This springtime is witness to an ancient idea returning to center stage across the Bay Area, the nation and the globe: redistributive agrarian reform. But what does agrarian reform mean, and why is it so …
A Matrix of Care: What does ‘care’ really mean in agroecology?
So much talk about the importance of ‘care’ in agroecology, but what does it mean? This blog presents a ‘Matrix of Care’, a heuristic tool that helps us make sense of what care actually means …
Agricultural research in times of the EU race to arms
In this blog, Barbara Van Dyck and Danya Nadar* propose a modified version of a panel paper they presented at a researchers’ day at the Université Libre de Bruxelles revolving around “Planetary Boundaries and Geopolitical …
Voices of transformation: the peasant university of Colombia
In this blog, the authors reflect on agroecology education by social movements, as called for by the Nyéleni process. Existing independent of (but in relation with) public schools and academic spaces, the autonomous agroecology schools …
Transforming Food Systems Through Agroecology Education: Head, Hands, and Heart
In this blog, the authors reflect on agroecology education as a tool for social transformation and its central role in agroecological transitions. In the context of growing interest in higher education, they argue for a …
What does data justice mean for African small-holder farmers? Towards envisioning a human rights-based approach in Africa
In this post, the authors offer a critical analysis of biodigital technologies and their expanding role in food and agriculture. Central to their argument is the question of who ultimately stands to benefit from this …
Innovation as Bullshit
In this post, Innovation as Bullshit [*], Saskia Colombant and Priscilla Claeys show how the innovation narrative, or the attempt to reclaim the term, does not serve the objectives of movements advocating for radical and …
How can agroecology and food sovereignty advocates uproot militarism from their organisations to help build cultures of peace?
In this long-read Michel Pimbert Emeritus Professor of Agroecology and Food Politics at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience examines how militarism shapes contemporary food systems, influencing technologies, institutions, and ecological outcomes. He shows …
To Lead or Not to Lead – Is That the Question?
Rethinking Leadership in Scholarship for Agroecological Transformation. In this article, Colin Anderson grapples with the notion of “leadership” and the grievances that some people have with this term. He examines the meaning of leadership in …
Why does agroecology need a movement? Because seeds grow in soil — but change grows in solidarity.
Here Million Belay, coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), reflects on why agroecology must be more than a set of technical practices and technocratic frameworks if it is to tackle the …
Against the Grain: The Search for a New Economics of Grain
In this blog, Chris Maughan, discusses a recently published open access study into the development of regional grain networks in Europe. These networks have been working to transform the grain sector, built around principles of …
Interview with Māori activist Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn: “Activism is not just about political change, it is about spiritual alignment”
Our colleagues, Priscilla Claeys and Jasber Singh, are doing a series on an underexplored aspect of food system transformation: the role of spirituality and religion in social movement struggles for food sovereignty. In order to …
A tribute to Eduardo Sevilla: agroecology as a way of being
Eduardo Sevilla Guzmán (1942-2023), shaped the history of agroecology as a science and as a movement. Eduardo Sevilla was an astute thinker, stood steadfast in solidarity with peasants and trained an entire generation of scholar …
Calling out the financial elephants in the room: Tackling the myth of scarcity to finance agroecological food system transformation
In this blog, Michel Pimbert lays out a slate of bold proposals to reframe discussions on how to finance agroecology to focus less on financial scarcity and more on the possibilities of abundance. Michel lays …
What’s next for Gaza’s food systems?
This blog, originally published in the Rooted Magazine, explores the systematic destruction of land, life and nature over the past agonising months, and the long-constructed vulnerabilities resulting from Israel’s policy of occupation, blockade and now …
Public procurement powering agroecological transformation in Europe
This blog, originally published in the Rooted Magazine, argues that European agriculture, societies and economies could be transformed if only a fraction of the continent’s municipal procurement contracts were awarded to small-scale organic and agroecological …
Opinion: How informal policies of care shape agroecological food systems
In this blog, originally published in the Rooted Magazine, authors Jessica Milgroom and Josh Brem-Wilson reflect on how communities and cultures have developed informal policies that are based on a shared set of values, which play …
Building technological sovereignty in the digital area
In this blog, author Coline Prévost looks at how at a time of increasing digitalisation of agriculture and food systems, militant peasant organisations are mapping out other paths of innovation, on the fringes of colonial …
Call for Papers : Transformations of Foodways – Coloniality, Resistance and Resurgence
SPECIAL ISSUE Journal of Agrarian Change Are you working on foodways, traditional foods, food systems, food sovereignty, agroecology, peasant movements or related themes? Please consider contributing to our upcoming Special Issue in the Journal of …
Bringing People’s and Scientific Knowledge Together to Unlock a Better Food System for Everyone
In this article, the authors discuss the often problematic ways that evidence is called for and mobilized to justify industrial food systems. They lay out the importance of bringing different knowledge systems into dialogue and …
A Gandhian approach to dialogue: The adversary is not the enemy
In this blog, part of our Food Sovereignty and Spirituality series, AgroecologyNow interviewed Siddharta, founder of Pipal Tree India, about the role of spirituality and religion in social action for climate justice, gender justice and …
Green Deal, farmers’ protests: we need new narratives to support food system transformation
In this statement, activist scholars show how the European Union’s current legislative response to waves of farmer protests across Europe is failing both farmers and society, in Europe and elsewhere. They identify the toxic narratives …
Participation is not the answer to development-forced displacement and resettlement
Participation continues to be heralded as undeniably positive. Participation is a way to involve people in decision making. It is imbued with ideas of democracy, people’s power, and challenging top-down governance. Yet, in practice, rather …