Food Sovereignty, Agroecology and Biocultural Diversity
Food Sovereignty, Agroecology and Biocultural Diversity

Author: Michel. P. Pimbert

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-11-01

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 1317354974

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Contestations over knowledge – and who controls its production – are a key focus of social movements and other actors that promote food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity. This book critically examines the kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing needed for food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity. ‘Food sovereignty’ is understood here as a transformative process that seeks to recreate the democratic realm and regenerate a diversity of autonomous food systems based on agroecology, biocultural diversity, equity, social justice and ecological sustainability. It is shown that alternatives to the current model of development require radically different knowledges and epistemologies from those on offer today in mainstream institutions (including universities, policy think tanks and donor organizations). To achieve food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity, there is a need to re-imagine and construct knowledge for diversity, decentralisation, dynamic adaptation and democracy. The authors critically explore the changes in organizations, research paradigms and professional practice that could help transform and co-create knowledge for a new modernity based on plural definitions of wellbeing. Particular attention is given to institutional, pedagogical and methodological innovations that can enhance cognitive justice by giving hitherto excluded citizens more power and agency in the construction of knowledge. The book thus contributes to the democratization of knowledge and power in the domain of food, environment and society. Chapters 1 and 8 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Agroecology Now!
Agroecology Now!

Author: Colin Ray Anderson

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-12-07

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 3030613151

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This open access book develops a framework for advancing agroecology transformations focusing on power, politics and governance. It explores the potential of agroecology as a sustainable and socially just alternative to today’s dominant food regime. Agroecology is an ecological approach to farming that addresses climate change and biodiversity loss while contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Agroecology transformations represent a challenge to the power of corporations in controlling food system and a rejection of the industrial food systems that are at the root of many social and ecological ills. In this book the authors analyse the conditions that enable and disable agroecology’s potential and present six ‘domains of transformation’ where it comes into conflict with the dominant food system. They argue that food sovereignty, community-self organization and a shift to bottom-up governance are critical for the transformation to a socially just and ecologically viable food system. This book will be a valuable resource to researchers, students, policy makers and professionals across multidisciplinary areas including in the fields of food politics, international development, sustainability and resilience.

Seeds for Diversity and Inclusion
Seeds for Diversity and Inclusion

Author: Yoshiaki Nishikawa

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 3030894053

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This open access book will contribute to a more nuanced debate around seed system resilience that goes beyond the dominant dichotomous conceptualization of seed governance often characterized as traditional vs modern, subsistence vs commercial, or local vs global. While reflecting on the expanding oligopoly in the current seed system, the authors argue that such classifications limit our ability to critically reflect on and acknowledge the diverse approaches through which seed governance is practiced around the world, at various scales, creating a mosaic of dynamic complementarities and autonomies. The authors also highlight the importance of this much needed dialogue through case studies of seed governance approaches and practices found in and around Japan.

Food as a Human Right
Food as a Human Right

Author: William D. Schanbacher

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2019-03-22

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13:

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This important work addresses the difficult ethical issues surrounding the accessibility of food to all people as a human right, and not a privilege that emerges because of social structure or benefit of geography. Food sovereignty—the right of peoples to define their own chosen food and agriculture, free of monopolization or threats—is the path to stopping global hunger. This book approaches the topic from a solutions-based perspective, discussing concrete policy providing for sovereignty, or control, of one's own food sources as a solution that, while controversial, offers more promise than do the actions of international organizations and trade agreements. Providing access to safe, healthy food is an ethical responsibility of the world's nations, not just a right of the elite or wealthy. This book presses the need to formulate policies that address the problems of poverty and hunger on a more humane and meaningful level. Organized thematically, chapters are based on such topics as food security, food sovereignty, human rights, and sustainability that focus on the global food system. Specific case studies provide examples of global hunger and poverty issues. Taken in its entirety, the book informs readers of how their food consumption might negatively affect the global poor, while its concluding chapters offer solutions for alleviating problems in the global food system.

