Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways based on an understanding of ecosystem services, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment. It is a long-term methodological structure that incorporates profit, environmental stewardship, fairness, health, business and familial aspects on a farm setting. It is defined by 3 integral aspects which are: economic profit, environmental stewardship and social responsibility. Sustainability focuses on the business process and practice of a farm in general, rather than a specific agricultural product. The integrated economic, environmental, and social principles are incorporated into a “triple bottom line” (TBL); when the general impacts of the farm are assessed. Unlike a traditional approach where the profit-margin is the single major factor; Agriculture sustainability is also involved with the social and environmental factors.
Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs, sheep and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture into the twenty-first.
Climate change occurs when changes in Earth's climate system result in new weather patterns that remain in place for an extended period of time. This length of time can be as short as a few decades to as long as millions of years. The climate system comprises five interacting parts, the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), cryosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere. The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun, with a relatively tiny amount from earth's interior. The climate system also gives off energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.
The agreement supports the already existing China-UK Sustainable Development Dialogue (SDD) signed by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Agreed upon by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the development of SAIN was included in the SDD work program on Sustainable Agriculture and Fisheries. After being originally proposed at the UK-China Partners in Science Conference in North West China, a business plan was created after consultation with Chinese stake-holders, bilateral agencies, and international organizations. in December 2008, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and Department of Environment, food and Rural Affairs accepted and adopted the new policy.
The UK-China Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network has four primary goals: 1. Support UK-China SDD by policy approaches, institutional mechanisms, and moving policy and science to the ground level. 2. Encourage and grow research on environmentally sustainable agriculture and its relevance to local, national, and the global economy. 3. Gather important actors, such as farmers and policy makers, and educate them on environmentally sustainable agriculture issues. 4. Increase global sustainability with south-south learning.
The organization of SAIN consists of a Governing Board, two Secretariat Offices, and Working Groups. The North West Agriculture Forestry University in China and East Anglia University in England are the locations of the two Secretariat Offices.
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a 320 acres campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution for 2016–17 was £273.7 million of which £35.6 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £262.6 million.
Sir Robert Tony Watson CMG FRS is a British chemist who has worked on atmospheric science issues including ozone depletion, global warming and paleoclimatology since the 1980s.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Concordats set out agreed frameworks for co operation, between it and the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive, which have devolved responsibilities for these matters in their respective nations.
The Secretary of State for the Environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment (DoE). This was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Building and Works on 15 October 1970. Thus it managed a mixed portfolio of issues: housing and planning, local government, public buildings, environmental protection and, initially, transport - James Callaghan gave transport its own department again in 1976. It has been asserted that during the Thatcher government the DoE led the drive towards centralism, and the undermining of local government. Particularly, the concept of 'inner cities policy', often involving centrally negotiated public-private partnerships and centrally appointed development corporations, which moved control of many urban areas to the centre, and away from their, often left-wing, local authorities. The department was based in Marsham Towers, three separate tower blocks built for the separate pre-merger ministries, in Westminster.
England Rural Development Programme is the instrument by which the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) fulfills its rural development obligations in England, as set out by the European Union. It is derived primarily from Council Regulation European Union Regulation No. 1257/1999 and the related successive implementing Commission Regulations.
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is a government department in the Northern Ireland Executive, the devolved administration for Northern Ireland. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. The department was called the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development between 1999 and 2016 and was previously known as the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland or the Ministry of Agriculture. The department's Permanent Secretary is Noel Lavery.
The United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) is a high-level intergovernmental policy forum. The forum includes all United Nations Member States and Permanent Observers, the UNFF Secretariat, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, Regional Organizations and Processes and Major Groups.
The School of International Development is a department at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. Situated within the Faculty of Social Sciences, the School of International Development has been ranked in the top three British development studies departments.
Fera Science Limited (Fera), formerly the Food and Environment Research Agency, is a joint venture based in the United Kingdom owned by Capita (75%) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (25%). Its aim is to support and develop a sustainable food chain, a healthy natural environment, and to protect the global community from biological and chemical risks.
The Scottish Government Rural Affairs, Environment and Services Directorates were a group of civil service Directorates in the Scottish Government until a December 2010 re-organisation.
The Council of Agriculture is the official government body in the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the Executive Yuan in charged with overseeing affairs related to agriculture, forestry, fishery, animal husbandry and food affairs.
An agricultural attaché is a diplomat who collects, analyzes, and acts on information on agriculture, agribusiness, food, and other related spheres in a foreign country or countries. Agricultural attachés may be directly employed by the sending country's agriculture ministry, or they may be employed by the foreign ministry. Typical activities of an agricultural attaché include reporting on crop conditions, food availability, domestic agricultural policy and the foreign trade outlook in agricultural commodities; negotiating food aid agreements and agricultural credit lines; implementing agricultural technical assistance programs; facilitating professional contacts, exchanges, and technology transfer; assisting in negotiating bilateral and multilateral trade agreements; and promoting the exports of agricultural and food products. In many cases, agricultural attachés may also bear responsibility for issues related to the environment, food security, food safety, fisheries, forestry, and indeed anything related to rural areas and the rural economy.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) is the department of the Government of Spain responsible for proposing and carrying out the government policy on agricultural, livestock and fishery resources, food industry, rural development and human food. The Ministry is responsible for assigning Veterinary Surgeons to carry out checks in regard to the issuing of REGA Licences a requirement for the ownership of horses on Spanish property and small holdings.
The Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry is a ministry in the Burmese government responsible for the country's forestry and logging sectors. From 1948 to 5 March 1992, the Ministry was joined with the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation as the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) is a cabinet-level division of the government of South Korea. It is headquartered in the Sejong Government Complex in Sejong City. It was established as Ministry of Agriculture, with the founding of the First Republic of Korea in 1948.
Professor Ann Louise Heathwaite, CBE FRSE FSB MACS MICE BSc(UEA) PhD(Bris), is a hydrochemist working on diffuse environmental pollution, especially the pathways of nitrogen and phosphorus loss from agricultural land to water.
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