Food systems are under increasing pressure. They must meet the food requirements of a growing world population, and socio-economic changes also influence the type of foods which are under demand. At the same time, food systems are a major contributor to global environmental change, and...

This paper proposes the description and analysis of the dynamics of an innovation process, which, over ten years ago, enabled a mineral water company to start protecting its underground water and to overcome a classical negative externality problem of no point-source nitrogen pollution. Based on...

Regulation of pesticides in agricultural sector is becoming increasingly oriented to the use of best management practices in order to counter the effect of agricultural practices on health and groundwater. Several distinct criteria (economic, technical, environmental, social and informational...

Land use and cover change are very complex phenomena, based on relationships among environmental, social and economic factors. Moreover, its analysis could be highly valuable for predicting the effects of land use change and for planning a policy intervention able to steer agricultural...

Transition management has become an important topic in scientific research on sustainable development over the last decade. A recurring question is whether, and if so how, transitions towards sustainability can be governed. In this paper we address this question by theoretically comparing...

Agrochemical firms have been actively influencing farmers to continue using chemical pesticides and fertilisers. However, there are two major problems. Since fertilisers rely heavily on fossil fuels, which are non-renewable resources, their ability to produce food and fibre for the world...

The paper offers an analysis of some of the prevailing practices in sustainable agriculture and points out some of the paradoxes that need to be addressed and resolved in order to enhance acceptability of sustainable agriculture by the general public. Education and research in sustainable...

Economic systems at all levels rely for their success on the value of services flowing from the stock of total assets which comprise five types of capital: natural, social, human, physical and financial. Sustainable systems accumulate stocks of these five assets, so increasing the capital base...