The Evaluation of a Complex Systems Approach to Enhance the Sustainability and Resilience of Food Production on Rural Landscapes

Abstract

Achieving global food security whilst reconciling demands on the environment and on scarce resources is a significant challenge. To address this challenge, the research described in this thesis evaluated the sustainability and resilience of existing food production systems by applying systems thinking, the principles of food sovereignty, and systems modelling. Practical applications must integrate productivity, the natural environment, economic return and socio-cultural considerations in order to be sustainably viable. To help elucidate system differences, three specific research questions were formulated and applied to case studies from the United Kingdom, Cuba and Australia. Findings from this research found that: 1. For the developed world, a modified conventional agricultural system that increases ecological complexity through greater adoption of environmentally sensitive practises provides the greatest potential to improve sustainable viability. 2. For the developing world, where off-farm inputs are not easily accessible by farmers, policies should continue to support traditional farming and agro-ecology. Further, support for organic certification of traditionally farmed and agro-ecologically produced food, will: a. Encourage a technical skills transfer to increase productivity, and b. Provide a value added and profitable marketing opportunity. 3. When the global community recognises the right to food over economic rights, then the internationally agreed and supported framework that accommodates the principles of food sovereignty provides an opportunity for all people everywhere to choose their own food future. 4. Addressing complex systems relationships between the environment and food production systems requires a holistic approach and an understanding of a system’s interacting parts at the most basic level if any meaningful interpretation of complex systems is to be achieved and communicated.