Syndromes of Production in Agriculture: Prospects for Social-Ecological Regime Change

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Agricultural syndromes of production can be recognized in both historical and contemporary times. Recent literature in ecology focuses on alternative ecological states and the tipping points that may separate them, suggesting a point of view that "regime" changes will happen at those points. In agricultural ecosystems the idea of a regime is equivalent to a syndrome of production and there is no reason not to expect that regime switches will occur when tipping points are reached. Using very minimal qualitative models of economic and ecological forces, it is shown that the basic structure of regime change expected in natural ecosystems might be also expected in agroecosystems. In particular structures of nonlinearity suggest alternative syndromes and the potential for catastrophic shifts resulting from small changes in driving conditions. Furthermore, relaxing the assumption of monotonicity reveals the potential for such catastrophic shifts resulting from stochastic forces or chaotic dynamics, even in the absence of changes in driving conditions.

Learning from social–ecological crisis for legal resilience building: multi-scale dynamics in the coffee rust epidemic

“…These social-ecological systems have low general resilience since, due to over-connectedness and low biodiversity, there is a high vulnerability to potential disturbance such as disease and forest fires. For example, biodiversity loss can lead to limited biological pest control (see Ratnadass et al 2012;Macfadyen et al 2011;Vandermeer and Perfecto 2012). Low modularity social-ecological systems are still promoted through institutes implementing the ideas of the Green Revolution and agricultural intensification which focus on enhancing yields in monocultures such as grazing pastures or agro-industrial inputs such as oil palm plantations (see DeLonge et al 2016;Rockström et al 2016) (see Fig.…”

“…A conjunction of meteorological (reduced diurnal temperature range and erratic precipitation) and economic factors seem to be the main drivers of the epidemic. However, recent studies have pointed to additional factors such as the role of ecological determinants, including the lack of biological control by natural enemies (Vandermeer et al 2009Avelino et al 2011) or landscape changes in vegetation structure derived from coffee production intensification (Vandermeer and Rohani 2014;Vandermeer and Perfecto 2012). Structural problems, such as susceptible C. arabica cultivars, elderly plantations, and limited access to credit and inputs, have certainly contributed to the vulnerability at hand.…”

5 Key Challenges and Solutions for Governing Complex Adaptive (Food) Systems

“…An alternative perspective is that different agricultural systems (like the diversified perennial system and the intensely sprayed monoculture) are themselves alternative stable states, with shifts between the two driven by ecological or socioeconomic forces or interactions between these [17].…”

“…We focus here on a short list of key characteristics (with an emphasis on mechanisms) that might usefully inform management of socio-ecological systems generally and agricultural production systems specifically. As well, many authors have examined the idea of resilience (related to systems thinking) in agricultural contexts (local cases as well as global concerns around food security and biodiversity) [13][14][15][16][17]. Similarly, Bennett et al suggest a focus on experimentation, novel solutions and innovation [18].…”

Agroecology for the Shrinking City

“…Since its roots as a scientific discipline that informs the design and management of sustainable agricultural systems [19], agroecology has evolved into a broader framework that "seeks to integrate transdisciplinary, participatory, and action-oriented approaches" [23] to transform agricultural food systems [24]. In agroecology, transdisciplinarity manifests as a dialectic between natural and social sciences and experiential knowledge [25], out of which emerge appropriate agricultural practices for specific contexts. This appreciation for practitioner-generated knowledge stands in contrast to typical modes of knowledge production and policymaking in agricultural research, which tend to be one-way flows of information from scientists to stakeholders [26].…”