"Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs."
The practice of growing food in ways that protect the environment, preserve biodiversity, and support local communities and economies.
Soil Health: The study of the composition, structure, and biological activity of soil and how it impacts plant and food growth and quality.
Crop Rotation: A system of growing different crops in recurring succession on the same land to improve soil health and prevent the buildup of pests and diseases.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM): A holistic approach to managing pest and disease problems that combines cultural, biological, and chemical methods to minimize harm to the environment.
Composting: The process of breaking down organic waste material into a nutritious soil amendment that can be used to improve soil health and plant growth.
Agroforestry: The practice of combining trees, crops, and livestock on the same land to promote biodiversity, enhance soil health, and create more sustainable food systems.
Water Management: The study of how to efficiently and sustainably manage water resources for crop production, food processing, and other agricultural practices.
Sustainable Livestock Production: The study of how to raise livestock in ways that promote good animal welfare, minimize environmental impact, and produce healthy and nutritious food products.
Food Safety: The study of how to prevent foodborne illnesses and ensure the safety and quality of food products throughout the food supply chain.
Sustainable Food Processing: The study of how to process and preserve food products in ways that minimize waste, reduce energy use, and promote food safety.
Economic and Social Analysis: The study of how sustainable agriculture practices impact the economic and social well-being of farmers, local communities, and society as a whole.
Agroecology: This approach involves understanding and working with the natural systems that exist within an agricultural environment. It focuses on the principles of ecology, including biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and ecological balance, to create sustainable food production.
Organic Farming: This type of agriculture involves avoiding the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and instead relying on natural methods to control pests and enrich soil. Organic farming promotes biodiversity, as well as the use of renewable resources and conservation of water.
Permaculture: Permaculture is a system of farming that mimics the patterns and relationships found in natural systems. It involves designing landscapes that are sustainable, efficient, and productive, using principles of interdependency between different elements and using the land in a long-term and sustainable way.
Biodynamic Farming: This type of farming focuses on developing a self-sustaining ecosystem by using biodynamic preparations that stimulate soil fertility and plant growth. Biodynamic farming also considers cosmic rhythms, with planting, harvesting and other activities corresponded with moon phases.
Regenerative Agriculture: Regenerative farming prioritizes the soil health, ensuring the continuous improvement of soil quality and carbon sequestration as a way of improving the ecosystem resilience and mitigating Climate Change.
Agroforestry: This is a practice that involves integrating trees and shrubs with crops or livestock. Trees can be used to provide shade, reduce soil erosion, improve nutrient cycling, and increase biodiversity.
Urban Agriculture: With urbanization, creating food production systems in cities had become an important practice. This type of agriculture focuses on creating food production systems in urban areas, such as community gardens, greenhouses, and vertical gardens and reducing the distance between farmers and urban consumers.
Aquaponics: Aquaponics is a closed-loop system that involves raising fish and plants together in a symbiotic relationship, where fish waste provides nutrients for plants, and plants purify water for fish. It can be applied in urban farming or indoor, as an alternative sustainable agriculture model.
Precision Agriculture: This type of farming uses technology, such as sensors, GPS mapping, and data analytics to identify the best use of soil and water, and the optimization of the farming practices. This leads to reduced losses, increased efficiency and reduction of the environmental risk factors.
Conservation Agriculture: This approach emphasizes minimally disturbing the soil through no-till or minimum tillage, mulching, and diversifying crops to reduce soil erosion, improve soil quality, and conserve water.
"Developing sustainable food systems contributes to the sustainability of the human population."
"Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint, playing a significant role in causing climate change, water scarcity, water pollution, land degradation, deforestation and other processes."
"Food systems are responsible for one third of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions."
"Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems."
"Elements of sustainable agriculture can include permaculture, agroforestry, mixed farming, multiple cropping, and crop rotation."
"Besides sustainable farming practices, dietary shifts to sustainable diets are an intertwined way to substantially reduce environmental impacts."
"Numerous sustainability standards and certification systems exist, including organic certification, Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade, UTZ Certified, GlobalGAP, Bird Friendly, and the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C)."
"Agriculture plays a significant role in water scarcity and water pollution."
"Agriculture plays a significant role in land degradation."
"Sustainable agriculture provides a potential solution to enable agricultural systems to feed a growing population within the changing environmental conditions."
"It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services."
"It involves preventing adverse effects to soil, water, biodiversity, surrounding or downstream resources."
"It is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes."
"When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems, it is important to develop flexible business process and farming practices."
"Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint."
"Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems, thereby preventing deforestation."
"There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture."
"Sustainable agriculture involves preventing adverse effects...to those working or living on the farm or in neighboring areas."
"Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to...biodiversity."