Sustainability: Perceptions of Problems and Progress of the Paradigm

Four aspects of the application of sustainability to agricultural policy have remained problematic between the 1987 Brundtland Report and the 2002 World Summit. These are: Multidimensionality: early emphasis on a triple bottom line of social, economic and biophysical criteria gave way to emphasis on the biophysical, although there is now evidence of re-convergence in policy and from elite consumers. Hierarchy: sustainability is addressed within systems that are nested in space, time, the principal actor and the dominant factor affecting it. Emergent properties: an emphasis on anticipating and monitoring sustainability through, e.g. indicators, has obscured the reality that sustainability is an outcome or emergent property. Recent methods derive problem-determined objectives for sustainable development. Uncertainty: agricultural systems are not simply predictable and deterministic. Assessment of sustainability should quantify and anticipate uncertainties and avoid policy intervention which is coloured by the evaluator and their circumstances. Social aspects of decision-making pervade all these problems. It is proposed that progress will be accelerated by: pro-active government policy intervention in rural areas (of the type which is accepted by citizens of cities); participatory decision-making from the outset and throughout any development of, or decision to provide financial support to maintain, a sustainable enterprise; and evaluations of sustainability that anticipate variability or risk, uncoloured by short-term priorities such as business survival.