Environmental Sustainability of Agricultural Systems: Concepts, Practices and Drawbacks

Dear Colleagues,

Agricultural systems, although extremely necessary for the production of foods, fibers and biomass for an increasing human population, are responsible for several negative effects in the environment. In fact, the high demand has been tackled by increments in productivity and in the areas occupied by agriculture, including the use of soils with lower agriculture ability, the destruction of natural ecosystems, the excessive use of large spectrum chemicals to control pests and diseases and mineral fertilizers in intensive monocultures, the heavy machinery and high technological input, among others options. These trends led to the decline of biodiversity, loss of soil by erosion and decrease in its fertility by exhaustion, accumulation of chemical residues in the soils, reduction and contamination of aquifers but also a reduction in animal welfare and a bioaccumulation of toxins in food. However, the increasing awareness on these problems, interlinked with a demand for healthy and safer aliments without disrespecting the environment and ecosystems, forced the producers to adopt novel (or traditional) sustainable approaches. Nowadays, it is not enough to farm massively looking to the markets: producers should engage in quality standards, in all its dimensions, i.e. without compromising ecosystem and environmental natural processes while safeguarding high nutritional and functional products. Diverse studies concerning the impact of different production modes (conventional, integrated pest management, sustainable or organic farming, among many other denominations) on the food quality, agricultural ecosystems and people´s health have been published. Additionally, several ideas and solutions have been listed, but many questions still arise and many results, in some way, are inconsistent and contradictory or proved incipient. Therefore, with this "special issue", we intended to encourage the publication of recent works with updated information connecting the integrity of ecosystem, the sustainability of the environment, the safeguarding of farmers and consumers without disregarding high production standards, namely by identifying ongoing problems, proposing theoretic solutions and the results of practical implementation in order to contribute for future healthier agroecosystems.

Dr. Mario Santos
Dr. Alfredo Aires
Guest Editors

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