PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Climate-Smart Food Systems
This article is part of the Research TopicBuilding Resilience Through Sustainability: Innovative Strategies In Agricultural SystemsView all 33 articles
Grassland 2.0 - Agroecosystems that care for us today while building capacity for future generations to do the same
Provisionally accepted
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States
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The environmental and social problems that industrial agriculture creates and relies upon, but also suffers from and responds to, are massive compared to, for instance, conservation interventions on the margins of fields. We need to transform food production that create opportunities for current and future farmers to evolve and grow into farming that is genuinely regenerative, that is, that build soil and foster diversity of crops, landscapes, and people. Metrics of success for agriculture should indicate soil accretion, clean water, habitat for biodiversity, and an abundance and diversity of thriving and vital farmers and rural communities. Farming that is profitable to the farmer, regenerates their ability to produce for society, and adds value to society’s overall ecosystem, community, and individual health and wellbeing portfolio. Agrifood system transformation is not possible within the productivist paradigm that incentivizes farmers to produce as much as they possibly can from the land and livestock. We must reward farmers for providing diverse portfolios of outcomes that are profitable to the farm, while providing for us all today, and building capacity for future generations to do the same.
Keywords: agroecology, ecosystem services, grassland, Socioecological change, Sustainability transitions
Received: 31 Aug 2025; Accepted: 27 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jackson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Randall D Jackson
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.