Sustainable Agriculture– Beyond Organic Farming Sean Clark www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Edited by sustainability Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Sustainability Sean Clark (Ed.) Sustainable Agriculture–Beyond Organic Farming This book is a reprint of the Special Issue that appeared in the online, open access journal, Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050) in 2016, available at: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/BOrganicFarming Guest Editor Sean Clark Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Berea College USA Editorial Office MDPI AG St. Alban-Anlage 66 Basel, Switzerland Publisher Shu-Kun Lin Managing Editor Guoshui Liu 1. Edition 2016 MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade ISBN 978-3-03842-304-1 (Hbk) ISBN 978-3-03842-305-8 (electronic) Articles in this volume are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY), which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The book taken as a whole is © 2016 MDPI, Basel, Switzerland, distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). III Table of Contents List of Contributors ......................................................................................................... VII About the Guest Editor..................................................................................................... XI Preface to “Sustainable Agriculture–Beyond Organic Farming” ............................ XIII Section 1: Performance of Organic Farming Evelien M. de Olde, Frank W. Oudshoorn, Eddie A. M. Bokkers, Anke Stubsgaard, Claus A. G. Sørensen and Imke J. M. de Boer Assessing the Sustainability Performance of Organic Farms in Denmark Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (9), 957 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/957........................................................................ 3 Juan Torres, Diego L. Valera, Luis J. Belmonte and Carlos Herrero-Sánchez Economic and Social Sustainability through Organic Agriculture: Study of the Restructuring of the Citrus Sector in the “ Bajo Andarax ” District (Spain) Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (9), 918 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/918...................................................................... 31 Lifen Huang, Jie Yang, Xiaoyi Cui, Huozhong Yang, Shouhong Wang and Hengyang Zhuang Synergy and Transition of Recovery Efficiency of Nitrogen Fertilizer in Various Rice Genotypes under Organic Farming Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (9), 854 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/854...................................................................... 51 Saem Lee, Trung Thanh Nguyen, Patrick Poppenborg, Hio-Jung Shin and Thomas Koellner Conventional, Partially Converted and Environmentally Friendly Farming in South Korea: Profitability and Factors Affecting Farmers’ Choice Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (8), 704 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/8/704...................................................................... 72 IV Alfredo J. Escribano Beef Cattle Farms’ Conversion to the Organic System. Recommendations for Success in the Face of Future Changes in a Global Context Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (6), 572 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/572...................................................................... 97 Section 2: Farming to Food Systems Natalia Brzezina, Birgit Kopainsky and Erik Mathijs Can Organic Farming Reduce Vulnerabilities and Enhance the Resilience of the European Food System? A Critical Assessment Using System Dynamics Structural Thinking Tools Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (10), 971 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/10/971 .................................................................. 131 Safdar Muhummad, Eihab Fathelrahman and Rafi Ullah Tasbih Ullah The Significance of Consumer’s Awareness about Organic Food Products in the United Arab Emirates Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (9), 833 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/833.................................................................... 178 Markus Larsson, Rebecka Milestad, Thomas Hahn and Jacob von Oelreich The Resilience of a Sustainability Entrepreneur in the Swedish Food System Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (6), 550 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/550.................................................................... 194 Section 3: Beyond Organic: Shaping Future Farming and Food Systems Francesco Sottile, Daniela Fiorito, Nadia Tecco, Vincenzo Girgenti and Cristiana Peano An Interpretive Framework for Assessing and Monitoring the Sustainability of School Gardens Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (8), 801 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/8/801.................................................................... 221 V Puchong Sri-uam, Seri Donnuea, Sorawit Powtongsook and Prasert Pavasant Integrated Multi-Trophic Recirculating Aquaculture System for Nile Tilapia ( Oreochlomis niloticus ) Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (7), 592 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/7/592.................................................................... 