Identity preservation in the agri-food sector

摘要

The end of 2000 was notable for many things, not just the start of the third millennium, the Olympics in Sydney and the burst of the "dot.con" bubble. It also marked the end of a 40-year period that has seen the cost of food, in developed countries at least, fall by 40 percent (measured as a proportion of income spent on food). Over that time, agri-food systems have changed dramatically, mainly as a function of the adoption of technology that has increased production while maintaining or reducing costs. The technologies that drove the "green revolution" were primarily the development and adoption of synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides, working in concert with improved plant genetics. Dramatic increases in productivity resulted from theuptake of "green revolution" technology in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. This technology was the indispensable basis for global food production.