Agroecological Food Research Articles

Agroecology, Supply Chains, and COVID‐19: Lessons on Food System Transitions from Ecuador

AbstractIn cities, agroecological food consumption is often identified as an exclusive, middle‐class practice. In this article, we examine changes in agroecological food circuits in urban Ecuador, amid COVID‐19 breakdowns in conventional food systems. Through interviews with farmers, government officials, and NGO workers in 2020 and 2021, our research identifies three sets of experiences with distinct implications for agroecological transitions. First, some agroecological circuits could no longer function due to regulations on food circulation that favored the corporate food sector. Second, some circuits temporarily expanded to reach more urban middle‐class consumers, using online platforms and government infrastructures. Third, urban collectives and neighborhood organizations re‐appropriated urban spaces – from cultural centers to city streets – to facilitate the circulation of agroecological foods in low‐income sectors. We highlight the spatial and social ‘re‐localization’ practices of these urban groups that challenge the hegemony of conventional food circuits, as they drive agroecological food consumption beyond the middle‐class.

Construcción de territorios alimentarios. Una experiencia de las mujeres en San Miguel Allende

San Miguel de Allende (SMA) in Guanajuato, Mexico is one of the most visited heritage cities in the country. In this city live people who have migrated from the United States as a phenomenon of second home tourism that, together, with the tourism of the national elite, have triggered a series of dynamics in the territory ranging from real estate speculation, deterritorialization, the abandonment of local crops, agroextractivism, and water extractivism, involving various types of violence against the body-territory-land. Apart from these problems, this phenomenon has allowed food resistance to take off, coordinated mainly by women where the care economy emerges as a dialogue of resistance that is established through the preservation of seeds, the continuation with the work of the land in search territorial food, the consolidation of a network of people and spaces that combine the exchange of agro-ecological food and local handicrafts that are sustained from the action and articulation of women.

Agroecology for Food and Water Security in Times of Climate Consciousness: A Bibliometric Analysis of Peer-Reviewed Literature Published from 1990 to 2020

The discrepancies in our food systems have become more pronounced in the last couple of years due to natural disasters of huge magnitude and the current pandemic, that have served to make them visible to a wider range of population. As a result, a shift to agroecological food and farming systems is currently being advocated at different levels. An agroecological approach to food systems involves consideration of all their interactions with the major challenges of our time—food security, water scarcity, climate change, socioeconomic disparity. This paper presents a bibliometric study of peer reviewed literature about the role of agroecology in relation to either or all of these challenges, published between 1990 and 2020. 1990 was the year in which IPCC published its first assessment report that set into motion many framework agreements and protocols regarding climate change. In 2019 and 2020, IPBES and iPES-Food released separate reports advocating an urgent agricultural transition based on agroecological methodologies. There has been an exponential increase in the published research in this field in this time period, whereas an overwhelming majority of the publications were filed under the subject areas of agricultural and biological sciences, environmental sciences, and social sciences. In addition to the increasing acceptance of the role of agroecology to address the challenges of our times, the results of this analysis point to the cross-cutting nature of issues agroecology caters to.

Intercultural economic solidarity circuits: The case of Utopia Basket and participative consumer profile in Ecuador's outskirts

The aim of this article is to analyze the role of consumers of Utopia Basket in the organization of intercultural economic solidarity circuits. Therefore, I aim to consider the experience of Utopia Basket in Ecuador. To gather the data, I conducted ethnographic methods, such as observant participation and in-depth interviews between 2014 and 2016. I argue that Utopia Basket consumers have a different profile to other initiatives of agroecological product consumption – mainly targeted at the middle class – and that they are a group of consumers initially from a neighborhood on the outskirts of Riobamba, a town in Ecuador, with ties and links of proximity related to Ecclesial Base Communities (CEBs). They have undergone communitarian formation processes on agroecological food as a right, not a privilege. In addition, they advocate and exercise the need for reconnecting with indigenous-peasant practices and communities. I found that Utopia Basket consumers have played the role of articulating and driving the formation of intercultural solidarity economic circuits.