242 George Martin, Roland Clift and Ian Christie Urban Cultivation and Its Contributions to Sustainability: Nibbles of Food but Oodles of Social Capital Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (5), 409 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/5/409.................................................................... 261 Matthew Heron Wilson and Sarah Taylor Lovell Agroforestry—The Next Step in Sustainable and Resilient Agriculture Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (6), 574 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/574.................................................................... 287 Paul Vincelli Genetic Engineering and Sustainable Crop Disease Management: Opportunities for Case-by-Case Decision-Making Reprinted from: Sustainability 2016 , 8 (5), 495 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/5/495.................................................................... 308 VII List of Contributors Luis J. Belmonte A. R. College of Pharmacy and G H Patel Institute of pharmacy, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Dist. Anand (Gujarat) – 388120, India. Eddie A. M. Bokkers Animal Production Systems Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands. Natalia Brzezina Sustainable Food Economies Research Group, KU Leuven, Leuven 3001, Belgium. Ian Christie Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK. Roland Clift Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK. Xiaoyi Cui Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada. Imke J. M. de Boer Animal Production Systems Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands. Evelien M. de Olde Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, Inge Lehmanns Gade 10, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Animal Production Systems Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands. Seri Donnuea Center of Excellence for Marine Biotechnology, Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Payathai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10300, Thailand; National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand. Alfredo J. Escribano Independent Researcher and Consultant, C/Rafael Alberti 24, Cáceres 10005, Spain. Eihab Fathelrahman Julius Kühn-Institut, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Plant Protection in Field Crops and Grassland, Messeweg 11-12, 38104 Braunschweig, Germany. Daniela Fiorito Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences (SAF), University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 11-90128 Palermo, Italy. Vincenzo Girgenti Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, Grugliasco, 10095 Torino, Italy. VIII Thomas Hahn Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. Carlos Herrero-Sánchez A. R. College of Pharmacy and G H Patel Institute of pharmacy, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Dist. Anand (Gujarat) – 388120, India. Lifen Huang Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada. Thomas Koellner Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences, University of Bayreuth, BayCEER, Bayreuth 95440, Germany. Birgit Kopainsky System Dynamics Group, University of Bergen, Bergen 5020, Norway. Markus Larsson Division of Environmental Strategies Research (fms), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. Saem Lee Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences, University of Bayreuth, BayCEER, Bayreuth 95440, Germany. Sarah Taylor Lovell 1009 Plant Sciences Laboratory, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. George Martin Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK. Erik Mathijs Sustainable Food Economies Research Group, KU Leuven, Leuven 3001, Belgium. Rebecka Milestad Division of Environmental Strategies Research (fms), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. Safdar Muhummad Julius Kühn-Institut, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Plant Protection in Field Crops and Grassland, Messeweg 11-12, 38104 Braunschweig, Germany. Trung Thanh Nguyen Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade, Leibniz University of Hannover, Hannover 30167, Germany. Frank W. Oudshoorn Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, Inge Lehmanns Gade 10, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; SEGES, Agro Food Park 15, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark. Prasert Pavasant School of Energy Science and Engineering, Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology, Rayong 21210, Thailand; Chemical Engineering Research Unit for Value Adding of Bioresources, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. IX Cristiana Peano Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, Grugliasco, 10095 Torino, Italy. Patrick Poppenborg Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences, University of Bayreuth, BayCEER, Bayreuth 95440, Germany. Sorawit Powtongsook Center of Excellence for Marine Biotechnology, Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Payathai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10300, Thailand; National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand. Hio-Jung Shin Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Kangwon National University, 1 Kangwondaehak-gil, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do 24341, Republic of Korea. Francesco Sottile Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences (SAF), University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 