Newsletter no 28 - Agroecology at a crossroads

Editorial - Agroecology as resistance and transformation : Food Sovereignty and Mother Earth Illustration : Logo Escuela Campesina Multimedia
Suddenly agroecology is in fashion with everyone, from grassroots social movements to the FAO, governments, universities and corporations. But not all have the same idea of agroecology in mind. While mainstream institutions and corporations for years have marginalized and ridiculed agroecology, today they are trying to capture it. They want to take (...)

Edited excerpts from Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology - Nyéléni, Mali, 27 February 2015
We are delegates representing diverse organizations and international movements of small-scale food producers and consumers, including peasants, indigenous peoples, communities, hunters and gatherers, family farmers, rural workers, herders and pastoralists, fisherfolk and urban people. Together, the diverse constituencies our organizations represent produce some 70% of the food (...)

Agroecology at a crossroads – between institutionalization and social movements
Agroecology is in fashion. From being ignored, underappreciated and excluded by the institutions that govern agriculture internationally, it has become recognised as one of the key alternatives to confront the serious crises caused by the green revolution. This is unprecedented, and leaves agroecology facing a serious dilemma : give in to cooptation and message capture, or take the political opportunity to (...)

Box 1 - “Getting into a bind” : trade and investment regime blocks the development of agroecology and access to land Small-scale food producers are moving ahead with the exchange of knowledge, practices and movements for agroecology. Evidence from the ground shows that with appropriate public investments they can make even greater strides in achieving food sovereignty through action on agroecology. But current trade and investment agreements being signed by countries are actively blocking (...)

Agroecology in practice 1
Spreading agroecology and building resistance for food sovereignty Shashe Agroecology School
The Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum (ZIMSOFF), a member of La Via Campesina (LVC), runs an Agroecology School at Shashe which promotes the exchange of agroecological peasant farming experiences through horizontal learning among farmers from Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries.
The school is part of LVC’s network of more than 50 Agroecology schools worldwide, (...)