The UN Food Systems Summit, held in New York throughout September 2021, has been a source of considerable controversy. Though advertised as a way for ‘global food systems transformation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals’, …
COP26 – Caught in a Net: Agriculture, Climate Change, and the Decarbonisation Agenda
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, is the 26th of its kind. After a Covid-related postponement, it was held this year in Glasgow, Scotland between October 31 and November 12. …
Collection of publications (2014-2021)
People associated with AgroecologyNow! has published a large collection of publications. It is a wide a range of different materials for a diversity of audiences, including researchers, activists, policy-makers and practitioners. 2021 Agroecology Publications Coulibaly, …
Transforming Cape Town’s Covid soup kitchens into spaces of dignity – a community vision
This blog post explores the emergence of community kitchens in the wake of the COVID crisis. It examines their potential as a move beyond the ‘charity’ model of addressing hunger, towards a transformative perspective, rooted …
Land Skills Fair: This is What Diversity Looks Like!
This post is a reflection on the Land Skills Fair that took place in the UK from 13th to 15th August 2021. The event was the first major in-person gathering organised by the Landworkers’ Alliance …
Open Letters to policy makers and to the European Commission : No new science-policy interface for food systems
Some of the main players of the UNFSS science group promote the establishment of a new science-policy interface for food systems. Academics following the UN Food Systems Summit have contested this proposal that would bypass …
Technology and food sovereignty
“The knowledge of peasants, fisherfolk and pastoralists is our insurance for food during crisis.” Andrea Ferrante (Schola Campesina) People’s Counter-Mobilization to Transform Corporate Food Systems In July 2021, over 300 global civil society and peasant …
The Stories We Trust : Regulating Genome Edited Organisms
In ongoing discussions about the regulation of genome edited organisms in the UK and the EU, existing regulation to prevent harm to human and planetary health is often portrayed as the ‘bad guy’ trying to …
Power to the Elites? Multistakeholderism and the UN Food Systems Summit
Multistakeholder processes are increasingly visible across food systems governance, and are at the heart of how the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is organized. But what is multistakeholder governance? Whose interests does this form of …
Farming for Climate Justice Webinar Recordings
Farming for Climate Justice is a collaboration between CAWR and the University of Cape Town and is funded by the British Council’s Research Links Climate Challenge Fund. As such, it is designed to focus on …
In solidarity with the Palestinian People
“In the end we will not remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends” Martin Luther King The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will no-doubt come as a great relief to …
Failure to Engage: Civil Society Marginalized in UN Food Summit
The failure of the UN Food Systems Summit to adequately engage civil society is one key reason why hundreds of civil society organisations have decided not to participate. In 2015 the United Nations General Assembly …
New Policy Brief: Transforming Development Aid to Support Agroecology
It’s time to make money move for agroecology and together foster social justice and sustainability in food systems! Policy Brief by CIDSE and the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) of Coventry University. April 2021 English …
Down with Innovation! Long live rights, agency and justice
“Innovation” is ubiquitous as a way to describe beneficial societal change. Yet, the innovation language is deeply tied to a technology-centric and top-down ways of thinking that shackles the imagination and limits the pathways for …
21st Century Agroecology
From online food retail to big ag-data, technology is creeping ever further into food and farming systems. In this blog Lynne Davis CEO of Open Food Network UK explores what it takes to shift the …
Join us: Workshop on “Making Money Move for Agroecology”
EVENT DETAILS Date: April 19, 2021 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm CET Organiser: CIDSE and CAWR Supported by: BIOVISION and ASP-TA Languages: English/French/Spanish Pre-registration required:REGISTER HERE. Deadline: 16 April 2021 The ecological, economic and social problems in food systems …
Short statement on Defra ‘gene technology’ consultation
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is currently running an online consultation on the ‘regulation of genetic technologies’, due to close on March 17th, 2021. We stand with a number of …
Hot off the press: New Book on Political, Transformational and Territorial dimensions to bring forward an Agroecological Urbanism
Building on state-of-the-art and participatory research on farming, urbanism, food policy and advocacy, this new book changes the ways food planning has been conceptualised to date, and invites the reader to fully embrace the transformative potential of …
Linking food and feminisms: learning from decolonial movements
Feminisms that bring an anti-colonial, decolonial or indigenous perspective work to reconstitute non-hierarchical relationships among people, between people and nature, and through this shift, the relationship between people and their food.
Farming for Climate Justice: Invitation for participation of Early Career Researchers from UK and S. Africa
Farming for Climate Justice is a CAWR collaboration with the Bio-Economy Chair at the University of Cape Town that emphasises the co-generation of socially inclusive research capable of transforming thinking and research practice for just …
In Solidarity With Farmer Protests In India
On the 26th of November 2020, India witnessed the biggest strike in recorded human history, with two hundred and fifty million labourers and farmers turning out in protest against newly introduced farm laws. Three months …
Reflecting on ORFC 2021: Blinking into the Light – Galvanising Food Movements in Troubling Times
Few of us would say that we’re not happy to see the back of 2020. For one thing, it’s fundamentally changed how we live and work, often for the worse. We’ve all missed the creativity …
Special Issue – Doing Participatory Action Research (PAR) in a time of COVID and Beyond
Call for Contributors for a special issue in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems on Doing Participatory Action Research (PAR) in a time of COVID. Click here for the latest information on the journal …