Deconstructing and unpacking scientific controversies in intensification and sustainability: why the tensions in concepts and values?

• Published in: Current opinion in environmental sustainability 2014-10, Vol.8, p.80-88
• Main Authors: Struik, PC, Kuyper, TW, Brussaard, L, Leeuwis, C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: agricultural sustainability; conservation; ecological intensification; food security; innovation; quality; resource use efficiency; soil fertility management; sugar-beet; systems
• ISSN: 1877-3435; 1877-3443
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2014.10.002

•Depending on conditions, definitions and values, intensification can enhance or threaten sustainability.•The societal debate on sustainability lacks transparency as long as it is dominated by science.•The scientific debate on sustainability is controversial since it lacks clarity in (appreciation of) norms and values.•Society needs to make transparent choices between trade-offs based on scientific and non-scientific arguments. Assuming ‘ceteris paribus’ in terms of the viability of the planet during the coming half-century or so, the rising needs of a burgeoning, but also increasingly rich and demanding world population will drastically change agriculture. Crop yields and animal productivity will have to increase substantially, with the risk of further depleting the resource base and degrading the environment, making food production both the culprit and the victim. Future food security therefore depends on development of technologies that increase the efficiency of resource use and prevent externalization of costs. The current trend is towards intensification, especially more output per production unit so as to increase input efficiency. Whether that trend is sustainable is a matter of strong debate among scientists and policy-makers alike. The big question is how to produce more food with much fewer resources. Sustainable intensification (i.e., increasing agricultural output while keeping the ecological footprint as small as possible) for some is an oxymoron, unless real progress can be made in ecological intensification, that is, increasing agricultural output by capitalizing on ecological processes in agro-ecosystems. Definitions of intensification and sustainability vary greatly. The way these concepts are being used in different disciplines causes tensions and hides trade-offs instead of making them explicit. Inter-disciplinarity and boundary-crossing in terminology and concepts are needed. Implicitly, the operationalization of intensification and sustainability implies appreciation of and choices for values, an issue that is often overlooked and sometimes even denied in the natural sciences. The multidimensional nature of intensification needs to be linked to the various notions of sustainability, acknowledging a hierarchy of considerations underlying decision-making on trade-offs, thus allowing political and moral arguments to play a proper role in the strategy towards sustainable intensification. We make a plea to create clarity in assumptions, no