Market Dependency as Prohibitive of Agroecology and Food Sovereignty—A Case Study of the Agrarian Transition in the Scottish Highlands

While there have been calls amongst the more ‘political’ or ‘radical’ agroecology and food sovereignty advocates for a break from capitalist food systems, conceptualisations of capitalism, and thus counter-capitalism, vary widely. The movements have largely presented small-scale producers and peasants as alternatives to industrial food systems, and have focused on reducing input dependency as a path towards autonomy of producers and the realisation of agroecological food systems. An alternative to this approach is presented here through applying Ellen M. Wood’s conceptualisation of capitalism as characterised by ‘market dependency’ to the case of the agrarian transition in the Scottish Highlands. This article demonstrates the specific ways in which market dependency, including for agricultural outputs, not just inputs, leads to a divergence from agroecological food systems. It argues that identifying ‘market dependency’ as a defining characteristic of capitalism could strengthen and refine the focus of agroecology and food sovereignty movements.

Powering transformative practices against food poverty with urban planning

AbstractFood is back on the agenda. After the global financial crisis of 2008, food insecurity became rampant even in high‐income countries, and COVID‐19 has only worsened the situation. Action is needed to build emancipatory practices dealing with food insecurity. The cultural and technical legacy of urban planning can be seized and enriched with the principles of the commons and the ethics of care. A case study in Madrid, Spain, provides clues about how to envision a future in which urbanism backs agroecological and right to food movements to design resilient urban food systems. More than 400 free food distribution nodes operate in the city, yet over 14% of the population is food insecure. This study analyzes public, private, and community programs to address food poverty, as well as community gardens, municipal markets, food‐related business incubators, and public centers with potential community kitchens. Urban planning helps broadening horizons of possibilities, activating the collective imagination of new ways to connect needs and—often unnoticed—resources. Such an approach contributes to progress in reducing dependencies from the large industrial food sector. Urban planning provides tools for applying the qualities of agroecological food systems supported by the community to define strategies adapted to each specific context. In mature contexts, it helps transposing the social reorganization into the material space in the neighborhood.

Participatory analysis and action to promote agroecological food systems – methodological insights from a three-country initiative: Nicaragua, Senegal and England

Participatory analysis and action to promote agroecological food systems – methodological insights from a three-country initiative: Nicaragua, Senegal and England

El centro de acopio Sareko: aprendizajes para la gobernanza de las redes agroalimentarias alternativas en un salto de escala

Las consecuencias a escala local del sistema agroalimentario global, las necesidades de ejecutar saltos de escala en las experiencias de producción y comercialización agroecológicas y sus relaciones de poder intrínsecas, evidencian la oportunidad de la reflexión y el debate en torno a la construcción de sistemas y estrategias de gobernanza que faciliten prácticas sociales y organizativas sostenibles para las personas productoras y consumidoras, principalmente mediante la creación de Redes Agroalimentarias Alternativas (RAA).
 En este artículo se describe una experiencia innovadora en el ámbito de la comercialización de productos agroecológicos locales que se está desarrollando en Gipuzkoa: el proyecto piloto SAREKO, un Centro de Acopio (CA) de producción agroecológica que abastece al sector de la restauración en la comarca de Donostialdea. Mediante una metodología basada en la Investigación Acción Participativa, se parte de la sistematización de procesos para ordenar la información recogida en la dinamización del proyecto y para realizar una reflexión crítica colectiva sobre el mismo.
 Los resultados principales constatan que el salto de escala tiene que apoyarse en iniciativas híbridas, en las que se debe prestar atención a la comunicación y a la negociación que se establece dentro de la red y a la construcción de confianza entre los participantes. Se constata que la cooperación entre los actores y la estructura organizativa emergente se convierten en piezas clave para conformar la identidad del CA. Así, la orientación colaborativa en los espacios de decisión y la generación de procesos basados en la toma de decisiones por consenso determinan la forma de redistribuir el valor añadido a lo largo de toda la cadena alimentaria.

