Contents: 1. Agriculture and food security: taking the measure of a global challenge. 2.
Food crisis: a reshuffling of stakeholders. 3. Agriculture and transition in a globalized world. 4. The role of agriculture in African economic development: what do we disagree on. 5. Land, peasants and migrants: the heart of China’s development. 6. Global conditions for the future of agriculture in the anthropocene. 7. Can agricultural intensification save forested land: A review and case study in Indonesia. 8. Climate change and food security. A crucial test for humanity. 9.  Agricultural research: a global innovation system at the core of strategic choices. 10. An ethnography of cotton production and exchange in a Turkish village. 11. The agri food industry at the heart of the global food system. 12. Instability in agricultural prices: a comfortable truth Sustainable voluntary standards: towards privatized regulation in the food and farm sector. 13.  Latin America and the Caribbean: rebuilding agricultural policies. 14. Food security as a global public good.

A Planet for Life 2012 focuses on agriculture and its relation to development food and the environment. At the end of the 2000s a consensus has emerged and points to the urgent need for massive investment in the agricultural sector which is once again viewed as one of the prime engines for development and food security as well as for poverty reduction. But what exactly does this consensus cover.

While the idea of investing in agriculture is gaining ground and although several countries or regions appear to be offering opportunities for investment in agricultural land debates are going on as to which agricultural models to choose and how agricultural policies should be implemented.

A Planet for Life called on many highly specialized authors from different countries and perspectives and invites the reader to discover the sector in all its complexity upstream and downstream of agricultural production.

At the crossroads of the challenges posed by development food security and the environment the transformation of the agricultural sector is at the heart of the global stakes of sustainable development. To help steer these changes towards greater sustainability this book makes us aware of how crucial it is to also change our representations of agriculture change the visions that guide projects for change and the policies regulating this sector.