Sustainable intensification is a recently developed concept that is understood in different ways by its critics and supporters. A common understanding is that it denotes the principle of increasing or maintaining the productivity of agriculture on existing farmland while at the same time, reducing its environmental impacts. Understood in this way, SI designates a goal for the development of agricultural systems but does not, a priori, favour any particular agronomic route to achieve it. It may involve the intensification of different types of agricultural inputs (e.g. of knowledge, biotechnologies, labour, machinery) and apply these to different forms of agriculture (e.g. livestock or arable; agroecological or conventional). Forms of intensification that can be called sustainable intensification must lower environmental impacts and land use, relative to yields. However, for some, to merit the term ‘sustainable’ social, economic, and ethical criteria must also be considered.

A field of wheat with a raining storm cloud in the distance. Image by Ottó from Pixabay
Journal articles
Accounting for diversity of practices in conservation agriculture
This article assesses the diversity of practices being implemented in Walloon, Belgium, which are considered to align with conservation agriculture’s three agronomic pillars (or principles): (i) minimum mechanical soil disturbance, (ii) permanent soil organic cover, and (iii) species diversification (FAO 2023). The authors aimed to determine the diversity of practices in a given area to understand the impacts of these practices and why farmers adopt them. They also sought to guide policy decisions and improve communication within the scientific community and between science and field actors. The authors present a novel classification method to categorise the diversity of CA practices on a regional scale that they present as applicable for comparing and assessing CA in different regions and other agricultural systems such as regenerative farming and organic farming. 
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A cow grazes out of focus in the distance with long grasses in the foreground
Essay
The promises of regenerative agriculture: How lessons from the past bring words of warning
A number of sustainable agriculture approaches, and their supporting narratives, have been put forward over the decades in attempts to weaken the stronghold of industrial agriculture in the food system. Recent interest has centred on regenerative agriculture, with some of its proponents seeing in its appeal to farmers and corporations an ability to unite disparate agricultural approaches in a manner that might facilitate increasing ambition. In this essay drawing from recent research, Anja Bless compares the genealogical histories of organic agriculture, sustainable intensification, conservation agriculture and agroecology with regenerative agriculture, finding elements within each that resist absorption under the regenerative umbrella.   About the author: Anja Bless is a PhD Candidate at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney. Her PhD research is exploring the politics of regenerative agriculture, with Australia as the national case study. A component of this research project is exploring the origins of regenerative agriculture, in particular the social-ecological factors that have driven its rise in popularity and how it fits among existing sustainable agriculture narratives. Anja holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Government and International Relations and Sociology from the University of Sydney, and a Master of Environment (with Distinction) majoring in Sustainable Food Systems from the University of Melbourne.
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The Breakthrough Institute
News and resources
What do falling plant-based meat prices mean for beef?
This blog post by Saloni Shah and Dan Blaustein-Rejto of US-based think-tank The Breakthrough Institute argues that decreases in the price of plant-based meat alternatives by 10% will likely only have a small impact on cattle production (a 0.15% decrease in the US) and emissions from global cattle production (equivalent to a decrease of 1.4% in US beef production). They conclude that while continuing to improve plant-based meat alternatives is important in order for them to gain a larger market share, it is also important to work on methods and technologies to reduce the environmental impacts of livestock production.
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