Abstract
From an agricultural point of view, the question if the earth can feed adequately not only its current population of 7 billion people, but also the expected population of 9 billion people to 10 billion people by 2050, is currently answered in two opposing ways. Some believe modern agriculture should increase productivity by implementing technological innovation and eliminating subsistence agriculture. Others believe industrialised agriculture is out of tune with the ecology and sufficient healthy food may be produced by an agriculture that recognises ecological and biological limits (known as ecological intensification). On the basis of a theoretical framework derived from reformational philosophy and in particular the concept of enkapsis, this article supports ecological intensification, especially if it forms part of a cultural development guided by Schuurman’s metaphor of a garden-city. However, it is still a marginal activity within a culture directed by a belief in progress. High rates of economic growth, based on technological innovation, appears to validate such faith, but human and environmental costs are insufficiently acknowledged (metaphor: the earth is a machine). A break with technicism and economism becomes a pre-condition for feeding adequately both the present and the projected population of the world.Copyright information
- Ownership of copyright in terms of the Work remains with the authors.
- The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the Work, provided attribution is given to the place and detail of original publication, as set out in the official citation of the Work published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the Work on the authors’ or their institutions’ websites or institutional repositories.
Publication and user license
- The authors grant the title owner and the publisher an irrevocable license and first right and perpetual subsequent right to (a) publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the Work in any form/medium, (b) to translate the Work into other languages, create adaptations, summaries or extracts of the Work or other derivative works based on the Work and exercise all of the rights set forth in (a) above in such translations, adaptations, summaries, extracts and derivative works, (c) to license others to do any or all of the above, and (d) to register the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the Definitive Work.
- The authors acknowledge and accept the user licence under which the Work will be published as set out in https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (Creative Commons Attribution License South Africa)
- The undersigned warrant that they have the authority to license these publication rights and that no portion of the copyright to the Work has been assigned or licensed previously to any other party.
Disclaimer: The publisher, editors and title owner accept no responsibility for any statement made or opinion expressed by any other person in this Work. Consequently, they will not be liable for any loss or damage sustained by any reader as a result of his or her action upon any statement or opinion in this Work.
In cases where a manuscript is NOT accepted for publication by the editorial board, the portions of this agreement regarding the publishing licensing shall be null and void and the authors will be free to submit this manuscript to any other publication for first publication.
Our copyright policies are author-friendly and protect the rights of our authors and publishing partners.