Sustainable intensification: Green-washing conventional intensive agriculture
In 2009, the Royal Society defined sustainable intensification as a process whereby ‘yields are increased without adverse environmental impact and without the cultivation of more land’, ranging from agroecological practices to biotechnology, and based on the key idea that "no technique or technology should be left out.” The Royal Society made the term Sustainable intensification a fashionable answer to the global food and environmental impacts of industrial agriculture as well as to the 2008 FAO statement that ‘global food production must be doubled to feed a world population by 2050’. Since then, the FAO has made it clear that there are enough resources to feed the world's population now and in 2050, stressing that, more than increasing production, it’s vital to redistribute/fairly distribute food and reduce loss and waste.
Sustainable intensification “retains the focus on productivity, technology and capital-intensive production rather than a structural transformation of food systems via ecological, economic, social and political change”. Some practices included are: reduce tillage through the use of GM crops or reduce the carbon intensity of industrial livestock. However, genetically modified crops involve intensive use of pesticides and carbon intensity calculations for meat involve further intensification. Sustainable intensification does not provide an answer to the systemic problems of industrial food chains.
The biotechnology, fertiliser and pesticide industries’ lobbyists have promoted their products as a form of sustainable intensification. The influence of the sustainable intensification approach can be seen in policies ranging from national governments and the FAO to agricultural research organisations, agribusinesses, the Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum’s ‘New Vision for Agriculture’. It has also been incorporated into ‘climate smart agriculture’, which has been promoted at climate negotiations.
Although sustainable intensification practices are a massive contributor to climate change and the destruction of biodiversity they are promoted as NBS. It “is unclear how NBS can promote sustainable intensification while combatting climate change. The circle simply cannot be squared.” Sustainable intensification is an ideology based on a productivist view of feeding the world that disregards power, profit, risk, politics and participation in the food system.
By Martin Drago, Food Fovereignty coordinator FOEI
This ECO Article is based on FoEI (2012) A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? An analysis of the ‘sustainable intensification’ of agriculture; and FoEI (2021) Nature Based Solutions: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
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