Sustainable Intensification

Sustainable intensification is the goal of increasing agricultural output from existing farmland without expanding the area under cultivation and without increasing the farming system's negative environmental impact, framed as an alternative to the historical pattern of raising output either by intensifying inputs at high environmental cost or by clearing new land. The idea, given wide currency by a 2009 UK Royal Society report, is debated for how precisely it can be measured and for whether the environmental outcomes it promises are consistently delivered in practice.