From Uniformity to Diversity

To put global food systems onto a sustainable footing, input-intensive crop monocultures and industrial-scale feedlots must be consigned to the past. While today’s food and farming systems have succeeded in supplying large volumes of foods to global markets, this has come at the cost of a large number of negative externalities that resonate throughout, and beyond, our food systems: widespread degradation of land, water and ecosystems; high greenhouse gas emissions; biodiversity losses; persistent hunger and micro-nutrient deficiencies alongside the rapid rise of obesity and diet-related diseases; and livelihood stresses for farmers around the world. 

• Many of these problems are linked specifically to ‘industrial agriculture’. The uniformity at the heart of these systems, and their reliance on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and preventive use of antibiotics, leads systematically to negative outcomes and vulnerabilities.
• Industrial agriculture and the ‘industrial food systems’ that have developed around it are locked in place by a series of vicious cycles. For example, the way food systems are currently structured allows value to accrue to a limited number of actors, reinforcing their economic and political power, and thus their ability to influence the governance of food systems.
• Tweaking practices can improve some of the specific outcomes of industrial agriculture, but will not provide long­‐term solutions to the multiple problems it generates.
• What is required is a fundamentally different model of agriculture based on diversifying farms and farming landscapes, replacing chemical inputs, optimizing biodiversity and stimulating interactions between different species, as part of holistic strategies to build long‐term fertility, healthy agro­‐ecosystems, and secure livelihoods, i.e. ‘diversified agroecological systems’.
• There is growing evidence that these systems keep carbon in the ground, support biodiversity, rebuild soil fertility and sustain yields over time, providing a basis for secure farm livelihoods.
• Data shows that these systems can compete with industrial agriculture in terms of total outputs, performing particularly strongly under environmental stress, and delivering production increases in the places where additional food is desperately needed. Diversified agroecological systems can also pave the way for diverse diets and improved health.
• Change is already happening. Industrial food systems are being challenged on multiple fronts, from new forms of cooperation and knowledge‐creation to the development of new market relationships that bypass conventional retail circuits.
• Political incentives must be shifted in order for these alternatives to emerge beyond the margins. A series of modest steps can collectively shift the centre of gravity in food systems.

Eight ‘lock-ins’ reinforce the dominance of industrial agriculture in food systems: 

1. Industrial agriculture’s significant upfront investments create path dependency, making it difficult for farmers to shift away due to entrenched political incentives and retail imperatives.
2. The increasing export orientation of food systems, driven by global trade and subsidies, prioritizes export-dependent supply chains despite environmental and economic risks.
3. The expectation of cheap food pressures farmers towards industrialized production to meet demand for processed foods.
4. Compartmentalized thinking continues to prioritize technological solutions over social innovations, keeping industrial solutions central.
5. Short-term thinking demands immediate results, conflicting with the longer-term benefits of diversified agroecological systems and reinforcing the status quo.
6. ‘Feed the World’ narratives focus on increasing global production volumes, overlooking issues of access, nutrition, and sustainable production methods.
7. Measures of success in farming, skewed towards crop yields and productivity, disadvantage diversified systems by not accounting for their broader benefits.
8. The concentration of power within a few actors reinforces the dominance of industrial agriculture, sidelining alternatives like agroecology and maintaining the status quo.

However, change is already happening, from new forms of cooperation and knowledge-creation, to the development of city and regional food policies, and new market relationships that bypass conventional retail circuits. A series of modest steps are necessary for these alternatives to emerge beyond the margins:

1. Develop broader indicators for sustainable food systems, emphasizing long-term ecosystem health, total resource flows, and livelihood resilience to better capture the benefits of diversified farming and the costs of industrial agriculture.
2. Shift public support fully towards diversified agroecological production systems by moving subsidies away from industrial systems and prioritizing land access and resources for agroecological practices.
3. Support short supply chains and alternative retail infrastructures to connect producers directly with consumers, promoting sustainable and locally sourced food options.
4. Use public procurement to support local agroecological produce, ensuring public canteens, especially in schools, provide fresh, nutritious food while supporting diversified farms.
5. Strengthen movements that unify diverse constituencies around agroecology, advocating for sustainable food systems against prevailing ‘feed the world’ narratives.
6. Mainstream agroecology in education and research, redefining public research agendas and university missions towards serving a wider range of actors and focusing on diversified systems.
7. Develop integrated food policies at multiple levels, encouraging joined-up policymaking that transcends political and electoral cycles, focusing on long-term, participatory food system planning and reform.

 Agroecology

 Climate & Biodiversity