Sustainable Food Production: An Earth Institute Sustainability Primer

Industrial agriculture is responsible for widespread environmental degradation and undermines the pursuit of human well-being. With a projected global population of 10 billion by 2050, it is urgent for humanity to achieve a more sustainable approach to farming and food systems.

This concise text offers an overview of the key issues in sustainable food production for all readers interested in the ecology and environmental impacts of agriculture. It details the ecological foundations of farming and food systems, showing how knowledge from the natural and social sciences can be used to create sustainable alternatives to the industrial production methods used today. Beginning with a discussion of the role of agriculture in human development, the primer examines how twentieth-century farming methods are environmentally and socially unsustainable, contributing to global change and perpetuating inequalities. The authors explain the principles of environmental sustainability and explore how these principles can be put into practice in agrifood systems. They emphasize the importance of human well-being and insist on the centrality of social and environmental equity and justice.

Sustainable Food Production is a compelling guide to how we can improve our ability to feed each other today and preserve the ability of our planet to do so tomorrow. Appropriate for a range of courses in the natural and social sciences, it provides a comprehensive yet accessible framework for achieving agricultural sustainability in the Anthropocene.

Author: Shahid Naeem, Suzanne Lipton, Tiff Van Huysen
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 11/02/2021
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.63d
ISBN13: 9780231189644
ISBN10: 0231189648
BISAC Categories:
- Technology & Engineering | Agriculture | Sustainable Agriculture
- Science | Environmental Science (see also Chemistry | Environmental)
- Social Science | Agriculture & Food (see also Political Science | Public Poli

About the Author
Shahid Naeem is chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology at Columbia University and director of the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability.

Suzanne Lipton is currently pursuing a PhD in agroecology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and she previously worked in the food systems nonprofit sector and was assistant director of the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability.

Tiff van Huysen has a PhD in ecosystem ecology, previously managed the Executive Education program for the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability, and currently works for the USDA Agricultural Research Service.