Agroecology represents an alternative paradigm for food and farming – one that puts people and planet at centre stage and emphasises the priorities of food producers and marginalized peoples around the world. International institutions can play an important role in advancing this paradigm, as this new booklet demonstrates. The publication is the first of a new series of civil society briefings. It provides strategic advice to civil society groups for influencing global policy-making on food to support agroecology while avoiding co-optation.
Click here to view this new booklet
Indigenous pastoralists in south Peruvian Andes.
Author Michel Pimbert notes the timeliness of the publication in the current global context,
“The growing urgency of the climate crisis, poverty and global inequality compels institutions to stop rearranging the deckchairs and, rather, to take transformative action. An approach based on the principles and ethics of agroecology is essential for moving to a more just and sustainable planet.”
Colin Anderson from the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience and one of the authors of this booklet notes,
“Today, agroecology is in the limelight – now being discussed and taken up by major institutions like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).”This publication can be used to better understand how FAO can play a role in supporting an agroecology that challenges the status quo and can undo the ecologically and socially damaging underpinnings of food and farming policies and systems.”
This booklet presents an analysis of the current dynamics, opportunities and challenges of strengthening FAO’s commitment to agroecology. It will be especially useful for actors in civil society who are promoting agroecology as an alternative paradigm for food and farming. Janneke Bruil argues,
“So far, the FAO has played an important role in moving forward the vision of agroecology in discussions on food policy. Today, we are witnessing great momentum for agroecology to take a leap forward and transform the way the world’s food system is organized. This booklet offers civil society strategic insights into both opportunities and challenges for strengthening FAO’s commitment to agroecology while ensuring it remains centered around the interests of food producers.“
The open access booklet is available here – other publications from AgroecologyNow! can be found by clicking here.
Written by Janneke Bruil, Colin Anderson, Annelie Bernhart and Michel Pimbert. This work is supported by the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience of Coventry University (CAWR) and the Agroecology Fund and was developed in collaboration with Cultivate!, an international collective that catalyzes the transition to healthy food and farming rooted in agroecology. The brief is published as a part of the Reclaiming Diversity and Citizenship Series hosted by the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University and edited by Michel Pimbert.