Feeding the world's growing human population is increasingly challenging, especially as more people adopt a western diet and lifestyle. Doing so without causing damage to nature poses an even greater challenge. This book argues that in order to create a sustainable food supply whilst conserving nature, agriculture and nature must be reconnected and approached together.
The authors demonstrate that while the links between nature and food production have, to some extent, already been recognized, until now the focus has been to protect one from the impacts of the other. Instead, it is argued that nature and agriculture can, and should, work together and ultimately benefit from one another. Chapters describe efforts to protect nature through globally connected protected area systems and illustrate how farming methods are being shaped to protect nature within agricultural systems. The authors also point to many ways in which nature benefits agriculture through the ecosystem services it provides.
Overall, the book shows that nature conservation and food production must be considered as equally important components of future solutions to meet the global demand for food in a manner that is sustainable for both the human population and the planet as a whole.
Table of Contents:
Part 1: Food is Disconnected from Nature 1. Introduction – Food Production and Nature Conservation: Conflicts and Solutions Iain J. Gordon, Geoff R. Squire and Herbert H.T. Prins Part 2: The Future Challenge for Food Security and Nature Conservation 2. Feeding the Eleven Billion within the Sustainable Development Goals Framework Munir A. Hanjra, Andrew Noble, Simon Langan and Jonathan Lautze 3: Limits to Crop Production Geoff R. Squire Part 3: Approaches to Protecting Nature and Producing More Food 4. Can a Nature Reserve Help Feed a Family? Protected Areas and Food Security Nigel Dudley and Sue Stolton 5. Protected Areas, Ecosystem Services, and Food Production Jeffrey A. McNeely 6. Agricultural Intensification and Diversity for Reconciling Production and Environment: The Role of Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems Gilles Lemaire, Julie Ryschawy, Paulo César de Faccio Carvalho and François Gastal 7: A Landscape Approach to Integrating Food Production and Conservation Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer Part 4: A New Agenda for Food Production and Conservation 8: New Technologies: Costs and Benefits for Food Production in Contrasting Agro-ecological Production Systems Michael J. Robertson, Nigel P. Preston and Graham D. Bonnett 9: Utilising Genetic Diversity to Feed the World Nigel Maxted and Anne Lauvie 10. How Should Land Be Used? Bioenergy and Responsible Innovation in Agricultural Systems Alison Mohr, Orla Shortall, Richard Helliwell and Sujatha Raman 11. Innovative Pasture Cropping: An Ecological Approach to Farming Ndungi wa Mungai and Colin Seis 12. Nature’s Role in Feeding the Ten Billion: How Biodiversity can Benefit Agriculture Rob Brooker Part 5: A Future Framework for Linking Food Production and Conservation 13 Rebalancing Food Production and Nature Conservation: The Need for Design-oriented Research Walter A.H. Rossing, Rodolphe Sabatier, Félix Teillard, Jeroen C.J. Groot and Pablo Tittonell 14. Markets to Support Sustainable Food Production: Potentials and Challenges of Alternative Provisioning Cristina Grasseni 15. Global-Local Governance for Generating Transformative Pathways towards Sustainable Food Provisioning and Nature Conservation Rosemary Hill and Jessica Duncan Part 6: Food Production and Nature Conservation 16: Conclusion: Re-engaging Agriculture with Nature Iain J. Gordon, Geoff R. Squire and Herbert H.T. Prins
About the Author :
Iain J. Gordon is Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Division of Tropical Environments and Societies at James Cook University, Australia, and Emeritus Fellow of the James Hutton Institute, UK.
Herbert H. T. Prins is Professor in Resource Ecology at Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Geoff R. Squire is Principal Research Scientist at the James Hutton Institute, UK.
Review :
"This multi-author work aims to look across disciplines at the way food production, which for the most part in this book means farming, can be "reconnected to nature"... Many of the indidual chapters of this book are interestinig, informative and at times thought-provoking." - John Hopkins in The Bulletin of the British Ecological Society (March 2018).