A new understanding and evaluation of food sustainability in six different food systems in Kenya and Bolivia

Food systems must become more sustainable and equitable, a transformation which requires the transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge. We present a framework of food sustainability that was co-created by academic and non-academic actors and comprises five dimensions: food security, right to food, environmental performance, poverty and inequality, and social-ecological resilience. For each dimension, an interdisciplinary research team—together with actors from different food systems—defined key indicators and empirically applied them to six case studies in Kenya and Bolivia. Food sustainability scores were analysed for the food systems as a whole, for the five dimensions, and for food system activities. We then identified the indicators with the greatest influence on sustainability scores. While all food systems displayed strengths and weaknesses, local and agroecological food systems scored comparatively highly across all dimensions. Agro-industrial food systems scored lowest in environmental performance and food security, while their resilience scores were medium to high. The lowest-scoring dimensions were right to food, poverty and inequality, with particularly low scores obtained for the indicators women’s access to land and credit, agrobiodiversity, local food traditions, social protection, and remedies for violations of the right to food. This qualifies them as key levers for policy interventions towards food sustainability.

Learning and Adaptation in Food Systems: Insights from Four Case Studies in the Global South

This article presents empirical results on learning and adaptation to risks among different groups of actors in food systems in two countries of the global south (Kenya and Bolivia). Using a resilience approach, the study sought to assess knowledge about risks perceived by actors, forms of learning that actors in food systems have access to and use, and how this knowledge and learning has contributed to adaptation and resilience build ing. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, farmer meetings, workshops, and participant observation. The target population was different groups of actors in agroindustrial food systems in both countries, a regional food system in Kenya and an agroecological food system in Bolivia. The results show that knowledge on threats came from the actors’ experience and interaction with external actors. The main risks identified in Kenya and Bolivia included climate change impacts – particularly extreme climatic events (floods and droughts) –, price fluctuation of food products, declining soil fertility, deforestation, and –in Kenya– human-wildlife conflicts, and conflicts between actors over resource use. The most important forms of learning were experiential learning through demonstration farms, social learning exemplified in group approaches, and learning at individual levels through information exchange between farmers and external actors such as extension personnel, research organisations and non-governmental organisations. There is potential to enhance adaptation strategies whose knowledge has been acquired over the years, to build resilient food systems necessary for dealing with current and future shocks and stress.

Turismo Rural e Novos Mercados Para Produtos Alimentares Agroecológicos: Estudo de Caso da Rota Via Orgânica

Turismo Rural e Novos Mercados Para Produtos Alimentares Agroecológicos: Estudo de Caso da Rota Via Orgânica

Public Food Procurement as a Driving Force for Building Local and Agroecological Food Systems: Farmers’ Skepticism in Vega Baja del Jarama, Madrid (Spain)

In the last decade, efforts to re-localize the food system have been gaining ground in a way that is intended to induce changes in the primary sector, thereby improving its conditions and sustainability. The European Union has identified food as one of the ten key sectors with outstanding potential for an ecological transition, and public procurement of (organic) food as an appropriate policy to foster agricultural development and support small farmers. In this study, we analyze changes in land use and farming dynamics in three municipalities close to the metropolitan area of Madrid (Spain). We also explore how stakeholders and farmers perceive the driving forces of these changes and the potential for public procurement in providing stability for farmers and more specifically, boosting the articulation and consolidation of the emerging agroecological sector in an up-to-date hostile peri-urban environment. Some urban policies and food strategies in nearby cities, such as Madrid, have introduced measures to promote sustainable food in public procurement. The procurement could drive 10% of the total food grown in the Comunidad de Madrid, with large variations in the impact on different food subsectors. However, if public procurement is to be organic, local production has no capacity to meet increases in demand, except for honey and oil. Food procurement would not lead to improved stability and increases in farmers’ incomes if public policies to boost ecological transition are not adopted in parallel. For farmers, economic viability takes precedence over other problems, and although public procurement has been mainstreamed as a valuable tool to support local agriculture, stakeholders do not have high expectations for it. The research shows that farm size and specialization have a strong influence on market orientation, and the agroecological farmers and social movements that support them are primed for innovation adoption and may act as catalysts for the process.

