August 4, 2022 | Nature Sustainability | Source |
Introduction: An international consortium led by the University of Twente (Netherlands), with partners in Japan, Europe, and the US, reframes agrifood sustainability beyond economic growth. The study underscores the limitations of conventional approaches that emphasize efficiency while leaving structural drivers of ecological and social crises intact. It presents guiding principles for post-growth agrifood systems, illustrated through global practices in production, business, culture, and governance, and proposes a research agenda to document, transfer, and develop solutions for just and resilient food systems.
Key findings: The study contrasts growth-based logics of efficiency, extraction, accumulation, ownership, and control with post-growth principles of sufficiency, regeneration, distribution, commons, and care. Agroecology and diversified small farms can achieve high yields and resource efficiency, with smallholders estimated to produce 30–70% of global food. Urban and household gardening is widespread, with 36% of Hungarians, 40% of Czechs, and 54% of Poles engaged; in Czechia, such gardens produce more organic food than the commercial sector. Cuba’s reliance on urban agroecology during fuel shortages demonstrates system resilience.
Alternative business models—such as cooperatives, employee-owned enterprises, and benefit corporations—prioritize public welfare. Ethical finance mechanisms like credit unions and community trusts support alternative food economies. The study calls for ending unequal trade, which drains over US$10 trillion from the Global South, and advancing ecological reparations. Governance innovations, including food policy councils and futures literacy, can integrate food, health, and environmental policy. The research agenda emphasizes analyzing existing solutions, studying adoption and transfer, and co-creating new approaches, while addressing structural inequities and avoiding uniform scaling.
Figure | Principles by which growth and post-growth metabolisms operate arranged by category.
