Hi, everyone:
Welcome to the disccussion on Harnessing the Benefits of Ecosystem Services for Effective Ecological Intensification! Thank you for the comments so far--please keep them coming!
I wanted to share with you some links to Food Tank's Harvesting the Research series. Food Tank is partnering with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to highlight original scientific research about Project LIBERATION. The LIBERATION project aims to provide the evidence-base for the potential of ecological intensification to sustainably enhance food security with minimal negative impacts on the environment.
Regarding the policies needed for farmers to adopt ecological intensification, we interviewed Dr. Brian Petersen http://foodtank.com/news/2015/08/harvesting-the-research-ecological-int… he discusses how the shift to ecological intensification would require political and economic support. According to Petersen "It would have to! In order for this to change, there would need to be a complete paradigm shift in how agriculture is viewed and funded. Many stakeholders would end up losing if there were a shift away from business-as-usual agriculture, which is a major barrier to implementation of ecological intensification. Many of the experts believe that a complete shift in paradigm will require a tremendous amount of public support, not only from the populations of different countries, but also from governments. They believe that subsidies and tax incentives currently benefit wealthy corporations profiting off of sustainable intensification or conventional agriculture. If we don’t shift public support toward more ecological agriculture, it’s going to have catastrophic consequences, in my view and in the view of the scientists we interviewed."
Thanks again for your comments and feedback. We look forward to the discussion!
Mme Danielle Nierenberg