Abstract
The concepts, ‘sustainable development’ and ‘sustainable agriculture’, have been shaped by both political discourses of the United Nations and scientific discourses. Using critical discourse and content analysis, we trace the meaning of ‘sustainable agriculture’ in both international political and in scientific discourses to examine and identify key elements of the representation of sustainable agriculture. We found that the meanings of the concept of sustainable agriculture vary markedly: International political actors primarily produce discourses on sustainable development in agriculture and on sustainable agricultural intensification. Scientists tend to emphasise issues of environmental management. Based on our findings, we highlight the differences in the meaning of sustainable agriculture between the political and scientific discourses and attempt to explain them. In addition, discursive gaps are shown that have the potential to hinder the systematic operationalization of ‘sustainable agriculture’, such as the integration of a social dimension of sustainable agriculture.
Highlights
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as ratified by the United Nations in 2015 [1], confirmed the importance of sustainable agriculture for global development
The following section shows the results of the discourse analysis of the international political discourses, followed by the scientific ones
One of the most remarkable findings of the discourse analysis of the international political discourses was that the concept of sustainable agriculture is often missing in the UN conference documents, from 1980 until 2000
Summary
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as ratified by the United Nations in 2015 [1], confirmed the importance of sustainable agriculture for global development These goals influence the way of research significantly. It is unclear, how the international political discourses have shaped the scientific debate and vice-versa and which meanings are attributed to sustainable agriculture in these discourses. Quental and colleagues [5,6] have examined the historic development of both the scientific and the political discourses of the sustainable development concept. We follow these examples of these authors, but critically examine the meaning of sustainable agriculture in the political discourses.
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