Reducing the agricultural eco-footprint: Reflections of a neo-Darwinian ecologist

Abstract

As the global human population grows, resources continue to be depleted and the environment becomes increasingly degraded. Unsustainable practices include the clearing of forests, the loss of productive soils, and the overexploitation of fisheries, all of which contribute to the on-going loss of biodiversity. In addition, we are interfering with fundamental evolutionary processes through the exploitation of natural resources and the release of genetically modified (GM) organisms into the environment. Superimposed on all these realities is the growing social inequity and economic disparity between the developed and developing worlds. We need to work towards feeding the world while reducing the burden on the environment of feeding an ever growing world population.