Agricultural ecosystems : facts and trends

The rapid increase in food prices in many countries has led to substantial media attention on agriculture. We hope that providing this Facts and Trends publication will help uncover some key trade-offs that mean extremely challenging decisions for governments, farmers, consumers and industry. This publication does not attempt to cover everything there is to know about agricultural ecosystems. Rather it tries to present well-documented facts and figures to better understand the challenges facing the sustainable management of agricultural ecosystems. We have used existing data from the World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and many other sources. We present it here in a simplified and condensed format to stimulate forward thinking and ongoing dialogue between business, civil society, government and other stakeholders.