Chris Rosin

Intensification of New Zealand agriculture: Implications for biodiversity

Abstract Intensification of New Zealand agricultural practices is an ongoing and accelerating process which potentially threatens the environment, biodiversity and even the sustainability of agricultural production. However, neither the exact nature of this threat nor the extent of its impact has received adequate analysis. There is clear evidence that agricultural intensification has degraded aquatic biodiversity, but there is a critical lack of research and monitoring of robust indicators of terrestrial biodiversity in New Zealand production landscapes. Therefore, we can only infer a generalised likelihood that intensification has also reduced terrestrial biodiversity and agro‐ecosystem resilience. It is unknown whether biodiversity and ecological services provided by the actual land growing crops, pasture or wood fibre are degrading because of intensification. Increased use of ecological subsidies (nutrient and energy inputs) may have compensated, at least in part, for the increased rate of food production (nutrient and energy outputs). Lasting practical solutions to enhance sustainability can only be identified by long‐term transdisciplinary research of ecological disturbance in agro‐ecosystems. Working with intensification to identify environmental and social gains at the same time as capturing economic efficiencies is more likely to support biodiversity than simply attempting to stem or reverse intensification. A change in world view of both rural and urban dwellers, from the predominant philosophy that allocates land to either preservation or production to one that promotes sustainable land‐use practices that integrate extractive resource use with conservation, is the key to mitigating impacts of agricultural intensification in modified landscapes.

Are Conventional Farmers Conventional? Analysis of the Environmental Orientations of Conventional New Zealand Farmers*

Within the political economy of agriculture and agrofood literatures there are examples of approaches that reject simple dichotomies between alternatives and the mainstream. In line with such approaches, we challenge the assumption that alternative agriculture, and its attendant improved environmental practices, alternative management styles, less intensive approaches, and better approaches to animal and ecosystem welfare, is the only source of agricultural sustainability. This article uses national farm-survey results for New Zealands sheep and beef, dairy, and horticulture sectors to examine conventional farmers, measure their assessments of farming practices, and assess their environmental orientation. Analysis identifies a proenvironmental cluster of farmers in each sector characterized by a higher environmental-orientation score and distinct ratings of other farm practices queried in the survey. We interpret the results in terms of the exposure of different agricultural sectors to the effects of market-based, audited, best-practice schemes. The presence of shades of greenness among conventional farmers has important implications for environmental management and for our understanding of the various and complex pathways toward the greening of agrofood systems.

From agricultural science to “biological economies"?

HugH Campbell1 Rob buRToN2 maRk CoopeR1 maTTHew HeNRy3 eReNa le HeRoN4 RiCHaRd le HeRoN4 NiCk lewiS4 eRiC pawSoN5 HaRvey peRkiNS6 mike RoCHe3 CHRiS RoSiN1 ToNi wHiTe7 1university of otago Centre for the Study of agriculture, Food and the environment (CSaFe) po box 56 dunedin 9054, New Zealand 2agResearch ltd invermay agricultural Centre private bag 50034 mosgiel 9053, New Zealand 3massey university private bag 11222 palmerston North 4442, New Zealand 4The university of auckland private bag 92019 auckland 1142, New Zealand New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 2009, Vol. 52: XXX 0028–8233/09/5201–00

Pathways for integration of biodiversity conservation into New Zealand's agricultural production

Our claim that integration approaches will be more effective than land allocation approaches for conserving biodiversity in New Zealands agricultural production landscapes (Moller et al. 2008b) has been challenged by Lee et al. (2008, this issue). Our critics also disagree with our conclusion that ongoing intensification is inevitable and assert that it must be counteracted if New Zealands globally

Social‐ecological scales and sites of action: Keys to conserving biodiversity while intensifying New Zealand's agriculture?

1 The Forum section contains short opinion articles on topics within the scope of the New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research. Forum articles are not refereed, and editing is limited to style matters. They should be no more than the equivalent of 2500 words including references. Articles commenting on a specific paper will be referred to the author(s) of that paper for right of reply before publication. Forum articles should not be cited as scientific papers.

Organic Farmers: Contributing to the Resilience of the Food System?

Advocates of organic practices claim that organics should play a greater role in growing our food. If this is so, we need to ask how such practices contribute to our food system (Campbell 1997) in a way that will enable it to better feed the people on our planet with safe food produced in a sustainable and resilient way. It is widely acknowledged that the context in which food is produced is changing rapidly and food producers are facing enormous challenges in very uncertain times (Urry 2005; McIntyre et al. 2009; Pretty et al. 2010; National Academy of Sciences 2011). According to Darnhofer et al. (2010a, p. 546) present and future uncertainty “may increasingly require farmers to keep their farms flexible to be able to respond to new challenges as they arise.” If the practice of organics lives up to the rhetoric associated with it from its beginnings as a social movement, then it will have a lot to offer in the present and future in terms of its contribution to the possible pathways to adaptation and flexibility it offers to agricultural practices in general.