We are clearly facing a multi-dimensional crisis at the intersection of a climate crisis that is affecting yields and demanding alternative production methods, an economic crisis resulting from geopolitical and health crises, a social crisis stemming from these various disruptions, and also a moral and cultural crisis, between the end of the productivist model that worked so well in the second half of the 20th century and the distress of a profession asked to adapt to constraints beyond its control. This is indeed a systemic crisis that requires ambitious national and European policies. In short, the current agricultural crisis is an opportunity to reassess and reinvent the French agricultural model in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Annick Vignes, 2025, Une crise agricole mais quelle crise? in: Le juste prix des produits agricoles, p. 11
The existing agriculture and food system creates large negative externalities…German agriculture thus causes external costs of at least €90 billion annually. Internalising climate-related externalities would increase prices relative to currently prevailing prices by between 6% (for organically farmed plant-based products) and 146% (for conventionally farmed animal products). This order of magnitude means that retaining the current agriculture and food system as it stands is ruled out from the outset for both economic and environmental reasons. It can be shown that even the financial resources needed for a far-reaching transformation of the agriculture and food system will be far below the follow-on costs projected without systemic transformation. Prevention pays.
Final report of the Commission on the Future of Agriculture, BMUV (2021), pp. 100-101
Latest
Annick Vignes, 2025, Une crise agricole mais quelle crise? in: Le juste prix des produits agricoles
*Matthews, 2025, The role of capital in agricultural productivity growth (CAP Reform)
*Borron, 2025, The university’s role in building sustainable agriculture and resilient communities, in: AgroLife Scientific Journal. “Through the collaboration of Romanian agricultural universities, the program is beginning its third year with a growing network of Romanian professors and university administrators engaged in envisioning a new model for extension, based in universities, for Romania.”
Omar, et al., 2025, Fairer, healthier, and more sustainable? Three contested sociotechnical imaginaries for transforming the European agri-food system, in: Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
*Sylos Labini and Caravani, 2025, The Crisis of the Global Food System, in: Conflict, Climate and Inequalities. China and Globalization.
Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU agriculture (2024). Prof. Dr. Peter Strohschneider was the chair.
*Christopher W. Callahan, 2023, Present and future limits to climate change adaptation (EarthArXiv)
USDA Science and Research Strategy, 2023-2026 (2023)
von Braun, et al. (eds.), 2023, Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation (chapters by Diao, et al., The Future of Small Farms: Innovations for Inclusive Transformation; Masters, et al., The Cost and Affordability of Preparing a Basic Meal Around the World; and Canales and Fears, The Role of Science, Technology, and Innovation for Transforming Food Systems in Europe)
Adams, 2023, Glyphosate and the Swirl: An Agroindustrial Chemical on the Move
Khafagy and Vigani, 2022, Technical change and the Common Agricultural Policy, in: Food Policy
Dorondel and Serban, 2022, A New Ecological Order: Development and the Transformation of Nature in Eastern Europe
Final report of the Commission on the Future of Agriculture, BMUV (2021). Prof. Dr. Peter Strohschneider was the chair.
Elmore, 2021, Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and Our Food Future
Jehlička, 2021, Eastern Europe and the geography of knowledge production: The case of the invisible gardener, in: Progress in Human Geography
*Moser, 2020, Economics of Research and Innovation in Agriculture (NBER). “With the 1862 act the United States government allotted 30,000 acres of federal land per state to finance the foundation of practically oriented research and training universities. The 1887 Hatch act (7 U.S.C. § 361a et seq.) added research capabilities through the State Agricultural Experiment Stations, supported by grants of additional federal lands. In 1890, the second Morrill Act (7 U.S.C. §322 et seq.) increased the funding of these new colleges to $25,000 per year and specified that African Americans could receive education in existing land grant colleges and in new colleges designed for that purpose. Finally, in 1914, the Smith-Lever act established the Cooperative Extension Service to inform farmers about agricultural innovations and establish home instruction to help farmers learn about new agricultural techniques.”
*Baležentis, et al., 2020, Analysis of Environmental Total Factor Productivity Evolution in European Agricultural Sector, in: Decision Sciences. “a positive change in the environmental TFP was observed during 1995-2016” (referring to the agricultural sector in a sub-set of European countries.
Spaces of quiet sustainability: self-provisioning and sharing (Masarykova univerzita)
2010-2020
*Sheng, et al., 2019, Measuring agricultural total factor productivity in China: pattern and drivers over the period of 1978-2016, in: Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. “The results show that China’s agricultural TFP grew at a rate of approximately 2.4 per cent a year before 2009, which is comparable to the main OECD countries and is double the world average.”
