304 Enabling Policies and Institutions for Sustainable Agricultural and Food Systems
From this, and other cases presented during the conference, the following conclu-
sions emerge:
- It is not so much climate change that causes problems, but entrenched modes
of adapting to change. ‘The ability and willingness of society to respond to
changing conditions are the crucial conditions in determining whether it sur-
vives’ (Pain, 1994). - Such responsiveness depends on individual and collective choices, which are,
of necessity, shaped by the past. This makes us vulnerable to discontinuous
events for which there are no historical precedents. - The development and use of knowledge is our main mechanism for survival in
conditions of rapid change. That is, adaptation to changing conditions depends
on perceiving and interpreting the signs of impending change, and on the
timely development of knowledge, technology and organization in reaction to
those signs. Thus, the adaptative response also demands creativity and inven-
tiveness and a capacity for collective learning and innovation. - By virtue of their privileged position, the elites who have a formal or social
mandate to provide leadership are often shut off from direct or even indirect
experience of the signs of change. They have the power to maintain their life-
styles and the way things are when it is no longer prudent to do so.
Are we like the Norsemen on Greenland?
About this Book
The question could imply that this book is about the Apocalypse, but nothing
would be further from the truth. This book is about developing appropriate
responses to environmental uncertainty and discontinuity. If anything, its authors
are possibly too optimistic in their expectation that it is not beyond human society
to make the adaptations that now appear necessary. That does not mean, of course,
that we are convinced that meaningful and timely change will come about, but we
hope that this book will increase the likelihood that it will.
The more specific aims of the book are to ‘capture a new practice’; that is, to
examine a number of cases of attempts to make farming more sustainable in condi-
tions of uncertainty. Second, the contributors tease out the lessons of emerging
practice with respect to the kinds of learning, facilitation, supporting institutions
and conducive policy contexts that are required. The book’s central questions
therefore are: can we learn our way to a more sustainable agriculture? And if so,
what does it take?
The case studies suggest that the answer to the first question is ‘Yes’!, but also,
that it will take a transformation of our epistemology, our technological and
organizational practices, our ways of learning, our institutional frameworks and
our policies. Such transformations do not come easy, and the question ‘Are we