See below for some highlights of our latest work, including free to download articles and videos. Feel free to pass some or all of this on to your networks or to copy/adapt parts for use in newsletters, etc. There are also a number of recent and freely downloadable articles listed below.

 

From Transition to Domains of Transformation: Getting to Sustainable and Just Food Systems Through Agroecology

Check out our new publication presenting 6 “domains of transformation” and focusing on power and governance in transformations for sustainability and social justice: 1) access to natural ecosystems; 2) knowledge and culture; 3) systems of exchange; 4) networks; 5) discourse; and 6) gender and equity. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5272

 

Scaling Agroecology –  Some of The Latest Thinking in 5 Edited Collections!

There has been a lot of talk about the scaling of agroecology as a new paradigm for food and agriculture. There have been calls for scaling up, scaling out, massification, transitions, transformations and more. Five recent collections of articles/chapters have recently been published that we thought we’d draw your attention to. https://wp.me/p67WNH-t1

 

These Extraordinary Times: Indigenous Peoples and Coalition Building for Agroecology and Food Sovereignty

The first in a blog series commissioned to develop ideas circulating during the recent Agroecology Now International Workshop, Carol Kalfatic explores the coalition-building of Indigenous Peoples. As Carol argues, the industrial food system relies on ‘rupture of relationships’; counter to this, Food Sovereignty is based on a solidarity that ‘will reinforce our resilience in the face of increasing unpredictability’. Read the full article here. https://wp.me/P67WNH-r0

 

Special Issue on Learning for Transformation in Food Movements

This special issue, published in the Journal of Agriculture and Human Values, focuses on the role of popular education, critical pedagogy and adult education – or learning for transformation – in social movements for food sovereignty, agroecology and food justice. https://wp.me/P67WNH-eX

 

Re/New Alliances: Working Towards Farmer-Scholar Collaboration for Food Sovereignty in North America

The second of the AN! International Workshop blog series is a collaborative piece on newly emergent farmer-scholar networks in North America. Jahi Chapell (Food First), Saulo Araujo (Why Hunger) and Ernesto Mendez (UVermont) give some background on the newly formed Agroecology Action Research Collective (ARC) and ruminate on some of its future challenges. También disponible en español! https://wp.me/p67WNH-r9

 

A Guide to Mapping For Food System Change

Many people and organisations interested in agroecology and food sovereignty are mapping. It is all the rage! This new publication highlights the issues, challenges and emerging opportunities that might arise when designing mapping processes with the intention of supporting them to be more powerful tools for food system change. https://wp.me/p67WNH-sq

 

Theories of Change: Understanding & Clarifying Action & Difference

With the final blog in the AN! Series, Josh Brem-Wilson takes up the idea of Theories of Change (ToC). Using ToCs, Josh argues, is a crucial way to understand and communicate our own political positions, and should be more prominent in activist-scholar discourse. https://wp.me/p67WNH-sV

 

Food Sovereignty Stories from the USFSA

Check out the latest videos in the United States Food Sovereignty Alliance’s #FoodSovereigntyStories video series. Five videos have now been published – making a great resources for learning about different perspectives on food sovereignty: 1) Justice for Farm Workers in Washington State; 2) A Sacred Relationship with Animals, Water, and the Land; 3) Food Sovereignty and Farm Justice for Family Farmers; 4) Urban Food & A Regenerative Economy; 5) Confronting Legacies of Slavery in the Food System. https://tinyurl.com/yyk9y9va

 

Massification of Agroecology – Video Now Available

This video from a CAWR seminar features Mateo Mier y Terán from research centre ECOSUR in Mexico presenting research from the Agroecology Massification Research Group to highlight key factors that define scaling agroecology.  https://tinyurl.com/y4dtxnwx

 

Farm Hack shows us everything that is wrong with UK Agricultural Training and Research

August 2019 saw the UK’s 4th Farm Hack, an event which brings together farmers to share knowledge and build open-source technologies. This blog offers some reflections on the event, as well as its political significance in the context of the agroecology movement. Read the full article here: https://wp.me/p67WNH-ri

 

Community rights to land, seeds and natural resources for agroecology in West and East Africa – Video available!