*Kijek, et al., 2019, Productivity and its convergence in agriculture in new and old European Union member states, in: Agricultural Economics – Czech. “While the growth rate (of TFP) surpassed 1% per year between 1995 and 2005, it slowed down to around 0.8% between 2005 and 2015.”
*Coomes, et al., 2019, Leveraging agricultural total factor productivity growth for productive, sustainable and resilient farming systems, in: Nature Sustainability. “The potential for synergies between TFP growth and sustainability and resilience outcomes seems high because in one way or another TFP promises more outputs for less material inputs…Interdisciplinary research is urgently needed to empirically examine the dynamic interplay of TFP growth, farming system sustainability and resilience. Such insights are needed to transform TFP growth as metric into actionable efforts on farms and beyond.”
Collingham, 2017, The Hungry Empire: How Britain’s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World
*Baráth and Fertő, 2016, Productivity and Convergence in European Agriculture, in: Journal of Agricultural Economics. “The results imply that TFP has slightly decreased in the EU over the analysed period.”
Subramanian, 2015, Revisiting the Green Revolution: Irrigation and Food Production in Twentieth-Century India (King’s College London), Chapter 1: Green Revolution? “There is no evidence of a breakthrough in food-grain production and yields in the 1960s and 1970s. Wheat production and yield did…see a remarkable growth from the mid-1960s onward but as it constituted a relatively minor part of India’s production basket, the wheat boom was insufficient to arrest the overall trend of declining growth rates. The technology central to the wheat productivity boom was not the dwarf seed varieties (or even just fertilizer) but an expansion in irrigation. The Green Revolution is not only incorrectly specified; its supposed cause was not the one so influentially suggested.”
Isoni, 2015, The Common Agriculture Policy (CAP): Achievements and Future Prospects, in: Law and Agroecology: A Transdisciplinary Dialogue
Wurlod and Eaton, 2015, Chasing After the Frontier in Agricultural Productivity (FOODSECURE)
Uekötter, 2014, Comparing Apples, Oranges, and Cotton: Environmental Histories of the Global Plantation
*Roger, 2014, Agricultural Research in Romania: Rival Institutional Dependencies on Private Companies, in: Science as Culture
*Lobell, et al., 2014, Greater Sensitivity to Drought Accompanies Maize Yield Increase in the U.S. Midwest, in: Science
Anderson and Feder, 2013, Rural Extension Services (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper)
*European Commission, 2012, The common agricultural policy: A story to be continued
*Wright, 2012, Grand missions of agricultural innovation, in: Research Policy
Harwood, 2012, Europe’s Green Revolution and its Successors: The Rise and Fall of Peasant-Friendly Plant Breeding
Sumberg and Thompson, 2012, Contested Agronomy: Agricultural Research in a Changing World
Robbins and Huzzair, 2011, Exploring Central and Eastern Europe’s Biotechnology Landscape
*Federico, 2010, Feeding the World: An Economic History of Agriculture, 1800-2000
Schor, 2010, Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth
Grzegorz Karasiewicz and Jan Nowak, 2010, Looking back at the 20 years of retailing change in Poland, in: International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research
2000-2010
Segers, et al., 2009, Exploring the Food Chain: food production and food processing in western Europe, 1850-1990
Boardman and Sauser, 2008, Systems Thinking: Coping with 21st Century Problems
*James, et al., 2008, Agricultural R&D Policy: A Tragedy of the International Commons (University of Minnesota Staff Paper Series). “The rapid rise in global food prices now being experienced worldwide and the expectation that these higher prices will prevail for years to come may yield some substantial, persistent and pervasive benefits worldwide if it prompts policy makers to take appropriate action to reform agricultural R&D policy with proper attention to the global commons and the long run.”
Lains and Pinilla (eds.), 2008, Agriculture and Economic Development in Europe Since 1870
van Rooij, 2007, The Company that Changed Itself: R & D and the Transformations of DSM
Lockeretz, 2007, Organic Farming: an international history
Small, 2007, East Meets West: Utilising Western Literature to Conceptualise Post-Soviet Agrarian Change, in: The Journal of Peasant Studies
Ansell and Vogel, 2006, What’s the Beef?: The Contested Governance of European Food Safety
FAO, 2005, Central and Eastern Europe: Impact of Food Retail Investments on the
Food Chain
Whited, 2005, Northern Europe: An Environmental History
Lukas Straumann, 2005, Nützliche Schädlinge: Angewandte Entomologie, Chemische Industrie und Landwirtschaftspolitik in der Schweiz 1874-1952
Chataway, et al., 2004, Understanding company R&D strategies in agro-biotechnology: trajectories and blind-spots, in: Research Policy
Rémi Fourche, 2004, Contribution à l’histoire de la protection phytosanitaire dans l’agriculture française (1880-1970) (Université Lumière Lyon 2)
Kloppenburg, 2004, First the Seed: the political economy of plant biotechnology, 1492-2000
*Assouline and Joly, 2001, , Rhône-Poulenc Agrochimie: an uncertain future, in: AgBioForum. p. 28 quoting Alain Godard, CEO, Rhône-Poulenc Plant and Animal Health, speaking in 1991: “The future of crop protection passes through the combination of innovative chemistry with [different] biotechnologies…Rhône-Poulenc’s strategy consists [of] focusing on innovation and investing in the development of genes that provide a clear competitive advantage.”
