Open AccessMycorrhizal technologies for an agriculture of the middle
Author(s) -
Oviatt Peter,
Rillig Matthias C.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plants, people, planet
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2572-2611
DOI - 10.1002/ppp3.10177
Subject(s) - agriculture , business , sustainable development , sustainable agriculture , microbial inoculant , sustainable agriculture innovation network , political science , agricultural economics , geography , economics , biology , archaeology , bacteria , law , genetics
Across industrial societies, midsize farms are in decline. A future of sustainable agriculture will require more than industrial and cottage farmers. We show that emergent mycorrhizal science is well‐suited to support applications for an “agriculture of the middle,” and note two obstacles to the development of more integrated mycorrhizal technologies: an overreliance on commercial inoculants (industrial agriculture) and a tendency to treat soil biology as a black box (cottage agriculture). In this paper, we aim to provoke conversation among policy makers, research funders, and corporate executives on the development of mycorrhizal technologies for an agriculture of the middle.