ABSTRACT
There is now a growing awareness that current forms of intensive agriculture are grossly exceeding planetary boundaries and that food systems must become more sustainable. But apart from a few green “frills,” those changes that are occurring are mostly too little and too slow to address the fundamental challenges that we face if we are to maintain future food security without completely degrading the ecosystems that sustain life. As a result, and looking ahead from a farming perspective, we believe that a key priority should be the emergence of an internationally harmonized framework for measuring on-farm sustainability which could form the foundation stone for calculating and monetizing all the previously un-costed externalities, both positive and negative, arising from farming systems and practices. It would also provide the means for governments and the market to correct the distortions that have prevented sustainable farming from being profitable for the past 50 years.
