The document discusses contending pathways and accounts of sustainable agriculture in European research agendas. The dominant pathway frames sustainability as inefficiency to be addressed through efficient technological fixes, turning agriculture into a biomass factory. Alternative pathways promoted by groups like Technology Platform Organics and the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research focus on farmers' agroecological knowledge and short supply chains valorizing local resources and product identity. These divergent paradigms prioritize different types of knowledge, economic relations, and research.