The need to balance land system objectives, including food production and biodiversity conservation

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the future work and stated research gap and stated challenges of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2024 and 2026, spanning 2 journals. Those papers have been cited 30 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 4 representative gaps

• Healthy people, soils, and ecosystems: uncovering primary drivers in the adoption of regenerative agriculture by US farmers and ranchers (2024) · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · cited 25× · doi

  Policy implications In this study, we  present a range of possible drivers for the adoption of regenerative agriculture across relational values, and economic and environmental factors. While economic and environmental factors will always be central considerations for transitions in agriculture, “policy must not neglect to acknowledge that the transition to sustainable agriculture will also be a cultural and social one” (Forbes, 2022). In this context, we  offer the following recommendations for decision-makers interested in regenerative agriculture and food systems transitions: • Consider the drivers we identified when designing incentives and regulations, particularly those that pertain to health of humans and ecosystems, as well as relational values, to complement policies that focus on markets and technology transfer. • In particular, consider “health” as a unifying principle across stakeholder groups, and understand the range of possible forms of health that an agricultural policy may influence. For example, the One Health program of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC (US Center for Disease Control), 2022] and USDA Rural Development Program [USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), 2022] may consider how our findings could augment efforts to understand community needs and achieve solutions in agrarian contexts. There are a number of opportunities for future research to build on this study. First, is to closely consider the interface between health, as a motivation for transition, and agricultural practices. One promising area of inquiry is reducing eco-anxiety and solastalgia, defined as “the distress caused by environmental change” (Albrecht et al., 2007). The American Psychological Association (APA) has identified debilitating stress caused by eco-anxiety as an emerging and pressing issue (Clayton et al., 2017). Example causes with relationships to agriculture include natural disasters, loss, disturbance, and climate change (Clayton et al., 2017; Pihkala, 2020). Supporting agency has been shown to increase a sense of hope, which can alleviate eco-anxiety (Chawla, 2020; Pihkala, 2020). For many interviewees, practicing regenerative agriculture and participating in the social movement correlated with a sense of agency around personal and societal well-being, and offered hope for achieving desirable social-ecological futures. While we  cannot claim that practicing regenerative agriculture and participating in the social movement reduces eco-anxiety, we see this as a valuable area for future study in the context of sustainability transitions, particularly considering the role of relational values in achieving these aims. A second area for future study is understanding the drivers for adoption and transition across a wider range of demographics, including less privileged practitioners and those from marginalized groups. This highlights a need for more place-based research to understand the full range of drivers for adoption, as well as their

  generalfuture work
  Keywords: agriculture health range drivers regenerative social consider anxiety policy adoption across relational values environmental transitions
• Frameworks and methodologies for food policy evaluation: a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature (2015–2026) (2026) · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · doi

  Our systematic review highlights several avenues where further research is needed to advance food policy evaluation theory and prac- tice. Future research should focus on frameworks or guidelines that demonstrate how to effectively integrate qualitative and quantitative evaluation results. This could involve methodological experimenta- tion, for example, trying out realist evaluation approaches in food policy (to link context, mechanism, and outcome), or piloting partici- patory impact assessment methods that combine community narra- tives with indicator data. Research could document case studies of successful integration, providing templates for others to follow. Researchers should develop and validate indicators for hard-to-mea- sure domains such as empowerment, cultural change, and resilience. Composite indices, analogous to the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (Alkire et al., 2013), could be adapted for different stakeholder groups in food policy contexts. There is scope for more fine-grained comparative research, contrasting urban vs. rural food policy evaluations, or comparing frameworks such as MUFPP and SAFA on their outcomes, to build a cumulative evidence base on what evaluation approaches yield the most actionable insights. Longitudinal research, through sustained academic-policy partnerships, is needed to assess whether short-term gains translate into durable food system change. Dynamic modeling approaches could complement empirical tracking by simulating long-term effects beyond the observed period. Greater inclusion of Global South case studies is essential to ensure that evaluation frameworks are not inadvertently calibrated for high- capacity contexts. Cross-country comparative projects applying a common framework in diverse city regions would be particularly valuable. In addition, a complementary systematic review of institutional and grey literature, encompassing evaluation guidance, indicator frameworks, and monitoring tools issued by international organiza- tions, national and local governments, and city networks, would extend the present analysis beyond the academic record. Comparing

  generalfuture work
  Keywords: evaluation food policy frameworks approaches systematic review needed indicator case empowerment change contexts comparative comparing
• Beyond metrics: Corporate governance and the reordering of rural power in regenerative agriculture (2026) · Journal of Rural Studies · doi

  There is a lack of understanding of how corporate regenerative agriculture programs are designed and governed, and how they affect rural autonomy and legitimacy. The study identifies a gap in the literature regarding the analysis of the social and institutional mechanisms through which governance design influences everyday farming practices. The research gap also includes the need to examine the impact of corporate governance initiatives on sustainability transitions in rural areas.

  generalstated research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: there lack understanding corporate regenerative agriculture programs designed
• Integrated land systems for sustainable food production and biodiversity conservation in the semi-arid to moist tropics: stakeholder perspectives from Andhra Pradesh, India (2025) · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · cited 5× · doi

  the need to balance land system objectives, including food production and biodiversity conservation - the need to address the root causes of biodiversity loss, including the conversion of natural ecosystems to farmland and the intensification of existing agricultural systems - the need to develop systematic frameworks for assessing policy coherence and identifying policy intervention points for transformative change

  generalstated challengesevidence 5/5
  Keywords: need balance land system objectives including food production

Questions about this gap