Circuitos cortos de comercialización de alimentos agroecológicos en Quito, Ecuador: Cooperativa Sur Siendo Redes y Sabores

O estudo apresenta as relações de eqüidade entre o campo e a cidade criadas pelos consumidores responsáveis da cooperativa Sur Siendo Redes e Sabores. A cooperativa criou espaços de mercado para produtos agroecológicos para uma população de estratos sociais populares que historicamente vive em um ambiente alimentar inacessível. Através da análise socioespacial dos circuitos próximos de comercialização de alimentos agroecológicos, identificou-se que os consumidores responsáveis por essa cooperativa criaram cinco feiras e uma loja. Geração de comércio justo na cidade de Quito com a venda de produtos agroecológicos dos territórios rurais de Pedro Moncayo.

Urban agriculture in the city of São Paulo: New spatial transformations and ongoing challenges to guarantee the production and consumption of healthy food

The purpose of this article is to present and analyse the role of urban agriculture as an activity capable of transforming food production and consumption in order to guarantee a better quality of life for producers and consumers in the city of São Paulo, the largest Brazilian metropolis. In this article, we will highlight the possibilities of socio-spatial transformation of urban agriculture in the metropolis and present the political-institutional challenges identified for the first decades of the 21st century. To this end, two distinct but complementary practices will be the focus of the analysis: peri-urban agriculture, historically relevant for the supply of food to the local population and for the generation of income to small farmers; and intra-urban agriculture, represented by community gardens resulting from activist initiatives (including community engagement). These intra and peri-urban practices establish new food paradigms, among which the following stand out in São Paulo: their educational and commercial role; the enactment of new public policies; solidary economy networks and markets; and the spreading of the theory and practice of agroecological food.

Development of a new modular software tool for agroecological food web model development: Tiko'n

Abstract Agroecological food web modelling, which models trophic relationships between the species present in agricultural fields, has significant potential uses in the fields of theoretical and practical agroecology, specifically regarding the planning and evaluation of integrated pest management and biocontrol strategies. However, the practical use of such models with field data has been hindered by their complexity and difficulty in calibration, as well as the lack of software tools to streamline and standardise their development and evaluation. In this research we present a new modular software tool, Tiko’n, which allows users to rapidly (within a few lines of Python code) develop, calibrate and validate agroecological food web population dynamics models based on observed field population data. We then demonstrate its use in developing a food web model of a coconut pest in Sri Lanka and apply the model to assessing the potential impact of alternative biocontrol strategies. The software allowed for very rapid model development and adjustment and showed that smaller parasitoid releases may be more efficient than a single, larger application. It is the authors’ hope that this tool will contribute to a more widespread use of agroecological food web modelling in research and agronomic practice.

Agroecological food web modelling to evaluate and design organic and conventional agricultural systems

The question of whether organic or conventional agriculture is most suitable for meeting world food requirements and improving resilience to climate change is the topic of much current research. Most comparisons, however, focus either on output efficiency such as yields or on impacts of different nutrient management strategies on the sustainability of the agrosystems, and the impacts of each on the agricultural food webs and beneficial insects responsible for pest control – or outbreaks – has been often overlooked. While standard cropping models can explain if, why and how organic nutrient and crop management work and how they should be adapted to climate change, the lack of mechanistic models of agroecology prevents us from explaining why and how passive and active biocontrol and integrated pest management function, when they do not function, and what optimal management strategies could be employed.In this research, we show that agroecological food web models calibrated with field population dynamics data can be used to demonstrate the mechanisms behind food web dynamics that have been previously observed in the field. Results of scenario simulations show that chemical control provides immediate relief from pest pressures, but at high risk of later pest resurgence if control is not repeated; on the contrary, biological control requires more time to reduce pest populations to acceptable levels but with minimal risk of causing resurgence. In all cases, success of pest control measures is highly dependent on the date of action. In addition, the use of modelling tools to optimise biological control application dates led to much better control than either fixed date or pest population threshold-based applications. These analyses and resulting integrated pest management intervention recommendations are only possible with agroecological food web population dynamics models.We encourage future studies to examine more complex food webs from a variety of agroecosystems to test whether functional responses differ significantly, and hope that this approach will succeed in bringing agroecological food web predictive modelling to the level where it can routinely be used as a decision-making support tool, as hydrological and crop models are employed today.

