Agroecology: innovating for sustainable agriculture & food systems

The document advocates for agroecology as a holistic science, practice, and social movement led by small-scale food producers. It contrasts this approach with industrial models like 'climate-smart agriculture' and 'sustainable intensification,' which it labels as false solutions. The report provides a framework for evaluating agricultural innovations and offers policy recommendations to support food sovereignty, gender justice, and the rights of small-scale producers.

• Agroecology is defined as a multidisciplinary approach that integrates a science, a set of practices, and a social movement, combining biological and ecological dimensions with the ancestral knowledge of peasants and indigenous peoples.
• Small-scale food producers are the primary innovators in agriculture, having designed agroecological systems and plant breeding for millennia, far exceeding the contributions of the private sector and research institutions.
• Agroecology contributes to climate mitigation and adaptation through carbon sequestration in healthy soils and vegetation, and by reducing dependency on fossil fuels.
• Diversified agroecological systems demonstrate greater resilience to extreme weather events and disasters compared to monocultures, as evidenced by lower economic losses and less erosion after Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua.
• The report criticizes 'climate-smart agriculture' (CSA) and 'sustainable intensification' as 'false solutions' that co-opt agroecological practices to maintain the industrial agribusiness model and corporate control.
• Digitalization of food systems is identified as a risk that facilitates the commodification of seeds and the concentration of power among remote actors, potentially undermining the human right to adequate food.
• Food sovereignty is presented as the necessary political paradigm shift, granting peoples and states the right to define their own food and agriculture systems.

APA

Ortega-Espès, D. (2018). Agroecology: innovating for sustainable agriculture & food systems. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Agroecology-innovation-EN.pdf

Chicago

Ortega-Espès, Delphine. Agroecology: innovating for sustainable agriculture & food systems. Friends of the Earth International, 2018. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Agroecology-innovation-EN.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ortega-Espès |first1=Delphine |title=Agroecology: innovating for sustainable agriculture & food systems |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=November 2018 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Agroecology-innovation-EN.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ortegaesps2018agroecology, author = {Ortega-Espès, Delphine}, title = {{Agroecology: innovating for sustainable agriculture \& food systems}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2018}, month = nov, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Agroecology-innovation-EN.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }