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Modern food production may be considered an epitome of the paradoxes that humanity is facing as we edge on into the twenty-first century. It is as much the source of problems that plague modern societies as it can be its solution. While more food than ever is produced, more people than ever suffer from some form of malnutrition. Even though agribus...
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... The objective of this study is to contribute to one possible Food Future for Portugal, that of strong sustainability, by drawing on scientific knowledge (e.g. on the functioning of food systems 14 , the political economy of food 15 and lessons from agro-ecology) as well as practical knowledge and experience of the actors involved in innovative sustainable farming initiatives and the respective food chains, so as to develop decision-making tools that are of use to all actors. By strong sustainability-a term coined to counter the hollowing of the sustainability concept-I understand the conducting of human activities not only with respect for ecosystems and all manner of lifeforms but also with the active promotion of their thriving, while ensuring that social, economic and ecological costs and benefits of these activities are equitably distributed. ...
The specific objectives that help shape the research are: 1 - the development of an inventory of innovative sustainable farming initiatives in Portugal. The cut-off criteria for selection will be the size of the enterprise (no bigger than SME) and its ecological and social footprint (indicators such as water efficiency, water recovery, soil regeneration, all-round productivity per hectare, energy consumption, job creation). Other criteria for the initial selection have to do with region, gender and years of education of initiators, so as to involve a broader spectrum of entrepreneurs; 2 - the participatory creation and testing of a socially and ecologically valid performance assessment matrix to help characterise and evaluate the potential of different sustainable farming initiatives. The purpose of this assessment tool is to assist different actors in evaluating how well a particular initiative performs on a range of attributes that are important to the different actors and that may be used to decide whether an initiative is living up to its promises, and if not, where the bottlenecks lie; 3 - the collaborative identification of the best forms of organisation for small-scale ecological farming initiatives. Small may be beautiful but can be overshadowed by projects that favour economies of scale.
