Keith Douglass Warner, Agroecology in Action: Extending Alternative Agriculture Through Social Networks

Abstract

In Agroecology in Action, Keith Douglass Warner describes and analyzes a number of important agroecological partnerships in the United States, with a focus on partnerships in California. The work examines the actors involved in these partnerships, along with the networks formed, the practices espoused, and the successes achieved over the years of their development and existence. The book also provides an account of how a variety of new, ecologically based farming and pest control methods have been developed as a result of farmers, scientists, public agencies, and nongovernmental organizations working together to address the environmental impact of conventional, chemical intensive farming methods. Warner defines agroecological partnerships as ‘‘initiatives using alternative extension practices at the field scale’’ (5), highlighting how these partnerships rely heavily on nontraditional modes of generating and sharing knowledge and how the local knowledge of farmers, and considerations for local ecologies, form the backbone of these partnerships. Warner argues that agroecology ‘‘must be facilitated by social learning’’ (3), defined as a process whereby groups of varied stakeholders engage in experiential research and knowledge exchange to protect and enhance shared resources. Agroecological partnerships, and their methods of generating and sharing knowledge, are contrasted with traditional extension practices that have tended to utilize transfer of technology or adoption/diffusion paradigms. Citing Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), Warner sets the stage for examining agroecological partnerships by outlining not only the failures of industrial agriculture but the influence that Silent Spring had on reshaping farming practices and political and scientific institutions. Warner credits Carson for laying the foundation for modern day agroecological partnerships and for inspiring students of the 1960s and 1970s who later went on to develop the subdisciplines of agroecology and conservation biology. With this backdrop, Warner utilizes the works of Latour (1987, 1999) and FitzSimmons (2003) in the field of Science and Technology Studies to examine the critique of Silent Spring and the dynamics of both agroecology and science in general. As proposed by Latour, and later adapted by FitzSimmons, science can be viewed as a circulatory system, with a beating heart at its center, creating and pumping knowledge through four different loops. These loops represent nature, scientists, end-users, and the public, and are all bound together by scientific knowledge at the center. As Warner points out, Silent Spring critiqued the science of its time for only engaging scientists and enduser and neglecting the ecological and social consequences of the scientific knowledge it created and diffused. In contrast, agroecological partnerships, as examined throughout Agroecology in Action, repeatedly and consistently attempt to engage many actors in the farming and scientific system to produce appropriate knowledge to reduce environmental harm, manage risk, maintain profits for growers and address public concerns about pollution and pesticides in agriculture. The bulk of Agroecology in Action examines the intricacies of a number of commodity specific agroecological partnerships in California and beyond. These examinations, in turn, lead to analyses of the institutional opportunities and constraints for agroecological partnership development, factors that influence the reduction of pesticide use, the characteristics and roles of actors who participate in partnerships, the various agroecological practices promoted B. McKelvey (&) University of Missouri Extension, Columbia, MO 65211, USA e-mail: McKelveyWA@missouri.edu