. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. 1997 Small: Biodiversity Priorities of Canadian Agriculture 499 of transgenic crops should be the primary response to the challenges of twenty-first century agriculture" (Rissler and Mellon 1996). "An important question for the future is whether engineered crops will facili- tate or retard a global transition to a sustainable agri- culture" (Rissler and Mellon 1996). Issue 8: Sustainability Thou shalt maintain biodiversity through sustainable Ideally, human society should be an integral part of nature, respecting an
. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. 1997 Small: Biodiversity Priorities of Canadian Agriculture 499 of transgenic crops should be the primary response to the challenges of twenty-first century agriculture" (Rissler and Mellon 1996). "An important question for the future is whether engineered crops will facili- tate or retard a global transition to a sustainable agri- culture" (Rissler and Mellon 1996). Issue 8: Sustainability Thou shalt maintain biodiversity through sustainable Ideally, human society should be an integral part of nature, respecting and preserving the diversity of life, consuming no more than can be replenished, and leaving a heritage of a healthy world to future generations. This is the essence of sustainability, which finds its chief expression today in agriculture. Although "sustainable agriculture" (or occasionally "ecological agriculture") was popularized in the 1980s, it traces some of its roots to the conservation movement of the 1920s, the "limits to growth" thinking of the 1960s and 1970s, and the antitech- nology orientation of environmental activists (Lu and Kelly 1995). The adverse side effects of some aspects of conventional agriculture had become painfully evident by the 1980s. Modern agricultural practices often make intensive use of advanced tech- nologies and highly specialized, mechanized and capital- and chemical-intensive inputs dependent on nonrenewable stocks of fossil fuels. Negative impacts on society have included threats to human health and food safety. Negative impacts on the environment have included soil erosion, depletion of natural resources, environmental contamination, and loss of biodiversity. Biologists need to understand the very recent his- torical context in which the word sustainability has been used. A seminal event was the release of the highly influential report of The World Commission on Environment and Development set up by the United
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