Towards a Real Sustainable Agri-food Security and Food Policy: Beyond the Ecological Fallacies?

Political Quarterly

Volumn 83, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 139-145

  Marsden, Terry ^a  

^a CARDIFF UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Agri food; Bio economy; Eco economy; Place making; Sustainability

Indexed keywords

EID: 84856632890     PISSN: 00323179     EISSN: 1467923X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-923X.2012.02242.x     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. This article is based upon a more extensive review of literature and research on agri-food initiatives and policy which is recorded in: I. Horlings and T. K. Marsden, 'Towards the real green revolution? Exploring the conceptual dimensions of a new ecological modernisation of agriculture that could "feed the world"', Global Environmental Change, vol. 21, 2011, pp. 441-52
2. Ecological fallacies occur when broad statistical inferences are made about a defined spatial unit. In this context I argue that the term applies to much of the current debate about bioeconomic solutions to food security in that generalised inferences are made about the benefits of generic approaches and technologies with regard to agriculture. This tends to hide the spatially embedded and diverse nature of any agricultural practice, while at the same time assuming there are only neutral market effects about imposing generic solutions.
3. Foresight, The Future of Food and Farming: Challenges and Choices for Global Sustainability, London, Government Office for Science, 2011.
4. Horlings and Marsden, 'Towards the real green revolution?'.
5. Foresight, The Future of Food and Farming, p. 35.
6. Sustainable Development Commission, Looking Back, Looking Forward: Sustainability and Food Policy, 2000-2011, London, Sustainable Development Commission.
7. United Nations, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, New York, United Nations, 2005.
8. See L. Brown, 'The next Arab battle', Guardian, 3 April 2011; and World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse, Washington, DC, Earth Policy Institute, 2011.
9. I. Horlings and T. Marsden, 'Towards the real green revolution? Exploring the dimensions of a new ecological modernisation of agriculture that could "feed the world"', BRASS Working Paper, Cardiff, University of Cardiff, 2010.
10. A. Sundkvist, R. Milestad and A. Jansson, 'On the importance of tightening feedback loops for sustainable development of food systems', Food Policy, vol. 30, no. 2, 2005, 224-39.
11. N. E.-H. Scialabba, 'Organic agriculture and food security'. Paper presented at the International Conference on Organic Agriculture and Food Security, 3-5 May 2007.
12. N. Nemes, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department Comparative Analysis of Organic and Non-organic Farming Systems: A Critical Assessment of Farm Profitability, Natural Resources Management and Environment, Rome, Department Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, 2009.
13. P. Pretty and R. Hine, Reducing Food Poverty with Sustainable Agriculture: A Summary of New Evidence, Primal report from SAFE-World Research Project (The Potential of Sustainable Agriculture to Feed the World), Colchester, University of Essex, 2001.
14. T. Kippie Kanshie, Five Thousand Years of Sustainability? A Case Study on Gedeo Land Use (Southern Ethiopia), Heelsum, Treemail, 2002.