Sustainable agriculture: Competing visions and policy avenues

Abstract Since the publication of Agenda 21 agricultural sustainability has become an internationally important goal. Whereas in the past issues of food security and sustainability centred on the developing world only, where large sections of the population are undernourished, it is today increasingly recognised that the developed world also has a 'food problem'. Indeed, with rising levels of obesity and environmental damage, goals of sustainable agriculture are now as pertinent in the developed world as the developing. This paper seeks to explore the policies of two competing visions for food and agricultural sustainability. One vision seeks to break the productionist hegemony with policies to promote, inter alia, organic and local food. The other vision seeks to continue the productionist hegemony in only a slightly modified fashion; emphasising biotechnology and technological panaceas. This paper contends that the modified productionist vision is flawed and political will is now required to promulgate radical agricultural policies that break the productionist hegemony. Keywords: SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTUREFOOD SECURITYPRODUCTIONISMHEGEMONYAGRICULTURAL POLICYPOLITICAL WILL