11-90128 Palermo, Italy. Claus A. G. Sørensen Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, Inge Lehmanns Gade 10, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark. Puchong Sri-uam Chemical Engineering Research Unit for Value Adding of Bioresources, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. Anke Stubsgaard SEGES, Agro Food Park 15, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark. Rafi Ullah Tasbih Ullah Julius Kühn-Institut, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Plant Protection in Field Crops and Grassland, Messeweg 11-12, 38104 Braunschweig, Germany. Nadia Tecco Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, Largo Paolo Braccini 2, Grugliasco, 10095 Torino, Italy. Juan Torres A. R. College of Pharmacy and G H Patel Institute of pharmacy, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Dist. Anand (Gujarat) – 388120, India; Department of Applied Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Lublin, 1 Chodzki Str. 20-093, Lublin, Poland. Diego L. Valera A. R. College of Pharmacy and G H Patel Institute of pharmacy, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Dist. Anand (Gujarat) – 388120, India. Paul Vincelli Department of Plant Pathology, 207 Plant Science Building, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA. X Jacob von Oelreich Division of Environmental Strategies Research (fms), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. Shouhong Wang College of Information Science and Technology, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China. Matthew Heron Wilson 1105 Plant Sciences Laboratory, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Huozhong Yang Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada. Jie Yang Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada. Hengyang Zhuang Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada. XI About the Guest Editor Sean Clark is Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Berea College and Director of the Berea College Farm. He regularly teaches undergraduate courses in farm management, food systems, horticulture, beekeeping, and aquaculture and occasionally offers international courses in farming, field ecology, and entomology. He facilitates a summer undergraduate internship program on the college’s student farm. The farm, which includes a student-run campus farm store, serves both as an educational laboratory and a model of sustainable regional agriculture. The farm internship program emphasizes critical inquiry, practical experience and innovative problem-solving. His research activities have included studies of soil biology and chemistry in organic and conventional farming systems, waste management and nutrient cycling, evaluations of appropriate technology and production methods for small-scale organic farming, and assessments of the environmental impacts of agriculture. He currently serves as a technical advisor for the Organic Association of Kentucky. A list of publications can be found at: https://www.berea.edu/anr/faculty-and-staff/dr-sean-clark/ XIII Preface to “Sustainable Agriculture–Beyond Organic Farming” The current conception of organic farming—as an agricultural production system based on ecological understanding in contrast to one reliant upon external inputs, particularly synthetic agrichemicals and fertilizer—is the result of nearly a century of intellectual thought and dialogue, field observations and experiences, systematic experimentation, and codification of rules. Debates on the future viability of organic farming often focus on its capacity to produce sufficient food to meet the demands of a growing human population. Yet any thorough examination of the pros and cons of alternative farming approaches should consider much more—for example the side effects on soil, water and air; energy and land-use efficiency; global warming potential; conservation of biodiversity; waste minimization and recycling; farmer and community well-being; animal welfare; and the capacity to function and meet demands long into the future. Today, organic farming is widely acknowledged as a viable alternative to conventional production under many conditions and certified organic foods are increasingly sought out by consumers concerned about environmental issues and human health. Considerable research supports the validity of such consumer choices. Organic products typically contain lower levels of pesticides and antibiotics, soil quality is generally improved and water pollution reduced on organic farms, and biodiversity is often greater in organic production systems compared to their conventional counterparts. Crops once thought to be impossible to raise organically are now widely found on grocery store shelves. Research findings also show the trade-offs in productivity and efficiency that accompany the adoption of organic farming. Such systems often do not match conventional agriculture in measures such as in yield per unit of land or per unit of labor, as well as in costs of production (not including externalities). As a consequence, price premiums are often needed to make production economically viable for farmers. Higher prices, of course, put some products out of reach for lower income families and communities, prompting criticism by some that organic farming is elitist. Organic standards today also may not explicitly or sufficiently address important public concerns about climate change, animal