Thesis subject
Organic farming or agricultural intensification?
With the global population approaching 9 billion people in the next few decades, it is often asserted that there is a need for 70-100% more food.
An important issue in the debate on how to achieve global food security in a sustainable way is whether strategies should aim for a further intensification of agricultural production systems or rather for an increased contribution of organic farming.
Values and beliefs underlying strategies to meet global food security
In these debates, comparative analyses of crop yields between organic and intensive agricultural production systems play an important role (de Ponti et al., 2012), but also discussions on the question whether farming and conservation land management should be separated, thus following either a land-sparing option (segregating land for nature from land for production) or a land-sharing option (integration of production and nature on the same land) (Tscharntke et al, 2012).
Values and associated assumptions underlying the different agricultural paradigms may play a pivotal role in the (often polarized) debate on how to achieve global food security, especially since these analyses have necessarily to deal with a great amount of contextual variability, uncertainty and ignorance (Fjelland, 2012).
In this thesis you will make in depth interviews with relevant actors in the field (scientists, NGO’s, policy makers) to investigate values, beliefs and convictions underlying the argumentations favouring either of the agricultural strategies. In addition you will investigate how actors perceive the values, beliefs and convictions of opponents in the debate.
References
- De Ponti et al (2012) The crop yield gap between organic and conventional agriculture. Agricultural systems 108, 1-9.
- Flelland (2002). Facing the problem of uncertainty. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 15:155-169.
- Tscharntke et. Al., (2012) Global food security, biodiversity conservation and the future of Agricultural intensification. Biological Consevation 151 , pp 53-59.
MSc Thesis
30-36 ects
Start
Any time