The document discusses the principles and goals of agroecology and sustainable food systems. Agroecology aims to transform food systems to be more sustainable through balancing ecological soundness, economic viability, and social justice. It promotes shifting away from monoculture and high chemical input agriculture towards polyculture and nutrient recycling models based on ecological processes. The key goals of a sustainable food system are to minimize environmental impacts, preserve soil and water resources, rely mainly on internal inputs, conserve biodiversity, ensure social justice and food security. Agroecological principles emphasize enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services to increase production in a resilient way that maintains natural capital.

1. Ecology of food production

2. • “Ecology of the food system” “Ecology of food
production” is the of definitions of agroecology.
• Ecology of food production has the goal of
transforming:
– food systems towards sustainability,
– such that there is a balance between
– ecological soundness, economic
– viability and social justice
Ecology of food production; Sustainable
agricultural practices

3. Agroecological vision
• What is monoculture:
• The agricultural practice of
producing or growing a single
crop, plant, or livestock species,
variety, or breed in a field or
farming system at a time.
Polyculture:
• where more than one crop is
grown in the same space at the
same time, is the alternative to
monoculture.

4. • It quickly became evident that
monoculture was causing ecological
degradation
• (soil erosion, loss of agrobiodiversity,
pest outbreaks, etc.) as well as social
pressure (poverty malnutrition,
dependency, loss of livelihood
diversity, etc.)
monoculture

5. • Agroecology as a discipline
deals with an in-depth
introduction to the
ecological principles and
processes that form the
foundation for sustainable
agriculture.

6. • over the past 50-60 years, innovation in
agriculture has been driven mainly by an over-
emphasis
– on high yields
– visionless, short-term farm profit,
• It has resulted in remarkable returns, but often at
the cost of an array of negative environmental
and social side effects.

7. • Despite the continuation of strong pressure to
focus on the (economic) bottom line
• The scope of agroecology is to make a
transition to practices that are more
environmentally sound and
• Have the potential for contributing to long-
term sustainability for agriculture

8. • How to achieve this transformation
• All part of food system be connected, these parts are:
– Those who grow the food,
– those who eat it,
– And those who move the food between the two
• All parts must be connected in a social movement that
honors the deep relationship between culture and the
environment that created agriculture in the first place.

9. The transition from monoculture to ecologically based
management
• There are few principles that
can serve as general guidelines
for navigating the overall
transformation

10. • Shift from through-flow nutrient management
to a nutrient recycling model, with increased
dependence on natural processes such as
biological nitrogen fixation and mycorrhizal
relationships
• Use renewable sources of energy instead of
non-renewable sources

11. • Eliminate the use of non-renewable, off-farm
human inputs that have the potential to harm
the environment or the health of farmers,
farm workers, or consumers
• When materials must be added to the system,
use naturally occurring materials instead of
• synthetic, manufactured inputs

12. • Manage pests, diseases and weeds instead of
‘controlling’ them
• Re-establish the biological relationships that can
occur naturally on the farm instead of reducing
and simplifying them
• Make more appropriate matches between
cropping patterns and the productive potential
and physical limitations of the farm landscape

13. • Use a strategy of adapting the biological and
genetic potential of agricultural plant and animal
species to the ecological conditions of the farm
rather than modifying the farm to meet the
needs of the crops and animals
• Value most highly the overall health of the agro-
ecosystem rather than the outcome of a
particular crop system or season

14. • Emphasize conservation of soil, water, energy and
biological resources
• Respect local knowledge and experience in agro-
ecosystem design and management
• Incorporate the idea of long-term sustainability
into overall agro-ecosystem design and
management

15. What is a sustainable food system

16. • A system of food production, distribution and
consumption that will endure indefinitely because it
does not sow the seeds of its own demise.
• Sustainability refers also to the many characteristics of
an ostensibly sustainable practice or system that are
responsible for endowing that practice or system with
the self-sufficiency, resilience and balance that allow it
to endure over time.

17. Sustainable food system would, at the very least:
• have minimal negative effects on the environment and
release insignificant amounts of toxic or damaging
substances into the atmosphere, surface water, or
groundwater
• minimize the production of greenhouse gases (GHGs),
work to mitigate climate change by increasing the
ability of managed systems to store fixed carbon, and
facilitate human adaptation to a warming climate;

18. • preserve and rebuild soil fertility, prevent soil erosion
and maintain the soil’s ecological health
• use water in a way that allows aquifers to be recharged
and the water needs of the environment and people to
be met
• rely mainly on resources within the agro-ecosystem,
including nearby communities, by replacing external
inputs with nutrient cycling, better conservation, and
an expanded base of ecological knowledge;

19. • work to value and conserve biological
diversity, both in the wild and in domesticated
landscapes;
• guarantee equality of access to appropriate
agricultural practices, knowledge and
technologies and enable local control of
agricultural resources;

20. • eliminate hunger, ensure food security in
culturally appropriate ways and guarantee
every human being a right to adequate food
• remove social, economic and political
injustices from food systems.

21. agroecological principles

22. A shift of paradigm
• The agriculture for over a century has main features:
• an essentially reductionist viewpoint
• An increasing dependence on external inputs.
• the use of high-yielding varieties and high levels of external inputs
(fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, etc.).
• This model of ‘conventional intensification’ has been the base of
industrialized, ‘Green Revolution’ agriculture.
• It promotes a strong specialization of crops, often reduced to a uniform
and synchronous canopy, ultimately consisting of a single genotype of
some major species,
• the rest of the living organisms being systematically eliminated as ‘limiting
factors’.

23. • The agriculture has been seen as the ultimate way to
produce
• but it has forgotten the importance of biodiversity as
the driving force of production and regulation
processes in ecosystems.
• Though it has spectacular gains in terms of productivity
(economy of scale, homogeneity, mechanization, etc.
• However I t has caused an extreme impoverishment in
biotic interactions

25. • The basic and common principle is to increase biomass
production by enhancing the services provided by living
organisms
• taking the optimal advantage of natural resources,
especially solar radiation, atmospheric carbon and
nitrogen, rainfall
• Agroecology aims to manage, and in some cases to
increase, production in a sustainable and resilient way that
will maintain and improve the natural capital in the long
term.

26. • It enhances the ecological processes and interactions of
functional biodiversity
• Because ecosystem services are involved, agroecology has
long been working on larger scales (i.e. farms, landscapes,
watershed basins, value chains, food systems).
• Agroecology has had a deep engagement with
interdisciplinary research, in particular focusing on some of
the drivers of agricultural development such as food
industries and distribution,

27. • Agroecology strongly depends on locally available
natural resources including agrobiodiversity, it
cannot prescribe ready-to-use technical packages
to farmers.
• Agroecological models and solutions are built by
mingling scientific and traditional knowledge and
by strongly relying on local learning and
innovation processes.