The greatest current challenge to the agricultural sector is for it to become sustainable in all three of the dimensions profit, people and planet. This challenge is even more urgent in highly urbanized countries like the Netherlands, where high land prices, rising consumer concerns for issues like animal welfare and the highly negative environmental externalities of the agricultural industry combine with new demands from the city for recreation, health care and local food products. These are some of the developments in our society that are forcing agriculture to change. The government, farmers, the agri-food industry and the retail sector struggle to meet this challenge. In the Netherlands, the government has called for a ‘transition towards sustainable agriculture’ and it is investing in this programme with its research and education policy. Similar trends have been observed in other countries.
This book presents the expertise that has been accrued from at least five years of Dutch research in this area. The aim is to collate the results of the experiments, to learn from them, to confront them with existing theory, and to share them with a larger audience in order to foster learning about transition. Given the leading position of the Netherlands in global agriculture, in a highly urbanized setting, and its leading position in the study of transition theory this should be of significant interest to students and researchers of the transitions in agriculture.
Transitions towards sustainable agriculture, food chains and peri-urban areas
Recent experiences from the Netherlands is verkrijgbaar bij Wageningen Academic Publishers