Issues and Priorities for the Twenty-first Century

There is a growing concern with the impact of a series of resource and environmental constraints that may seriously impinge on the capacity to sustain growth in agricultural production. One set of concerns centers on the environmental impacts of agricultural intensification. The second set of concerns stems from the effects of industrial intensification on global climate change. A preventivist approach could involve five policy options: reduction in fossil fuel use or capture of CO₂ emissions at the point of fossil fuel combustion; reduction in the intensity of agricultural production; reduction of biomass burning; expansion of biomass production; and energy conservation. An adaptionist strategy implies moving as rapidly as possible to design and put in place the institutions needed to remove the constraints that intensification of agricultural production are currently imposing on sustainable increases in agricultural production.