welfare and the quality of life provided to farmers, farm workers and others in the supply chain. It is important to recognize that organic agriculture is evolving. Rather than a static set of rules, the requirements, technologies, inputs and management practices comprising organic farming change as our understanding improves, new technologies become available, and the stakeholders involved with the political process that governs certification amend the rules. Research and debate today will help to shape organic farming in the future. XIV The chapters in this book represent perspectives on organic farming and food systems from widely different academic disciplines and different regions of the world. They include replicated field experiments, modelling, systems analyses, case studies and literature reviews. They address issues from the field-plot scale, such as resource-use efficiency in crop production, to the resilience of entire national food systems. Some chapters tackle controversial topics in organic farming, such as aquaculture and the use of genetically modified organisms. Some authors focus on the challenges to producers, while others examine consumer behavior and the education of the next generation of global citizens and decision- makers in the food system—today’s children. This book is composed of three sections. Authors in the first section— Performance of Organic Farming—examine how well organic and transitional production systems meet environmental, economic and social objectives and how performance could be improved. In the second section—Farming to Food Systems—the focus expands beyond crop and livestock production to consider other stakeholders forming food supply chains. The last section—Beyond Organic: Shaping Future Farming and Food Systems—delves into some vigorously debated topics that have the potential to substantially change future farming and food systems. Two decades ago, few would have envisioned the expansion of organic farming and the dramatic growth in organic food sales that followed. Likewise, predictions about the state of organic food and farming decades from now would be fraught with the same uncertainty. Still, the improved understanding we gain from the contributions of researchers and thinkers today will influence production practices and food-system policies tomorrow. The findings, interpretations, and ideas shared in this book will likely generate as many questions as answers, but asking the relevant and difficult questions is as critical to progress as finding the right answers. This impressive and diverse group of authors makes interesting and useful contributions to our ongoing conversations about food, agriculture and the evolution of organic farming. Sean Clark Guest Editor Section 1: Performance of Organic Farming Assessing the Sustainability Performance of Organic Farms in Denmark Evelien M. de Olde, Frank W. Oudshoorn, Eddie A. M. Bokkers, Anke Stubsgaard, Claus A. G. Sørensen and Imke J. M. de Boer Abstract: The growth of organic agriculture in Denmark raises the interest of both producers and consumers in the sustainability performance of organic production. The aim of this study was to examine the sustainability performance of farms in four agricultural sectors (vegetable, dairy, pig and poultry) using the sustainability assessment tool RISE 2.0. Thirty seven organic farms were assessed on 10 themes, including 51 subthemes. For one theme (water use) and 17 subthemes, a difference between sectors was found. Using the thresholds of RISE, the vegetable, dairy and pig sector performed positively for seven themes and the poultry sector for eight themes. The performance on the nutrient flows and energy and climate themes, however, was critical for all sectors. Moreover, the performance on the economic viability theme was critical for vegetable, dairy and pig farms. The development of a tool, including decisions, such as the selection of themes and indicators, reference values, weights and aggregation methods, influences the assessment results. This emphasizes the need for transparency and reflection on decisions made in sustainability assessment tools. The results of RISE present a starting point to discuss sustainability at the farm-level and contribute to an increase in awareness and learning about sustainability. Reprinted from Sustainability Cite as: de Olde, E.M.; Oudshoorn, F.W.; Bokkers, E.A.M.; Stubsgaard, A.; Sørensen, C.A.G.; de Boer, I.J.M. Assessing the Sustainability Performance of Organic Farms in Denmark. Sustainability 2016 , 8 , 957. 1. Introduction A large number of sustainability assessment tools have been developed to gain insight into the sustainability performance of farms [ 1 , 2 ]. These tools generally integrate a wide range of themes and indicators to develop a holistic view on farm-level sustainability and are used for different purposes, such as monitoring, certification, consumer information, farm advice and research [ 3 ]. Applying sustainability assessment tools can help to identify challenges, related to environmental, economic and social impact, in the development of sustainable food production systems in conventional and organic agriculture [ 4 – 6 ]. On-farm assessment tools, however, show a large diversity in, for example, data, time and budget requirements, measurement and aggregation methods, output accuracy and complexity [ 2 , 7 ]. These differences should become more explicit when choosing a 3