Sustainable Agriculture & Food Policy

Out of that experiment grew Santa Barbara Aquaponics and a 35-foot-long, self-funded system that Childerely calls a “boutique showroom option” to demonstrate how the approach could be incorporated into both large agriculture operations and the average homeowner’s backyard. Work on the second system has begun, and Childerley hopes to build two more in the same space in the coming months. “There’s so much disillusion with the future when it comes to food shortages and drought,” Childerley said. “I see this as a vehicle of hope.

The proportion of land used to cultivate shade grown coffee, relative to the total land area of coffee cultivation, has fallen by nearly 20 percent globally since 1996, according to a new study by scientists from The University of Texas at Austin and five other institutions. The study's authors say the global shift toward a more intensive style of coffee farming is probably having a negative effect on the environment, communities and individual farmers.

David Quist (2003) is now with the European Environment Agency, an agency of the European Union, working on natural resource use and emerging technologies for the EU's transition to a greener economy. Visit David Quist's LinkedIn profile or Twitter feed for more information

The organic industry is young—a mere teenager, considering the term organic has only been regulated by the US Department of Agriculture for fourteen years. Like everything in its youth, the organic industry is experiencing rapid changes in short periods of time. Indeed, since our last in-depth Organic Report in 2011, there have been dramatic changes for the organic industry—fortunately most of them positive.