ABSTRACT
Agriculture and food production is one of the sectors that has been subject to most attention and debate regarding the question of sustainable development. The issue of food security was discussed in the Brundtland Report and seen as one of the most important challenges in relation to sustainability. It pointed to the paradox that more food than ever before is produced in the world today and yet hundreds of millions of people are starving. It also stressed that despite the considerable growth in food production that had been experienced since the Second World War, the signs of crises in food production were apparent all over the world. Thus, the achievements with respect to food production have been counterbalanced by the emergence of economic as well as ecological crises that were (and are) interlinked. The industrialised countries had growing problems with managing their food surpluses, the basis of income for small farmers in the developing countries was diminishing, and everywhere there were heavy pressures on the resource base.
