title: New pasture plants intensify invasive species risk.
abstract: Agricultural intensification is critical to meet global food demand, but intensification threatens native species and degrades ecosystems. Sustainable intensification (SI) is heralded as a new approach for enabling growth in agriculture while minimizing environmental impacts. However, the SI literature has overlooked a major environmental risk. Using data from eight countries on six continents, we show that few governments regulate conventionally bred pasture taxa to limit threats to natural areas, even though most agribusinesses promote taxa with substantial weed risk. New pasture taxa (including species, subspecies, varieties, cultivars, and plant-endophyte combinations) are bred with characteristics typical of invasive species and environmental weeds. By introducing novel genetic and endophyte variation, pasture taxa are imbued with additional capacity for invasion and environmental impact. New strategies to prevent future problems are urgently needed. We highlight opportunities for researchers, agribusiness, and consumers to reduce environmental risks associated with new pasture taxa. We also emphasize four main approaches that governments could consider as they build new policies to limit weed risks, including (i) national lists of taxa that are prohibited based on environmental risk; (ii) a weed risk assessment for all new taxa; (iii) a program to rapidly detect and control new taxa that invade natural areas; and (iv) the polluter-pays principle, so that if a taxon becomes an environmental weed, industry pays for its management. There is mounting pressure to increase livestock production. With foresight and planning, growth in agriculture can be achieved sustainably provided that the scope of SI expands to encompass environmental weed risks.
authors.affiliation: National Environmental Research Program Environmental Decisions Group and ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Australia; Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; don.driscoll@anu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Don A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Driscoll
authors.affiliation: National Environmental Research Program Environmental Decisions Group and ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Australia; Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; School of Botany, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia; Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 55108;
authors.forename: Jane A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Catford
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061;
authors.forename: Jacob N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Barney
authors.affiliation: Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand;
authors.forename: Philip E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Hulme
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Studies and Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India;
authors.lastname: Inderjit
authors.affiliation: National Environmental Research Program Environmental Decisions Group and ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Australia; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Land and Water, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia;
authors.forename: Tara G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile; Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, Chile;
authors.forename: Aníbal
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pauchard
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany, Department of Invasion Ecology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-25243 Průhonice, Czech Republic; Department of Ecology, Charles University in Prague, CZ-12844 Prague, Czech Republic;
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pyšek
authors.affiliation: Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland 7602, South Africa; and.
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Law, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Riley
authors.affiliation: Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland 7602, South Africa; and.
authors.forename: Vernon
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Visser
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000191:economics / Q000600:supply & distribution; D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000639:trends; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D004777:Environment; D005523:Food Supply; D006078:Government Programs / Q000458:organization & administration; D033161:Government Regulation; D060434:Herbivory; D058865:Introduced Species / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D057685:Plant Weeds; D011640:Public Policy; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D013045:Species Specificity; D058728:Weed Control / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods*
keywords: agriculture policy; biological invasions; environmental weed; invasive species; sustainable intensification