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Current Agricultural Practices Threaten Future Global Food Production

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Abstract

In future decades, food demand for an increased population with elevated standards of living poses a huge challenge, particularly in the sense of the environmental impacts of agricultural systems. We have analyzed agricultural data from the past 50 years, and found that the current agricultural practices will have negative effects on global food production: total agricultural area has decreased since 2000, fertilizer and pesticide consumption increased while their efficiency decreased, and available water sources are already being used for irrigation. Expansion of biofuel production, cultivation limitations of genetically modified organisms, and the trend of increasing living standards will all intensify the risks of a global food crisis in the coming decades. Crop yield and environmental protection will then have to be traded off if there are no feasible solutions at country or regional scales, and it is crucial for agricultural sustainability to increase crop yields and simultaneously decrease environmental impacts of agriculture intensification.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Environmental Protection Public Welfare Science and Technology Research Program of China (Grant 201309038), the Special Program for New Transgenic Variety Breeding of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China (Grant 2012ZX08011002), and one project of the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 31200288).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, 8 Dayangfang, Beijing, 100012, China

    Yongbo Liu & Junsheng Li

  2. Institute of Plant Quarantine, Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine, Beijing, 100029, China

    Xubin Pan

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  1. Yongbo Liu
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  2. Xubin Pan
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Correspondence to Yongbo Liu or Junsheng Li.

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Yongbo Liu and Xubin Pan have contributed equally to this work.

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Liu, Y., Pan, X. & Li, J. Current Agricultural Practices Threaten Future Global Food Production. J Agric Environ Ethics 28, 203–216 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-014-9527-6

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