacity formulation is a crucial step to transforming resilience thinking from an apolitical tool to transformative and power-aware applied science.

Feeding the world depends on protecting our valuable ecosystems and biodiversity. Currently, increasing public awareness of the problems posed by the current industrialized food system has resulted in increased support for the creative market for economically, socially, and ecologically sustainable food production systems and enhanced demands for variations in agricultural policies and regulations. In food production, the restoration and protection of ecosystems and sustainable food systems must be given priority, which requires a forward-looking rational management strategy and fundamental changes in patterns and practices of economic development, product, and production. Food systems should be redesigned to have a neutral and positive environmental impact, as well as ensure healthy nutrition and food safety, and low environmental impact strategies should become a priority. This review paper aims to discuss, build, guide and evaluate sustainable food systems, principles, and transition strategies such as agroecological, organic, biodynamic, regenerative, urban, and precision agriculture, which are imperative visions for the management of agriculture and food production. To this end, we analyzed the evolution of the established strategies to develop sustainable agriculture and food systems, and we created assessment of key sustainability issues related to food, environment, climate, and rural development priorities and resource use practices.

Dietitians as change agents for promoting healthy and sustainable food systems

Staple crops, which have large amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, and/or fats, provide the bulk of calories in people's diets. Perennial plants, which can be productive for many years without the need for replanting, can produce staple foods and environmental benefits, but their agronomic and nutritional properties haven't been considered synthetically in comparison to annual staples. Here we offer a framework to classify perennial staple crops according to their nutritional categories and cultivation status. We assemble literature to report on the yield potential of 51 perennial staple crops, only 15 of which are well-characterized in existing global datasets. We show the extent and distribution of perennial staple crop production in relation to annual crop types, calculate the carbon stocks they hold, and analyze their nutritional content for three macronutrients and nine micronutrients. We found that most perennial staple crops are regional crops (not globally traded) that grow in the subtropics to tropics. At least one perennial staple crop in each of the five nutritional categories has yields over 2.5 t/ha, in some cases considerably higher, competitive with and in many cases exceeding those of nutritionally comparable annual staples. Perennial staple crops only comprise ~4.5% of total cropland. They hold a modest ~11.4 GtC above and below ground, less than one third of the anthropogenic carbon-equivalent emissions for the year 2018, but more than the ~9 GtC held by the same amount of annual cropland. If linear growth in land under perennial staple production continues to 2040, and replaces only annual cropland, an additional ~0.95 GtC could be sequestered. Many perennial crops also had competitive macronutrient density and yield (per unit area) compared to annual staples; moreover, specific perennial staples are abundant in specific micronutrients, indicating that they can be a nutrient-dense part of diets, unlike the most ubiquitous annual staple crops (corn, wheat, rice) that do not appear in the top 85th percentile for any of the nine micronutrients analyzed. Transition of land and diets to perennial staple crops, if judiciously managed, can provide win-win solutions for both food production and ecosystems.

Gaining Acceptance of Novel Plant Breeding Technologies.

Livestock Farming with Care: towards sustainable production of animal-source food

ABSTRACTPermaculture is an international grassroots movement with a focus on diversified farming systems (DFS). We visited 36 self-identified permaculture farms in the continental United States and gathered multidimensional data on the distribution of labor and income across enterprises and seasons, along with sociodemographic information and farm characteristics. Using this data we assessed livelihood diversity and performed a cluster analysis to develop a preliminary typology of U.S. permaculture farms. Farms were predominantly small in scale, with a high proportion of young farmers, new farmers, and new farms, when compared with national figures. Diversity of farm-based income was high for enterprises and across seasons. Cluster analysis based on sources of income produced a preliminary typology with five categories: small mixed annual and perennial cropping (N = 10), integrated production (perennial and animal crops, N = 5), a mix of production and services (N = 9), animal base (N = 5), and service base (cultural services and material products and services, N = 5). Our research suggests that permaculture farms fit well within the emerging framework of DFS, and are using a familiar set of strategies, including non-production enterprises, in order to develop and maintain diversified agroecosystems.

Upcycling to a circular food system

The question of fossil fuel depletion represents a significant contemporary agricultural problem. Once humans deplete the resources on which agriculture and food production depends, we will be daunted by the complexities of remaking the agricultural system, and faced with the consequences of our failures in the past. Arguably, no other single factor can affect future food production prospects as much as energy supply. In this context, there are growing debates about the extent to which diverse farming systems – including conventional and organic farming systems – may represent more energy efficient and productive systems. This thesis makes a contribution to this debate, by undertaking a case study of energy use on conventional and organic dairy farms in South-East Queensland. To do this, this thesis undertakes an energy audit of four farms; and in so doing, articulates the energy requirements related to milk production, and a starting point for addressing energy efficiencies and controlling energy use on the farm. This thesis then compares data across the four case studies to identify the effect of different management practices upon energy use and sustainability of individual enterprises. The results presented in this thesis demonstrate that along with concerns regarding diminishing fossil fuel reserves, and the need to re-design energy inefficient agriculture and food systems, rising energy costs have also resulted in a re-evaluation of energy use, leading many farmers to seek alternative – low energy – agricultural practices. Reducing on-farm energy consumption is recognised by many farmers as a vital step in ensuring the long-term viability of their farms. One of the outcomes of these circumstances has been an increased farmer interest in monitoring energy use patterns and quantifying energy use. Knowledge of the patterns of energy flows on the farm will act as important tools for farmers to assess the overall sustainability of their farming activities and lead to improved management practices, conservation of fossil fuels and an increase in profitability.