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Alternatives to industrial agriculture
Published in Stephen R. Gliessman, V. Ernesto Méndez, Victor M. Izzo, Eric W. Engles, Andrew Gerlicz, Agroecology, 2023
Stephen R. Gliessman, V. Ernesto Méndez, Victor M. Izzo, Eric W. Engles, Andrew Gerlicz
Agroecology has made great strides in linking academics and farmers, straddling and crossing established boundaries, and moving the entire food system in a more sustainable direction. Energized by the convergence of concerns around the sustainability of the human presence on the planet, especially related to climate change, agroecology is firmly established as a field that weaves together the scientific study of ecological processes in agroecosystems, the promotion and support of farming practices rooted in the goal of sustainability, and the advancement of the complex social and ecological transformations that need to occur to move food systems to a truly sustainable basis (Méndez et al. 2013). As part of this broadening of the field, an effort to more explicitly incorporate the political economy of agroecology has resulted in the development of the new subfield of political agroecology (González de Molina et al. 2019).
Socioeconomic Development in Eastern Cuba through Family Farming of Mulberry Plants: Biotechnological Application
Published in Rohini Prasad, Manoj Kumar Jhariya, Arnab Banerjee, Advances in Sustainable Development and Management of Environmental and Natural Resources, 2021
Sergio Rodríguez, J. J. Silva, S. Werbrouck, J. Pérez, A. Espinosa, Y. Fonseca, M. Bahí, R. Gómez, M. Negrín, E. Corrales, G. Antúnez, Y. Soler, M. C. Conci, B. Moine, V. Tamagno, A. Romero, R. García
Agroecology offers the scientific and methodological basis for transition strategies to a new rural development paradigm. The cultural, social, and productive basis of this new paradigm lies in the ethno-ecological rationality of peasant family agriculture, a fundamental source of an important legacy of traditional agricultural knowledge, agro-biodiversity, and food sovereignty strategies. There is another alternative agricultural model that takes the form of an organic agriculture capable of producing food with minimal environmental impact and greater energy efficiency, however this must go beyond the substitution of inputs and should emphasize local and national markets to strengthen its food capacity, separating itself from its dependence on international trade that makes it susceptible to the control of multinationals that dominate the spheres of globalization (Nichols and Altieri, 2012).
Challenging Hegemonic Conceptions of Food Waste
Published in Christian Reynolds, Tammara Soma, Charlotte Spring, Jordon Lazell, Routledge Handbook of Food Waste, 2020
In 2010, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food published a report recommending agroecology as a means of delivering greater food sovereignty and the right to food (De Schutter, 2010). Agroecology seeks to enhance agriculture by mimicking nature; its benefits include ecological impacts, yield per acre, farmer incomes and empowerment, and food poverty reduction (IAASTD, 2009). It promotes regional small-scale food systems, publicly funded farmer-to-farmer collaboration, greater investment in public goods such as research and infrastructure, and regulatory protections. The food waste movement could ally with agroecology movements like La Via Campesina by forming coalitions and strategically working together for political change. Food waste aims could be integrated into an agroecology framework through advocacy for massive public investment in storage and cool-chain infrastructure for small-scale farmers, localising food production to reduce spoilage from long-distance transit, and publicly funding information sharing on food loss reduction via farmer-to-farmer networks. It could advocate for protections for small-scale farmers, including against food surplus dumping by rich countries, and for the cultivation of land primarily for regional consumption to reduce food poverty. Where farmers do export produce, it could empower farmers through cooperatives and unions so that they are less at the mercy of retailers and middlemen, and regulate UTPs (Wills, 2019). To conclude this chapter, the final section compares campaign tactics for achieving some of these aims.
Agroecological innovation constructing socionatural order for social transformation: two case studies in Brazil
Published in Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society, 2021
Les Levidow, Davis Sansolo, Monica Schiavinatto
By contrast, agroecology cultivates agro-biodiversity as a crucial resource to protect agri-production from environmental stresses and to produce diverse foodstuffs, especially from crops’ original landraces. Multi-cropping protects cultivation from pests and disease. This complements the socio-ethno diversity of rural communities, especially indigenous groups and women. Through farmers’ markets, women have valorized biodiverse products of marginal agri-subsystems such as their quintal (back garden).