Check out our new video on community rights in Africa and efforts by the food sovereignty movement to better protect them. The videos documents discussions that took place at two workshops organized by P. Claeys and S. Lemke in Mali (with IRPAD) and Uganda (with AFSA) and the methodology used to collectively identify research gaps. Aussi disponible en français! https://tinyurl.com/y46p7xsv

 

Strengthening Ties with UVM’s Agroecology and Livelihoods Collaborative (ALC)

CAWR has recently signed an MOU to enable ongoing collaborations with University of Vermont’s ALC group who share strong alignments in our commitment to transformative agroecology and food sovereignty. We plan to use this as an opportunity to advance joint research, education and outreach to support an ecologically sound and socially just agrifood system. Read more about ALC here: https://www.uvm.edu/agroecology

AgroecologyNow! Publications (Click to download)

Anderson, C. R., Bruil, J., Chappell, M. J., Kiss, C., & Pimbert, M. P. (2019). From Transition to Domains of Transformation: Getting to Sustainable and Just Food Systems through Agroecology. Sustainability, 11(19). Open Access.

Anderson, C. R., Binimelis, R., Pimbert, M. P., & Rivera-Ferre, M. G. (2019). Introduction to the symposium on critical adult education in food movements: learning for transformation in and beyond food movements—the why, where, how and the what next? Agriculture and Human Values, 36(3).

Buchanan, C. (2019). Dealing with Undeniable Differences in Thessaloniki’s Solidarity Economy of Food. Sustainability, Sustainability, 11(8). Open Access.

Chappell, J. (2019). Continuing on the Road to Ending Hunger. Food First Backgrounder.

Claeys, P. and Duncan J. (2019). Food sovereignty and convergence spaces. Political Geography. Open Access.

Duncan, J. and Claeys, P. (2018). Politicizing food security governance through participation: opportunities and opposition. Food Security, 10 (6), 1411–1424. Open Access

Milgroom, J., Anderson, C.R., Chappell, M.J. (2019). A Guide to Mapping For Food System Change. The Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience and Cultivate! Coventry, UK.

Pimbert, M. (2018). Global status of agroecology: a perspective on current practices, potential and challenges. Economic and Political Weekly, 53(41), 52-57. Open Access.

Yap, C. (2019). Self-Organisation in Urban Community Gardens: Autogestion, Motivations, and the Role of Communication. Sustainability, 11(9). Open Access.

 

Highlighted Publications, Events and Updates From our Networks

 

Publications

• Diversified traditional food systems, the only solution to chronic nutritional deficiencies
• Nyeleni Newsletter – latest edition on food sovereignty and digitalization of the food system
• Biofortified crops or Biodiversity – a new report by GRAIN
• Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States – Elizabeth Hoover’s new edited book
• Internationally-based indicators to measure Agri-food systems sustainability using food sovereignty as a conceptual framework. Published by Ruiz-Almeida, A., & Rivera-Ferre, M. G. in Food Security. (Contact authors for pdf version).
• Political Agroecology – Recently published book.
• A Decolonial Critique of the Racialized “Localwashing” of Extraction in Central Africa – a new article by Murrey, A., & Jackson, N. A. in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers.
• Nicaragua’s agroecological transition: Transformation or reconfiguration of the agri-food regime? – First article published in our special issue on agroecology Transitions-Transformations by Schiller et al.

 

Events

• October 4-5th Good Food March ‘Farming, Food, and Climate Justice’ https://www.goodfoodmarch.org/ (London, UK)
• October 18, 2019 – Building Collaboration to Amplify Agroecology – An event hosted by Groundswell International and UVM/Agriculture Livelihood Group
• Brazilian Congress on Agroecology – November 4-7, 2019

 

Updates

• The Agroecology Livelihoods Collective co-organises Mexcico-Nicaragua Learning Exchange on Smallholder Coffee Farm Diversification with related publications here