Political Agroecology
Political Agroecology

Author: Manuel González de Molina

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2019-08-30

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 0429768141

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Political Agroecology is the first book to offer a systematic and articulated reflection on Political Agroecology from the Agroecological perspective. It defines the disciplinary field responsible for designing and producing actions, institutions and regulations aimed at achieving agrarian sustainability. In short, it aims to build a political theory that makes the scaling-up of agroecological experiences possible, turning them into the foundation of a new and alternative food regime. The book proposes theoretical, practical and epistemological foundations of a new theoretical and practical field of work for agroecologists: Political Agroecology. It establishes a framework for a common agroecological strategy, covering the different levels of collective action and the different instruments with which it can be developed. This will be essential reading for agroecologists, environmentalists, farming and food communities, and an ideal textbook for advanced agroecology courses in universities. Key features: Offers a unique state of the art on this fundamental new topic: Political Agroecology Presents a complete introduction to the political and institutional aspects of Agroecology, covering the whole food system Offers an important tool for searching agrarian sustainability Provides a broad epistemological, theoretical and methodological focus, exploring the connection between the different levels and scales involved in agroecological theory and practice

Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World
Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World

Author: Ricardo Rozzi

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2014-02-06

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9400774702

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To comprehensively address the complexities of current socio-ecological problems involved in global environmental change, it is indispiseble to achieve an integration of ecological understanding and ethical values. Contemporary science proposes an inclusive ecosystem concept that recognizes humans as components. Contemporary environmental ethics includes eco-social justice and the realization that as important as biodiversity is cultural diversity, inter-cultural, inter-institutional, and international collaboration requiring a novel approach known as biocultural conservation. Right action in confronting the challenges of the 21st century requires science and ethics to be seamlessly integrated. This book resulted from the 14th Cary Conference that brought together leading scholars and practitioners in ecology and environmental philosophy to discuss core terminologies, methods, questions, and practical frameworks for long-term socio-ecological research, education, and decision making.

Agrobiodiversity, Community Participation and Landscapes in Agroecology
Agrobiodiversity, Community Participation and Landscapes in Agroecology

Author: Tomás Enrique León-Sicard

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2024-08-20

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 2832553249

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Maintaining and managing agrobiodiversity is a key issue proposed by agroecology, not only to maintain high agricultural productivity, but also to increase the resilience, stability and sustainability of the agroecosystems, meant as the functional relationship between the natural assets and the human use of them, at farm and farm matrix scale. The main hypothesis of this approach is that, the greater the interactions between organisms of different trophic levels (edaphic organisms, multiple crops, weed plants, herbivores, carnivores, plants in living fences, corridors or forest patches within agroecosystems), the greater will be the possibilities of obtaining abundant and varied harvests, with fewer external inputs (pesticides, fertilizers) and better environmental performance. The agrobiodiversity is meant as the variety and the disposition of the cultivations, pastures, farms, that affect the soil properties and create habitat diversity, landscape diversity and connectivity. At the level of landscapes or territories, the set of biodiverse agroecosystems generate natural matrices that have a powerful impact on the recovery and restoration of forest corridors, which, in turn, positively influence many ecosystem services for nature conservation and free movement and recovery of many populations of animal species, including those in danger of extinction.

Recovering Our Ancestral Foodways
Recovering Our Ancestral Foodways

Author: Mariaelena Huambachano

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2024-08-13

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0520396162

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"Recovering Our Ancestral Foodways is the first relational ethnography of Quechua and Māori peoples' philosophies of well-being, traditional ecological knowledge, and contributions to sustainable food systems. Based on over ten years of fieldwork in Peru and Aotearoa New Zealand, this book explores how Quechua and Māori peoples describe, define, and enact well-being through the lens of foodways. By analyzing how two Indigenous communities operationalize knowledge to promote sustainable food systems, physical and spiritual well-being, and community health, Mariaelena Huambachano unearths a powerful philosophy of food sovereignty called the Chakana/Maahutonga. Huambachano argues that this Indigenous food sovereignty framework offers a foundation for understanding the practices and policies needed to transform the global food system to nourish the world and preserve the Earth. One of the key features of this book, written for Indigenous communities, students, and scholars, is the development of the author's original research methodology, called the Khipu Model, which will serve as a vital resource for future research on Indigenous ways of knowing"--

Critical Praxis and the Social Imaginary for Sustainable Food Systems
Critical Praxis and the Social Imaginary for Sustainable Food Systems

Author: Max Stephenson

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2024-09-26

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 2832554806

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Scholarship and high-level diplomatic reports alike, including that of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2021, have highlighted the negative material and bodily inequities of our globalized industrial food system, one that is fuelled by a hegemonic politics of food access and availability. The effects of industrialized food systems on public health, human rights, food sovereignty, ecological sustainability for land and water, as well as for climate change are increasingly obvious. These ongoing challenges, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, have exacerbated existing social, economic, and political inequalities and vulnerabilities and placed them in the spotlight. The crisis in the Ukraine has also underscored how connected global industrialized food systems are to nation state geopolitical interests, international alliances, trade relations, and conflicts. The current industrialized resource-intensive food system has persisted because of a complex set of power relations, despite its continuing and deepening social, ecological, and cultural costs.