Edmund Russell, 2001, War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring
Aftalion, 2001, A History of the International Chemical Industry: from the early days to 2000
McNeill, 2000, Something New Under the Sun: an environmental history of the world in the 20th century
1990-2000
Baltas, 1998, The Common Agricultural Policy: Past, Present and Future
Vorley and Keeney, 1998, Bugs in the System: Redesigning the Pesticide Industry for Sustainable Agriculture
Pingali and Hossain, 1998, Impact of Rice Research
Yudelman, et al., 1998, Pest Management and Food Production: Looking to the Future (International Food Policy Research Institute)
Peter Charles, 1998, Six Feet Over: Pleasures and Perils of Aerial Crop Spraying
Casida and Quistad, 1998, Golden age of insecticide research: past, present or future? in: Annual Review of Entomology
FAO, 1997, The State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
Roqueplo, 1997, Entre savoir et décision, l’expertise scientifique (INRA)
Dahlgren, et al. (eds.), 1997, Health Impact Assessment of the EU Common Agricultural
Policy
Smith and Spooner (eds.), 1997, Cereals sector reform in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe
Ambrosoli, 1997, The Wild and the Sown: botany and agriculture in Western Europe: 1350-1850
*Baxter and Robinson, 1995, From Dearth to Plenty: the Modern Revolution in Food Production. “During the fifty-year period from 1936 to 1986 the modern agricultural
revolution occurred, in which, for the first time, science was properly
harnessed to the improvement in agricultural productivity.” pp. 149-153 on oil seed rape are informative.
Havinden and Collins, 1995, Agriculture in the Industrial State (University of Reading)
Morton, 1993, Food Distribution in Eastern Europe, in: British Food Journal
Richard Rose and Yevgeniy Tikhomirov, 1993, Who Grows Food in Russia and Eastern Europe?, in: Post-Soviet Geography
Pimentel and Lehman, 1992, The Pesticide Question : environment, economics and ethics
Conway and Pretty, 1991, Unwelcome Harvest: Agriculture and Pollution
Overton and Campbell (eds.), 1991, Land, Labour, and Livestock: Historical Studies in European Agricultural Productivity
1980-1990
*Grison and Lhoste, 1989, La phytopharmacie française: Chronique historique. It was only during the oil crises that the global sales of pesticides really expanded, with an uptick particularly visible after 1975 (viewing the graph on p. 158).
Raikes, 1988, Modernising Hunger: Famine, Food Surplus and Farm Policy in the EEC and Africa
Thompson, 1983, Horses in European Economic History: a preliminary canter
Buckwell, et al., 1982, The Costs of the Common Agricultural Policy
Cooke, 1981, Agricultural Research, 1931-1981: a history of the Agricultural Research Council and a review of developments in agricultural science during the last fifty years
Before 1980
Green, 1978, Eating Oil. The book is notable for having been written by a senior research scientist in the then British chemical conglomerate ICI, Dr. Maurice Berkeley Green. ICI of course profited from sales of the herbicide paraquat which I believe they argued would clear the field of weeds without the fuel expenditure otherwise needed for heavy plowing (“no till” agriculture).
Ordish, 1976, The Constant Pest: a short history of pests and their control
Jones, 1974, Agriculture and the Industrial Revolution
D. Gale Johnson, 1973, World Agriculture in Disarray
Rolt, 1971, Landscape with Machines: an autobiography
Fussell, 1966, Farming Technique from Prehistoric to Modern Times
John Boyd-Orr, 1966, As I Recall: the 1880s to the 1960s
Tracy, 1964, Agriculture in Western Europe: crisis and adaptation since 1880
Carson, 1962, Silent Spring
Branston, 1953, Time and Motion on the Farm
Boyd-Orr, 1949, Science, politics and peace: Lecture by John Boyd-Orr delivered on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Price of 1949, National Peace Council
Paul Rotha, 1943, World of Plenty [film]
C. Potter, 1938, Petroleum Oils as Insecticides and Fungicides, in: The Science of Petroleum, vol. IV
A. Freeman Mason, 1928, Spraying, Dusting and Fumigating of Plants: a Popular Handbook on Crop Protection
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