The Sustainable Agriculture Imperative: A Perspective on the need for an Agrosystem Approach to Meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030

The development of modern, industrial agriculture and its high input-high output carbon energy model is rendering agricultural landscapes less resilient. The expected continued increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, in conjunction with declining soil health and biodiversity losses, could make food more expensive to produce. The United Nations has called for global action by establishing 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), four of which are linked to food production and security: Declining biodiversity (SDG#15); loss of ecosystem services and agroecosystem stability due to increasing stress from food production intensification and climate change (SDG#13); declining soil health due to agricultural practices (SDG#2/SDG#6); and dependence on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to maintain high productivity (SDG#2). To achieve these SDG's, the agriculture sector must take a leading role in reversing the many negative environmental trends apparent in today's agricultural landscapes to ensure that they will adapt and be resilient to climate change in 2030 and beyond. This will demand fundamental changes in how we practice agriculture from an environmental standpoint. Here, we present a perspective focused on the implementation of an agrosystem approach which we define to promote regenerative agriculture, an integrative approach that can provide greater resilience to a changing climate, reverse biodiversity loss, and improve soil health; honours Indigenous ways of knowing and a holistic approach to living off and learning from the land; and supports the establishment of emerging circular economies and community well-being.

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