Rural Social Movements and Agroecology: Context, Theory, and Process

Rosset, Peter; Martínez‐Torres, María Elena

doi:10.5751/es-05000-170317

Cited by 288 publications

(180 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Women's groups establish legume monocultures for seed production, which improves gender equality and family cohesiveness (Hassanali et al, 2008). At the other end of the product chain, APS could benefit from short and specific channels, with strong links between food production and local communities (Rosset and Martínez-Torres, 2012), such as direct sales in farmers' markets, regular basket schemes, ecological meal initiatives in canteens and community gardens. In these networks, economic relations are more than just market relations.…”

Section: Scaling-up Agroecological Apsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forty research issues for the redesign of animal production systems in the 21st century

Dumont

García

Thomas

et al. 2014

Animal

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Agroecology offers a scientific and operational framework for redesigning animal production systems (APS) so that they better cope with the coming challenges. Grounded in the stimulation and valorization of natural processes to reduce inputs and pollutions in agroecosystems, it opens a challenging research agenda for the animal science community. In this paper, we identify key research issues that define this agenda. We first stress the need to assess animal robustness by measurable traits, to analyze trade-offs between production and adaptation traits at within-breed and between-breed level, and to better understand how group selection, epigenetics and animal learning shape performance. Second, we propose research on the nutritive value of alternative feed resources, including the environmental impacts of producing these resources and their associated non-provisioning services. Third, we look at how the design of APS based on agroecological principles valorizes interactions between system components and promotes biological diversity at multiple scales to increase system resilience. Addressing such challenges requires a collection of theories and models (concept-knowledge theory, viability theory, companion modeling, etc.). Acknowledging the ecology of contexts and analyzing the rationales behind traditional small-scale systems will increase our understanding of mechanisms contributing to the success or failure of agroecological practices and systems. Fourth, the large-scale development of agroecological products will require analysis of resistance to change among farmers and other actors in the food chain. Certifications and market-based incentives could be an important lever for the expansion of agroecological alternatives in APS. Finally, we question the suitability of current agriculture extension services and public funding mechanisms for scaling-up agroecological practices and systems.

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Section: Scaling-up Agroecological Apsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forty research issues for the redesign of animal production systems in the 21st century

Dumont

García

Thomas

et al. 2014

Animal

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show abstract

“…Agroecology is viewed as an applied science embedded in a social context, problematizing capitalist relations of production and allying itself with agrarian social movements [1]. Most agroecologists have embraced the critiques of top down rural development and recognized and supported the peasantry in their new role in the resistance against the advancement of the corporate food system, industrial agriculture and neoliberal policies [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technological Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture at a Crossroads: An Agroecological Perspective

2017

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Most efforts to improve agricultural production remain focused on practices driven by an intensification agenda and not by an agroecological one. Agroecology transcends the reformist notion of organic agriculture and sustainable intensification proponents who contend that changes can be achieved within the dominant agroindustrial system with minor adjustments or "greening" of the current neoliberal agricultural model. In the technological realm, merely modifying practices to reduce input use is a step in the right direction but does not necessarily lead to the redesign of a more self sufficient and autonomous farming system. A true agroecological technological conversion calls into question monoculture and the dependency on external inputs. Traditional farming systems provide models that promote biodiversity, thrive without agrochemicals, and sustain year-round yields. Conversion of conventional agriculture also requires major social and political changes which are beyond the scope of this paper.

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“…Most agroecologists in both the North and South have an inkling that they are treading in quicksand when they confront the supremacy of industrial food. They are already forced to defend their work as legitimate vis-à-vis seemingly impregnable industrial agriculture technologies and science (Rosset and Martínez-Torres, 2012). Reinforcing their historically accreted 'thick legitimacy', industrial agri-food actors skillfully argue that only their technologies, science, and research can feed people adequately and inexpensively.…”

Section: Sitting In the Shadow Of Industrial Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, La Via Campesina and the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil have accepted agroecology as a key philosophy in their organizing work, following perennial, and still open, internal debates (Delgado, 2010;Rosset and Martínez-Torres, 2012). Many sustainable food movements espouse some of the principles and practices of agroecology, albeit under names such as organic agriculture, permaculture, and biodynamic farming.…”

Section: Movementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward thick legitimacy: Creating a web of legitimacy for agroecology

Wit

Iles

2016

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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Legitimacy is at the heart of knowledge politics surrounding agriculture and food. When people accept industrial food practices as credible and authoritative, they are consenting to their use and existence. With their thick legitimacy, industrial food systems paralyze the growth of alternative agricultures, including agroecology. Questions of how alternative agricultures can attain their own thick legitimacy in order to compete with, and displace, that of industrial food have not yet attracted much scrutiny. We show that both agroecological and scientific legitimacy grow out of a web of legitimation processes in the scientific, policy, political, legal, practice, and civic arenas. Crucially, legitimation often comes through meeting what we call 'credibility tests'. Agroecologists can learn to navigate these co-constituted, multiple bases of legitimacy by paying attention to how credibility tests are currently being set in each arena, and beginning to recalibrate these tests to open more room for agroecology. Using a schematic of three non-exclusive pathways, we explore some possible practical interventions that agroecologists and other advocates of alternative agricultures could take. These pathways include: leveraging, while also reshaping, the existing standards and practices of science; extending influence into policy, legal, practical, and civic arenas; and centering attention on the ethical legitimacy of food systems. We conclude that agroecologists can benefit from considering how to build legitimacy for their work.

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Rural Social Movements and Agroecology: Context, Theory, and Process

Cited by 288 publications

References 19 publications

Forty research issues for the redesign of animal production systems in the 21st century

Forty research issues for the redesign of animal production systems in the 21st century

Technological Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture at a Crossroads: An Agroecological Perspective

Toward thick legitimacy: Creating a web of legitimacy for agroecology

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