Abstract. A fundamental challenge of the 21st century will be to meet humanity’s basic needs while maintaining soil, air and water quality and the integrity of remaining natural ecosystems. Chief among humanity’s basic needs is food, most of which comes from highly managed croplands. More than two-thirds of global cropland features annual grain crops typically grown in monoculture. In contrast, the natural ecosystems displaced through agricultural conversion featured diverse perennial plant communities.

In nearly every instance, that dramatic conversion from perennial to annual plant communities impaired the very services — nutrient cycling, water management, soil conservation — essential for sustained agricultural production. The resulting decrease in net primary production by annual croplands as compared to the displaced natural ecosystems has been, in some regions, offset by unsustainable inputs of fossil fuels which further threaten the integrity of the planet's ecosystems.

Published in Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, Volume 20(1), March 2005, pp. 1-4. Manuscript accepted 4 December 2004. Reprinted with permission; © 2005 by the CABI Publishing. For further information contact Jerry Glover at The Land Institute, 2440 E. Water Well Road, Salina, Kansas 67401 USA.