See below for some highlights of our latest work and highlights from our networks, including free-to-download articles, videos and other resources. Please feel free to copy/adapt parts for use in newsletters, etc. or share the entire update via this link: https://www.agroecologynow.com/whats-up-2022-01/ 

AgroecologyNow! Features

Opportunity: Rise ATTER ‘Autumn School’ on ‘Ways of Knowing for Agroecological Transitions’ – October 2022 

As part of the RISE-ATTER project we are organising an ‘Autumn school’ on Ways of knowing for agroecological transitions in Dorset UK in October 2022. The main aim of this school is to create a space to bring together activist researchers and practitioners from across the world who want to exchange, learn and advance their thinking and practice on agroecological transitions. For more information and to access the expression of interest form please click here: https://tinyurl.com/2p8nj74f  

Reconfiguring Food Systems Governance: The UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) and the Battle over Authority and Legitimacy

The UN Food Systems Summit, held in New York throughout September 2021, has been a source of considerable controversy. It has been advertised as a way for ‘global food systems transformation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals’. Yet, the UNFSS is advancing a vision of food systems governance that sets the foundation for stronger corporate influence both of the UN and food systems at large, while weakening spaces where food sovereignty movements have secured the right to participate. In this blog post, Priscilla Claeys (CAWR), Matt Canfield (Leiden University), and Jessica Duncan (Wageningen University) explore the ways in which ‘food systems’ and ‘multi-stakeholderism’ are combining to undermine existing democratic processes and exclude certain actors. https://wp.me/p67WNH-SJ 

COP26 – Caught in a Net: Agriculture, Climate Change, and the Decarbonisation Agenda

With COP26 well and truly over, and a deal (of sorts) agreed, what will be the legacy of the event? AN!’s Chris Maughan was in Glasgow for the first week of the event and reflects on the links between ‘corporate greenwash’ and the ‘net zero’ agenda, as well as what this COP means for social movements seeking just and agroecological transitions. https://tinyurl.com/2p99bmzx

Policy Brief Shifting Funding to Agroecology for People, Climate and Nature

This new policy brief focuses on shifting funding to support agroecology for social justice and sustainability, on the evidence base for agroecology and on distinguishing agroecology from other approaches. This publication builds on AgroecologyNow!’s work on agroecology transformations and is a part of an ongoing stream of work in and beyond CAWR on financing agroecology. Click here to learn more: www.uvm.edu/agroecology/making-money-move/ 

​​Agroecology and Community feminism: nurturing territories

Alejandra Guzman Luna writes about agroecology and community feminism, drawing from her experience working in the Oaxacan Mixteca, Mexico. The notion of community feminism is a vital way to advance an agroecology that effectively nourishes territories in an equitable manner. This blog is a part of a series of blogs on feminism and agroecology (see here for another) in our Agroecology in Motion column. Click here to read:

Agroecology and Community Feminism: Nurturing Territories

“Spirituality has been a common glue”: An Interview with La Via Campesina’s Paul Nicholson

Our colleagues, Priscilla Claeys and Jasber Singh, are launching a new series as part of our Agroecology in Motion column to shed light on an underexplored aspect of food system transformation: the role of spirituality and religion in social movement struggles for food sovereignty. In order to deepen their inquiry, they will speak with various food sovereignty activists across the globe. In this first article, they interviewed Paul Nicholson from La Via Campesina.  https://wp.me/p67WNH-ST

Podcasts on Agroecology in Movement

A series of podcasts on Agroecology in Movements have been put together by a collective of young French agroecologists, ‘Association Sillage’. The first podcast features Professor Michel Pimbert reflecting on social movement struggles to advance transformative agroecologies throughout the world. Click here to listen: https://tinyurl.com/mr368a22 

AgroecologyNow! Publications (click through to access)

Arora, Saurabh, and Barbara Van Dyck. “Refusal as Radical Care? Moving Beyond Modern Industrial Agriculture.” Development (2021): 1-7. 

Van Dyck, Barbara, and Nettie Wiebe. “The Reassurance of the Unknown: A Conversation with Nettie Wiebe.” Development (2021): 1-6. 

Sharma, Divya, and Barbara Van Dyck. “Thinking through the lens of the other: Translocal agroecology conversations.” In Agroecological transitions, between determinist and open-ended visions, pp. 267-288. Peter Lang AG, 2021.

Anderson, C.R. and J. Bruil. 2021. Shifting Funding to Agroecology for People, Climate and Nature. Action Aid. University of Vermont. Cultivate Collective. 

Pimbert, M.P. 2022.  Citizens’ Juries.  In: Patricia Leavy (Ed). Popularizing Scholarly Research: Working with Non-academic Stakeholders, Teams, and Communities. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Corporate Europe Observatory – Video. Take action: No weakening of safety rules for new GMOs.

Canfield, M., Duncan, J., Claeys, P. 2021. Reconfiguring Food Systems Governance: the UNFSS and the Battle Over Authority and Legitimacy. Development.

Pimbert, M.P. 2021. Regenerating Kurdish Ecologies through Food Sovereignty, Agroecology and Economies of Care. In: Stephen Hunt (Ed). Ecological Solidarity in the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Thought, Practice, Challenges, and Opportunities. London: Lexington Books, pp. 115-132.

Compendium on The Politics of Knowledge: Understanding the Evidence for Agroecology, Regenerative Approaches, and Indigenous Foodways (Global Alliance for the Future of Food with contributions from AgroecologyNow & CAWR): report and interactive multimedia summary.

Highlighted Publications, Events and Updates From our Networks