{"title":"Prospects for Agroecology in Europe\n Perspectives de l'agroécologie en Europe\n Perspektiven für die Agrarökologie in Europa","authors":"Alan Matthews","doi":"10.1111/1746-692X.12376","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Agroecology is not a new concept. Its rising prominence, however, is linked to greater societal awareness of environmental pressures associated with agricultural practices, a decline in the number of farmers, the growing market power of major corporate businesses, and links between ill-health and patterns of food consumption. In this context, agroecology is proposed as an alternative and sustainable model for agricultural production and for organising food systems. However, the uptake of agroecological practices in Europe is low. Fewer than 3 per cent of all farms have been defined as agroecological by achieving a pre-determined threshold on all five of key management principles. Economic viability, specifically the return to labour, will be a key factor in determining the attractiveness of agroecological practices to farmers and ultimately the farming system chosen. If current market conditions and economic incentives prove to be insufficient to promote the uptake of agroecological practices, then the associated non-market or social benefits may be key in generating appropriate rewards to farmers adopting these systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":44823,"journal":{"name":"EuroChoices","volume":"21 3","pages":"80-83"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1746-692X.12376","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"EuroChoices","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1746-692X.12376","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Agroecology is not a new concept. Its rising prominence, however, is linked to greater societal awareness of environmental pressures associated with agricultural practices, a decline in the number of farmers, the growing market power of major corporate businesses, and links between ill-health and patterns of food consumption. In this context, agroecology is proposed as an alternative and sustainable model for agricultural production and for organising food systems. However, the uptake of agroecological practices in Europe is low. Fewer than 3 per cent of all farms have been defined as agroecological by achieving a pre-determined threshold on all five of key management principles. Economic viability, specifically the return to labour, will be a key factor in determining the attractiveness of agroecological practices to farmers and ultimately the farming system chosen. If current market conditions and economic incentives prove to be insufficient to promote the uptake of agroecological practices, then the associated non-market or social benefits may be key in generating appropriate rewards to farmers adopting these systems.
期刊介绍:
EuroChoices is a full colour, peer reviewed, outreach journal of topical European agri-food and rural resource issues, published three times a year in April, August and December. Its main aim is to bring current research and policy deliberations on agri-food and rural resource issues to a wide readership, both technical & non-technical. The need for this is clear - there are great changes afoot in the European and global agri-food industries and rural areas, which are of enormous impact and concern to society. The issues which underlie present deliberations in the policy and private sectors are complex and, until now, normally expressed in impenetrable technical language.