Genetically engineered plants, animals, and enzymes are likely to play a useful role in agriculture and food processing, helping to increase productivity, to adapt to climate change, and to lower pesticide and water use. However, this technology is no silver bullet and too rapid deployment risks damaging productivity, biodiversity, and ecological systems. Policies to support this process should set broad objectives, not specific solutions. Constraints on increasing food and fiber production Designing strategies to break through this complex set of limits demands the sort of multidisciplinary systems approach that industrial ecology offers. Major tracts of new land are not available for new agricultural uses.
Most arable land is already in production.
The condition of farm land is deteriorating due to pollution, compaction, erosion, and loss of biodiversity in soil systems. Urban development is removing farm land from production. Farming Recreation New agricultural outputs, e.g. biofuels and biomaterials Urban and industrial development Transportation, water, and energy infrastructure Climate change is likely to have major impacts on agriculture productivity. Floods, droughts, and storms in recent years may indicate the process has already started. Most major fisheries have been seriously depleted by industrial scale fishing and could take decades to recover.