Challenges for agriculture

Agriculture is the oldest economic activity of humanity. This is so because agriculture meets the first basic need of human beings, namely providing a stable and sufficient production of food. Due to the development of agricultural techniques primitive human beings evolved from migratory hunters and gatherers to settled agricultural communities, from which all later civilisations, including our current modern world, have originated. In fact, the word culture is derived from the Latin verb “colere” which means “to till with a plough”. Agriculture was the first form of culture, culture of the land. Very soon agriculture fulfilled various functions: production of (vegetable and animal) food, production of animal feed, production of fibres and (although indirectly) the production of fuel. Up to today these functions are being fulfilled by our agriculture and horticulture, albeit with variations over time. For a long time the need for fibres and fuel was met by using reserves of fossil fuels and mineral raw materials. These reserves are limited, however, and their exhaustion is gradually beginning to appear on the horizon.

The first function of agriculture is indisputably to produce sufficient food stuffs of the necessary quality to provide the world population with food in a sustainable manner. This is a formidable challenge, in the knowledge that the available quantities of soil and water worldwide are limited. According to the FAO only 17% of the world’s surface is suitable or very suitable for agriculture. The debate about this has been going on for a long time. On the occasion of its 125th anniversary the journal Science published an overview of the 125 most important questions that keep scientists “awake at night”. The most important question concerning agriculture is “for how much longer will Malthus be wrong?”

In 1798 the 32-year-old Thomas Malthus, chaplain in a small parish in England, published a down-to-earth pamphlet with the title: “An essay on the principle of population”. He argued that the human population always tends to increase, and will therefore always be regulated either by planned measures such as birth control, or by hunger, war and disease. This thesis has stimulated generations of thinkers in the debates about the future of our planet. During his lifetime, in fact, Malthus reviewed his own thesis.

Since the time of Malthus the world population has increased from 1 to 6 billion and the apocalypse has been avoided by the green revolution (the production of affordable and sufficient food) through cheap energy and the development of science and technology. By 2050 demographers expect that there will be 9 billion people in the world. The world population not only grows, but also changes the composition of its diet. As a population emerges from poverty, vegetable proteins are complemented with proteins of animal origin.

With the surfaces and techniques that are currently available it will be a tall order to meet the increased demand for food (in terms of volume and composition). The right to balanced sustenance is a basic right, a basic condition for the sustainability of the world population. If the entire world were to switch to the North American diet the challenge would become even bigger. Health considerations will undoubtedly help to redistribute the consumption of animal proteins. A positive North-South story.

At the same there is the awareness that agricultural production must take place as sustainably as possible in order to limit the pressure on the environment as much as possible. Agriculture is also being faced with new challenges in terms of the production of fibres and fuel. The development of green chemistry, based on biological instead of fossil fuels and the development of bio-based fuels in the quest for renewable energy sources, presents global agriculture with new challenges.

To meet all these challenges world agriculture will need research, development and innovation in the field of products (genetics, crop protection, veterinary medicines) as well as production methods, in both animal and vegetable production. Here the cradle-to-cradle concept should be the objective as far as possible. An example of this is the quest for maximum use of by-products (recycling) in the production of animal feed, of renewable energy and in the production of high-grade industrial products (gelatin, cosmetics, biodegradable plastics, …).

Europe has resolutely opted for ‘process’ quality, as opposed to many other trade blocs that focus on ‘product’ quality. This costs money. The ‘healthy herd’ principle implies a significant added expense for the European farmer who will not immediately be compensated by the market. This accounts for the budgets which the European Union is making available for the European Common Agricultural Policy.

Sustainable agriculture does not happen by itself. The market cannot absorb (in its production costs) the negative impact of agricultural production on the environment, on the socio-economic development of the countryside and on public health. This is nevertheless a condition for achieving a sustainable agricultural economy. The policy instruments of the European Common Agricultural Policy are already assisting European agriculture to a considerable extent towards achieving sustainable agriculture. It is essential that the world community embraces these so-called ‘non-commercial aspects’ of agricultural economics and integrates them into the debate about food security. This is the only way in which a worldwide sustainable agriculture will be realised.