Nouvelles

Sustainability transitions of conventional, vertical, and organic farming in China

Publié le
16 juillet 2020

Take a look at this recently published report:

Agricultural Sustainability in the Yangtze River Delta, China: a comparison of conventional, organic and vertical farming

Authors: Fruzsina Nagy, Monica Gabrielli, Annah Zhu, and Gloria Ge

Click HERE to read the report.

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Report Summary

The Chinese Agriculture Sector

The Chinese agricultural sector feeds 22% of the global population and contributes 8% to the global GHG emissions (Yu & Wu, 2018). The food system of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) has impacts soil and land degradation, water contamination, loss of biodiversity, air pollution resulting in global warming. These are all considered as consequences of an unsustainable model that dominates production.

Feeding the world?

Even though the mainstream industrial agriculture model is justified on the basis of 'feeding the world', it is in fact aggravating malnutrition and the public health crisis. Bringing environmental, economic, social, and governance sustainability into our food system is an immense but necessary challenge we face. Niches of innovation like organic and vertical farming can teach key lessons on how to achieve fair, healthy, and environmentally-friendly ways of producing food.

Organic and vertical farming could shape the future of agriculture. Organic agriculture pursues ecological harmony between humans and nature; while vertical agriculture is an intensive industrial method aimed at improving food production efficiency, with much less land and labor investment."
Ada Qin- Abovefarm

In this report, we look at the potential for sustainability transitions in the YRD. Results show the influence of both the technologically as well as ecologically oriented farming on the current conventional food production regime.