| Chapter : | Introduction: Putting Ecological Economics into Sustainable Agricultural Practices |
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General Background of the Research
Sustainable Development
The publication of Silent Spring in 1962 marked the beginning of a new era of worldwide attention to environmental problems (Carson, 1962). Since then, an intensive debate on the relationships between socioeconomic development and ecological-environmental conservation has arisen. Fundamental to the debate is the conflict or compatibility between economic development and environmental protection. In the 1970s, the pessimistic opinion of the Club of Rome dominated the debate with a perspective that ‘the basic behaviour mode of the world system is exponential growth of population and capital, followed by resource depletion and collapse’ (Meadows et al., 1972, p. 142). Since the publication of the Brundtland Report, Our Common Future (World Commission on Environment and Development [WCED], 1987), the concept of sustainable development has inspired more heated debates around the world. Consequently, the focus of the larger debate has shifted from the limits to growth to the notion that economic growth and environmental integrity are not mutually exclusive. As the necessity to accommodate the competing demands of economic development and environmental protection becomes increasingly obvious and urgent, more and more countries have been incorporating the ideology of sustainable development into their policy statements and development agendas. The definition of sustainable development that is most widely referred to is provided in the Brundtland Report: