<i>No hay ganancia en la milpa</i>: the agrarian question, food sovereignty, and the on-farm conservation of agrobiodiversity in the Guatemalan highlands

Isakson, S. Ryan

doi:10.1080/03066150903353876

Cited by 162 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…2 Right). Above all and consistently with their risk avoidance strategy based on the low-intensity use of a high number of ES (54,55), subsistence farmers value the presence of a range of different biological attributes (Fig. 2 Center).…”

Section: Framework For Linking the Ecological Role And The Social Relmentioning

confidence: 63%

Linking functional diversity and social actor strategies in a framework for interdisciplinary analysis of nature's benefits to society

Dı́az

Quétier

Cáceres

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

238

140

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The crucial role of biodiversity in the links between ecosystems and societies has been repeatedly highlighted both as source of wellbeing and as a target of human actions, but not all aspects of biodiversity are equally important to different ecosystem services. Similarly, different social actors have different perceptions of and access to ecosystem services, and therefore, they have different wants and capacities to select directly or indirectly for particular biodiversity and ecosystem characteristics. Their choices feed back onto the ecosystem services provided to all parties involved and in turn, affect future decisions. Despite this recognition, the research communities addressing biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human outcomes have yet to develop frameworks that adequately treat the multiple dimensions and interactions in the relationship. Here, we present an interdisciplinary framework for the analysis of relationships between functional diversity, ecosystem services, and human actions that is applicable to specific social environmental systems at local scales. We connect the mechanistic understanding of the ecological role of diversity with its social relevance: ecosystem services. The framework permits connections between functional diversity components and priorities of social actors using land use decisions and ecosystem services as the main links between these ecological and social components. We propose a matrix-based method that provides a transparent and flexible platform for quantifying and integrating social and ecological information and negotiating potentially conflicting land uses among multiple social actors. We illustrate the applicability of our framework by way of land use examples from temperate to subtropical South America, an area of rapid social and ecological change.

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Section: Framework For Linking the Ecological Role And The Social Relmentioning

confidence: 63%

Linking functional diversity and social actor strategies in a framework for interdisciplinary analysis of nature's benefits to society

Dı́az

Quétier

Cáceres

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

238

140

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Yet another important example of smallholder telecoupling involves their responses to receiving systems associated with agricultural technologies such as GMOs/nonGMOs and natural resource management practices, which are already an incipient theme of telecoupling research (Garrett et al 2013). Distinct yet complementary to the aforementioned focus on commodity linkages is the smallholder telecoupling associated with expanded labor integration (Isakson 2009), with dynamics that may enable sustainability.…”

Section: Discussion: Sustainability Opportunities and Challenges In Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Smallholder telecoupling and potential sustainability

Zimmerer¹,

Lambin²,

Vanek³

2018

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Smallholders are crucial for global sustainability given their importance to food and nutritional security, agriculture, and biodiversity conservation. Worldwide smallholders are subject to expanded telecoupling whereby their social-ecological systems are linked to large-scale socioeconomic and environmental drivers. The present research uses the synthesis of empirical evidence to demonstrate smallholder telecoupling through the linkages stemming from the global-level integration of markets (commodity, labor, finance), urbanization, governance, and technology. These telecoupling forces are often disadvantageous to smallholders while certain conditions can contribute to the potential sustainability of their social-ecological systems. Case studies were chosen to describe sustainability opportunities and limits involving smallholder production and consumption of high-agrobiodiversity Andean maize amid telecoupled migration (Bolivia), the role of international eco-certification in smallholder coffee-growing and agroforests (Colombia), smallholder organic dairy production in large-scale markets and technology transfer (upper Midwest, U.S.A.), and smallholders' global niche commodity production of argan oil (Morocco). These case studies are used to identify the key challenges and opportunities faced by smallholders in telecoupling and to develop a conceptual framework. This framework specifies the integrated roles of global systems together with influential public and private institutions operating at multiple scales including the national level. The framework also integrates the local dynamics of smallholders' multiple land use units and their socioeconomic and environmental variation. Spatial spillover effects in smallholder landscapes are an additional element. This framework further establishes the unRomantic, nonteleological, and antifetishistic view of smallholders. It provides specific insights on the multilevel dynamics of smallholder telecoupling and potential sustainability opportunities that can strengthen livelihoods, biodiversity conservation, and food and nutritional security. These insights are concluded to be valuable to environmental, agricultural, and food scientists and scholars (both biogeophysical sciences and social sciences), policy makers, institutional analysts, development specialists and practitioners, social justice activists, and others seeking to advance global sustainability including sustainable development.

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“…The practice of growing 'milpa' (maize many times combined with beans) is the foundation of food security in many Latin American rural communities. A study by Isakson (2009) in Guatemala shows that although most peasants are well aware of the potential to increase their returns from cash crops or other alternative economic activities, 99% of the households surveyed maintained that the practice was important to their family's food security. Milpa's contribution to the peasantry's food security represents much more than the calories it generates.…”

Section: Agroecological Features Of Smallholder Farming Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agroecologically efficient agricultural systems for smallholder farmers: contributions to food sovereignty

Altieri

Funes-Monzote

Petersen³

2011

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

591

319

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The realization of the contribution of peasant agriculture to food security in the midst of scenarios of climate change, economic and energy crisis, led to the concepts of food sovereignty and agroecologically based production systems to gain much attention in the developing world in the last two decades. New approaches and technologies involving application of blended modern agricultural science and indigenous knowledge systems and spearheaded by thousands of farmers, NGOs, and some government and academic institutions are proving to enhance food security while conserving agrobiodiversity soil and water resources conservation throughout hundreds of rural communities in the developing world. Case studies from Cuba, Brazil, Philippines, and Africa are presented to demonstrate how the agroecological development paradigm based on the revitalization of small farms which emphasizes diversity, synergy, recycling and integration, and social processes that value community participation and empowerment, proves to be perhaps one of the only viable options to meet present and future food needs. Given the present and predicted near future climate, energy and economic scenarios, agroecology has emerged as one of the most robust pathways towards designing biodiverse, productive, and resilient agroecosystems available today.

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No hay ganancia en la milpa: the agrarian question, food sovereignty, and the on-farm conservation of agrobiodiversity in the Guatemalan highlands

Cited by 162 publications

References 43 publications

Linking functional diversity and social actor strategies in a framework for interdisciplinary analysis of nature's benefits to society

Linking functional diversity and social actor strategies in a framework for interdisciplinary analysis of nature's benefits to society

Smallholder telecoupling and potential sustainability

Agroecologically efficient agricultural systems for smallholder farmers: contributions to food sovereignty

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