Sustainable Apple Breeding and Cultivation in Germany

Book excerpt: Applying a socio-ecological framework, this book explores how the innovative approach of commons-based organic apple breeding can contribute to sustainability in agricultural and food systems more widely. As fruit breeding and cultivation systems are confronted with a range of sustainability challenges, there are calls for new and innovative breeding approaches beyond mainstream economic solutions that would mitigate these sustainability challenges. Apples, in particular, are facing serious environmental challenges, with the negative environmental impacts of modern conventional breeding and farming, loss of agrobiodiversity, low participation and diminishing diversity of market actors in the wake of privatization and economization trends result in a lack of resilience in current breeding and cultivation systems. Drawing on in-depth case study research on apple production in Germany, this book advances the innovative solution of commons-based apple breeding as a model for developing resilience in fruit breeding and cultivation. It analyzes this approach, comparing it with more conventional practices, and showcases which factors could inhibit the broad implementation of commons-based apple breeding and how they can be overcome to exploit its full potential. Contributing to the great ambition of finding sustainable solutions across all agricultural sectors, this book opens up new and interdisciplinary perspectives on fruit breeding and cultivation, which is a largely neglected issue in contemporary discussions on agriculture and food production. This book will be of great interest for students and scholars from the fields of sustainable food systems, sustainable agriculture, crop science, and resource management and in particular those that seek inspiration for innovative approaches rooted in sustainability research, social-ecological resilience, and the commons.