IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i16p12388-d1217498.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Treacherous Road to Sustainable Agriculture: Lessons from Israeli Farmers and the Need to Upscale the Debate

Author

Listed:
  • Nimrod Luz

    (Department of Land of Israel Studies and Department of Behavioral Sciences, Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Tzemah 1513200, Israel)

Abstract

The current global agrifood system is increasingly fragile and despite a plethora of scientific research, progress in national and global policies setting commendable goals towards more sustainable agriculture is still sluggish. This paper argues that if the efforts continue to concentrate on farmers and rest solely on “fixing” modes of production at the farm level, the chances of arriving at significant changes are meagre. By conjugating Lefebvre’s triad of spaces and geographic explorations on politics of scale with data harvested over three years of qualitative research in farms, this paper explores Israeli farmers’ conduct in the field as they face many challenges at various scales. The paper presents their vulnerability against forces on a multiscalar level which present numerous obstacles in operating their farms. Addressing these challenges to allow them to integrate more sustainable modes of operation would require upscaling the debate and the taking of responsibility from all stakeholders concerned, from the farm level to global players.

Suggested Citation

  • Nimrod Luz, 2023. "The Treacherous Road to Sustainable Agriculture: Lessons from Israeli Farmers and the Need to Upscale the Debate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-14, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:16:p:12388-:d:1217498
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/16/12388/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/16/12388/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Mazoyer & Laurence Roudart, 1997. "Histoire des agricultures du monde: Du Néolithique à la crise contemporaine," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/44782, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Hansen, J. W., 1996. "Is agricultural sustainability a useful concept?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 117-143.
    3. Alon Tal, 2018. "Making Conventional Agriculture Environmentally Friendly: Moving beyond the Glorification of Organic Agriculture and the Demonization of Conventional Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Hamid El Bilali & Carola Strassner & Tarek Ben Hassen, 2021. "Sustainable Agri-Food Systems: Environment, Economy, Society, and Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-67, June.
    5. Tilahun Amede & Aggie Asiimwe Konde & Jean Jacques Muhinda & George Bigirwa, 2023. "Sustainable Farming in Practice: Building Resilient and Profitable Smallholder Agricultural Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, March.
    6. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    7. Jeremi s M t Balogh, 2020. "The Role of Agriculture in Climate Change: A Global Perspective," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(2), pages 401-408.
    8. Piotr Sulewski & Anna Kłoczko-Gajewska & Wojciech Sroka, 2018. "Relations between Agri-Environmental, Economic and Social Dimensions of Farms’ Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-23, December.
    9. Sulewski, Piotr & Kłoczko-Gajewska, Anna, 2018. "Relations between agri-environmental, economic and social dimensions of farm sustainability," 166th Seminar, August 30-31, 2018, Galway, West of Ireland 276202, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Kevin Parris, 2011. "Impact of Agriculture on Water Pollution in OECD Countries: Recent Trends and Future Prospects," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 33-52, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ogawa, Keishi & Garrod, Guy & Yagi, Hironori, 2023. "Sustainability strategies and stakeholder management for upland farming," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    2. Zolfaghary, Parvin & Zakerinia, Mahdi & Kazemi, Hossein, 2021. "A model for the use of urban treated wastewater in agriculture using multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) and geographic information system (GIS)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    3. Hrabrin Bachev, 2017. "A Multicriteria Assessment of the Sustainability of Governing Structures in Bulgarian Agriculture," Eastern European Business and Economics Journal, Eastern European Business and Economics Studies Centre, vol. 3(3), pages 194-222.
    4. Eugenio Cejudo-García & Marilena Labianca & Francisco Navarro-Valverde & Angelo Belliggiano, 2022. "Protected Natural Spaces, Agrarian Specialization and the Survival of Rural Territories: The Cases of Sierra Nevada (Spain) and Alta Murgia (Italy)," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-30, July.
    5. Hania Arif & Mehak Masood & Tahir Mahmood & Muneeb Aamie, 2021. "Conservation of Biodiversity & the Agriculture Sector," International Journal of Agriculture & Sustainable Development, 50sea, vol. 3(3), pages 72-76, September.
    6. Minjie Li & Jian Wang & Yihui Chen, 2019. "Evaluation and Influencing Factors of Sustainable Development Capability of Agriculture in Countries along the Belt and Road Route," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-28, April.
    7. Claudio Liberati & Concetta Cardillo & Antonella Di Fonzo, 2021. "Sustainability and competitiveness in farms: An evidence of Lazio region agriculture through FADN data analysis," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 23(3), pages 1-22.
    8. Dwi Ratna Hidayati & Elena Garnevska & Paul Childerhouse, 2021. "Sustainable Agrifood Value Chain—Transformation in Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-20, November.
    9. Bachev, Hrabrin, 2016. "Устойчивост На Земеделските Стопанства В България [Sustainability of agricultural farms in Bulgaria]," MPRA Paper 99457, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Marlena Gołaś & Piotr Sulewski & Adam Wąs & Anna Kłoczko-Gajewska & Kinga Pogodzińska, 2020. "On the Way to Sustainable Agriculture—Eco-Efficiency of Polish Commercial Farms," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-24, September.
    11. Sipan Li & Qunxi Gong & Shaolei Yang, 2019. "A Sustainable, Regional Agricultural Development Measurement System Based on Dissipative Structure Theory and the Entropy Weight Method: A Case Study in Chengdu, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-15, September.
    12. Olha Kravchenko & Anatolii Kucher & Maria Hełdak & Lesia Kucher & Joanna Wysmułek, 2020. "Socio-Economic Transformations in Ukraine towards the Sustainable Development of Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-16, July.
    13. Kathrin Specht & Felix Zoll & Henrike Schümann & Julia Bela & Julia Kachel & Marcel Robischon, 2019. "How Will We Eat and Produce in the Cities of the Future? From Edible Insects to Vertical Farming—A Study on the Perception and Acceptability of New Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-22, August.
    14. Ivana Kravčáková Vozárová & Rastislav Kotulič & Roman Vavrek, 2020. "Assessing Impacts of CAP Subsidies on Financial Performance of Enterprises in Slovak Republic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, January.
    15. Beadle, Brian, 2023. "The design and application of an agricultural sustainability index using item response theory," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 278112, July.
    16. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    17. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    18. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    19. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-02019073, HAL.
    20. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:16:p:12388-:d:1217498. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.