Sustainability Perception of Local Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Consumers’ Attitude: A New Italian Perspective

Extra virgin olive oil sustainability shows that it is strictly connected to local production and certifications. However, consumers’ behaviour toward a local product is tied with the information exchange between producers and consumers. The aim of the research is to analyse, using a logistic regression model, if the attitudes, habits, and behaviours of the consumers influence their opinion on the sustainability of local extra virgin olive oil, relative to the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, socio-cultural, and economic). This study tries to combine studies about agri-food sustainability and consumers’ behaviour about local consumption, in an attempt to evaluate their attitude towards an agroecology food regime. Indeed, this information can be useful in order to plan adequate and specific interventions to improve the sustainability of the extra virgin olive oil production. The results indicate that the opinion about the sustainability of local extra virgin olive oil is linked to the information exchange between producers and consumers. This confirms that local alternative trade channels require numerous interventions in order to simplify and improve such exchange, both from a managerial and political point of view. Moreover, it can be useful to develop the information and communication technologies, in order to ensure the reliability, the transparency, and the security of the information exchange. This can also be useful to prevent frauds that are very common for this product.

Advancing Food Security through Agroecological Technologies: The Implementation of the Biointensive Method in the Dry Corridor of Nicaragua

In contrast with international food assistance programs, or with the new green revolution based on the sustainable intensification of agriculture, this work proposes an agroecological technology to overcome food insecurity problems in countries like Nicaragua, most especially in rural areas. In particular, it analyzes the effects of implementing the biointensive method—an agroecological food production initiative that is highly labor-intensive, but requires little land—in various communities of the Dry Corridor in Nicaragua. This project is the result of establishing an international consortium for development cooperation where grassroots communities played a prominent role. The main results are an improvement in local food security and a strengthening of the communities’ capacity to face major challenges arising from poverty and climate change, the effects of which are increasingly noticeable in Central America. The main weakness identified is that the necessary tropicalization of the method has not been sufficiently tested, for a two-year period is too short a time to transform the prevailing rural development dynamics significantly.

What is the food and nutrition security situation of Santa Catarina municipalities? Results of a multidimensional assessment

ABSTRACT Objective To describe the food and nutrition security situation of all municipalities of a Brazilian state. Methods The investigation was conducted using an assessment matrix developed through consensus workshops. The matrix is composed of 7 dimensions, 11 subdimensions, 27 indicators, and 59 items. Data were collected at the municipal level from different public databases using the state of Santa Catarina as the case study basis. Municipalities were classified according to their food and nutrition security situation as poor, fair, good, or excellent. Results Of the 295 Santa Catarina municipalities, 65.4% were rated as poor or fair in terms of food and nutrition security. The best-rated dimension was Continuing education, research, and training in food and nutrition security, followed by Agroecological production and sustainable food supply and Universal access to water and sanitation. The dimensions with the worst results were Food and nutrition at all levels of healthcare, Universal access to adequate food, and Assessment and monitoring. The dimension Traditional peoples and communities could not be evaluated because data were not available at the municipal level. Conclusion This study evidenced the need for a careful examination of the reality of Santa Catarina municipalities, as it made it possible to qualitatively characterize public policies within the context of food and nutrition security. The findings may contribute to the debate on evaluation and assist managers in strengthening food and nutrition security policies in Brazilian municipalities.

Towards an Eco-social Food System: The Shift from Industrial Agriculture to Agro-ecology in South Africa

Input-intensive industrial-scale production systems are not sustainable means of addressing issues such as food security, nutrition security and sustainable livelihoods. Several literatures suggest that the solution to world hunger is to diversify agriculture and reorient it around ecological practices. There is considerable evidence that supports agro-ecological farming system ss a viable alternative that can improve food production especially for the most vulnerable farming households. In addition, literature shows that an agro-ecology food system holds the key to increasing dietary diversity at the local level, as well as reducing the multiple health risks from industrial agriculture. This paper is aimed at discussing the benefits of agro-ecology food system and how agricultural support systems can play a role. The emphasis of the paper is the application of the agro-ecology approach in an urban/ peri-urban setting. An evaluation report of City of Johannesburg (CoJ) Food Resilience Programme Evaluation unpublished report (2016), shows that very few households engage in gardening/ urban agriculture either in their backyards or nearby open spaces due to the following reasons; strict city by-laws, no access to land, no knowledge of innovative/alternative farming practices lack of interest and limited resources.