Agroecology as an approach to design sustainable Food Systems. Marcos Lana, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Crop Production Ecology (SLU) and General Secretary of Agroecology Europe (AEEU)

2. What are Food systems?
All the elements and activities related to
producing and consuming food, and their
effects, including economic, health, and
environmental outcomes
(https://www.oecd.org/food-systems/)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-019-0019-8

3. The pressures on the food system
Ensuring food
security and
nutrition
Supporting
livelihoods of
millions of
farmers and
others in the
food chain
Environmental
sustainability
and integrity

4. The illusion of choice, or the food empires

5. One example of using agroecological approaches to improve
food systems
The Brazilian Landless Workers movement
Foundation: 1984, southern Brazil.
Goals:
• access to the land for poor workers through land reform in Brazil;
• activism around social issues that make land ownership more difficult to achieve, such as:
• Unequal income distribution
• Racism
• Sexism
• Media monopolies.
• Self-sustainable way of life for the rural poor.
TRNN

17. Despite the ambition of the movement and getting land,
farmers could still not escape the poverty trap
No technical assistance
No training
No credit
Using the same cultivation methods that lead them to poverty, again…
DCM

18. A significant change in the early 2000´s
The understanding that business as usual would not lift the farmers from
poverty!
Change of paradigm: productivist to agroecological
Partnerships with universities;
Specialized post-secondary schools;
Activism to have technical assistance and specific credit lines;
Cooperatives for processing;
Access to institutional market;
Reaching out to consumers in urban areas.
MST
CCRA
MST
CCRA

19. Which kind of research was (is) needed?

20. Required elements
• Social movement, organization;
• Technical assistance (associated to credit);
• Research and education.
PAA

21. A game changer
• Institutional markets play a
major role for the
establishment of
sustainable, agroecological
food systems

23. It is a work in
progress
23MST
Cooperatives Processing
plants
Farmers
associations
Settled
families Families
waiting to be
settled

24. And how was this possible?
TWN, SOCLA

25. The different “schools of agriculture”
Biodynamic agriculture
Steiner, Pfeiffer
~1920s, Germany/Austria
Organic agriculture
Howard, Balfour, J. Rodale
~1930-40s, UK/USA
Organic-biological agr.
Müller, Biegler, Rusch
~1930s,
Switzerland/Austria
Natural farming
Okada, Fukuoka
~1930s, Japan
King, ~1900s
Ecological agriculture
Vogtmann, WUR
Late 1970-80s,
Germany/Netherlands
Regenerative agriculture
R. Rodale, Pretty
Late 1970-80s, USA
Biological agriculture
Boucher, Lemaire,
Aubert, Chaboussou
1960-70s, France
Permaculture
Mollison
~1970-80s, Australia
Alternative agriculture
1970-80s,
Vandermeer, others Agroecology
Altieri, Gliessman, Francis
1980s, USA/Latin America
Sustainable agriculture
Late 1980-90s
(Anthroposophy)
(Church of World Messianity)
(Human health + soil)
Adapted from several sources, including: Ehlers (1999), Darolt (2006), Altieri et al (2016).
(soil biology)

26. 13 principles of
Agroecology:
High Level Panel
of Experts on
World Food
Security (2019)
Agroecology Europe

27. Thanks
During the harsh COVID times, with +700000 deaths in Brazil:
“Stay at home. We, agrarian reform settlers, continue to
produce healthy food for your family”.
MST
All pictures, unless otherwise stated, belong to the author.