Discuss the potential for small-scale, local or community-based Essay

Discuss the potential for small-scale, local or community-based initiatives to contribute to sustainable approaches to agricultu - Essay Example In the modern times, agriculture is practiced either under a demand-based agriculture model or resource-based agriculture model. Demand-based agriculture is operated keeping in mind market demand of agricultural goods by consumers and industries. Resource-based agriculture is driven on the logic of producing goods from the earth in a way that it does not harm ecosystem in the process. Thus special care is taken to use only those tools (seeds, fertilizers, etc.) that are not harmful for the ecosystem in the long-run (Sustainable Agriculture, n.d.; Sustainable Communities in Theory and Practice, n.d.). Green revolution beginning in the 1960s has added huge farm productivity, but to the detriment of the goal of sustenance. In Canada, output has increased by 175% since 1941. According to a report ‘Agriculture at a Crossroads’ by IAASTD (International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development), there has been less attention to some of the u nintended social and environmental consequences while achieving significant ability to increase agricultural productivity. In Canada, less than 10% of the country has the capacity to sustain agricultural food production.