This book provides a non-technical, accessible primer on sustainable agricultural development and its relationship to sustainable development based on three analytical pillars. The first is to understand agriculture as complex physical-biological-human systems. Second is the economic perspective of understanding tradeoffs and synergies among the economic, environmental and social dimensions of these systems at farm, regional and global scales. Third is the understanding of these agricultural systems as the supply side of one sector of a growing economy, interacting through markets and policies with other sectors at local, national and global scales.

The first part of this book introduces the concept of sustainability and develops an analytical framework based on tradeoffs quantified using impact indicators in the economic, environmental and social domains, linking this framework to the role of agriculture in economic growth and development. The latter part of the book introduces the reader to the major agro-ecosystems around the world. It then uses the analytical framework of tradeoffs and synergies in a growing economy to assess their current status and future prospects and to raise the question of how a transition towards sustainability can be achieved. The authors use these insights to motivate a discussion of how pathways towards sustainability can be envisioned and achieved, both through the expression of consumers’ desire for sustainably produced foods through the food system supply chain and through policies on the supply side such as new more sustainable technologies, environmental regulation and payments for ecosystem services.

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