The sociocultural sustainability of livestock farming: an inquiry into social perceptions of dairy farming.

Over the past 50 years, the scale and intensity of livestock farming have increased significantly. At the same time, Western societies have become more urbanised and fewer people have close relatives involved in farming. As a result, most citizens have little knowledge or direct experience of what farming entails. In addition, more people are expressing concerns over issues such as farm animal welfare. This has led to increasing public demand for more sustainable ways of livestock farming. To date, little research has been carried out on the social pillar of sustainable livestock farming. The aim of this study is to provide insights into the sociocultural sustainability of livestock farming systems. This study reviews the key findings of earlier published interdisciplinary research about the social perceptions of dairy farming in the Netherlands and Norway (Boogaard et al., 2006, 2008, 2010a and 2010b) and synthesises the implications for sociocultural sustainability of livestock farming. This study argues that the (sociocultural) sustainable development of livestock farming is not an objective concept, but that it is socially and culturally constructed by people in specific contexts. It explains the social pillar of the economics/ecological/social model sustainability in terms of the fields of tensions that exist between modernity, traditions and naturality – ‘the MTN knot’ – each of which has positive and negative faces. All three angles of vision can be seen in people's attitudes to dairy farming, but the weight given to each differs between individuals and cultures. Hence, sociocultural sustainability is context dependent and needs to be evaluated according to its local meaning. Moreover, sociocultural sustainability is about people's perceptions of livestock farming. Lay people might perceive livestock farming differently and ascribe different meanings to it than experts do, but their ‘reality’ is just as real. Finally, this study calls for an ongoing collaboration between social and animal scientists in order to develop livestock farming systems that are more socioculturally sustainable

Zelfsturing en Profit in de Noordelijke Friese Wouden : catalogus van inspirerende voorbeelden

Als onderdeel van de verkenningsfase van het TransForum innovatieve praktijkproject in de Noordelijke Friese Wouden over zelfsturing en profit, wordt in deze bijdrage een aantal binnen- en buitenlandse voorbeelden gegeven die als inspiratiebron kunnen dienen voor toekomstige ontwikkelingen in de Noordelijke Friese Wouden

Stadslandbouw in het tijdperk van verstedelijking

De wereld verstedelijkt in een snel tempo. Tussen nu en 2050 zal de stedelijke bevolking met ongeveer 200 duizend personen per dag toenemen. En al die mensen zullen van eten moeten worden voorzien. Een immense opgave. Er is nu al sprake is van de enorme impact van voedselvoorziening op ons leven en onze planeet, hoe moet dat dan in de komende decennia? Voor welke uitdagingen staan we? En, is het produceren van voedsel in de stad – stadslandbouw – een antwoord op de uitdagingen waar we in dit tijdperk van verstedelijking voor staan

Seeds of Transition. Essays on novelty production, niches and regimes in agriculture

Agriculture is confronted with changing societal expectations and demands regarding its role in food production and in the countryside. Complying with these expectations and demands will require a comprehensive, far-reaching and therefore far from easy and long-lasting transition of agriculture. This books seeks to explore the seeds of this transition by describing and analysing the production of promosing novelties in relation to to the dominant regime. On a theoretical level this books aims at the integration of hitherto largely disconneted disciplines and bodies of literature