Yellow Pages

Agro-Ecology

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Colofon:
Published February 2016, Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
© Jelleke de Nooy van Tol. You are free to use and copy text from this book
as long as you refer to this document and the author.

First published in Dutch, November 2013, titled HEEL DE WERELD, by Jan

van Arkel Publishing House, in collaboration with the Netwerk for Vital
Agriculture and Food, NVLV, Netherlands.

This book is part of a series by the same author:

1. Transition to AgrpEcology, for a food secure world
2. Yellow Pages for AgroEcology, worldwide
3. Transition to Argoeecology- how can we do it, how to support it?
3. Twentyfive examples of frontrunners in the New Normal agriculture

Contact:
Issuu.com/jellekeforagroecology
www.jellekedenooy.nl
info@jellekedenooy.nl

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Contents
1 Emerging movements towards agro-ecology........................... 6
2 Emerging initiatives for a healthy soil ...................................... 9
2.1 A soiled reputation ......................................................................................... 9
2.2 Effective micro-organisms (EM).................................................................... 10
2.3 The Global Soil Forum/IASS .......................................................................... 10
2.4 IFPRI .............................................................................................................. 10
2.5 ISRIC .............................................................................................................. 10
2.6 Save our Soils ................................................................................................ 11
2.7 Summer of Soil, August 2013........................................................................ 11
2.8 SoCo .............................................................................................................. 11
2.9 The Fertile Grounds Initiative ....................................................................... 11
2.10 The Global Soil Partnership........................................................................... 12
2.11 The Soil Association ...................................................................................... 12
2.12 The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) .................................................. 12
2.13 The Soil Resolution........................................................................................ 12
2.14 The No Till Association .................................................................................. 12
3 ASIA ......................................................................................... 15
3.1 Angoc ............................................................................................................ 15
3.2 Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutes ......................... 15
3.3 APNAN........................................................................................................... 15
3.4 MSSRF ........................................................................................................... 15
3.5 The Peoples’ Science Institute. ..................................................................... 16
3.6 Seeds for Change .......................................................................................... 16
3.7 SWI - System for Wheat Intensification ........................................................ 16
4 SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA............................................. 18
4.1 Buen Vivir ...................................................................................................... 18
4.2 CLADES .......................................................................................................... 18
4.3 Costa Rica ...................................................................................................... 18
4.4 Community Agro-ecology Network (CAN) .................................................... 18
4.5 Seeds of Passion............................................................................................ 19
5 AFRICA ..................................................................................... 20
5.1 CAADP ........................................................................................................... 20
5.2 Grow Africa ................................................................................................... 20
5.3 Heifer ............................................................................................................ 20
5.4 Farming systems in Africa - mitigation the old new way .............................. 21
5.5 Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD), Ethiopia ................................. 21
5.6 Maputo Earth Market ................................................................................... 22
5.7 MERET ........................................................................................................... 22
5.8 PELUM ........................................................................................................... 23
5.9 SRI, System of Rice Intensification ................................................................ 23
5.10 Songhai.......................................................................................................... 24
5.11 Thousand Kitchen Gardens in Africa ............................................................. 24

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 6 NORTH AMERICA .................................................................... 25
6.1 Green Planet ................................................................................................. 25
6.2 Holistic Management International .............................................................. 25
6.3 Organic Consumers Organisation ................................................................. 25
6.4 Sustainable-Food-Systems Real Estate Foundation ..................................... 26
6.5 Wild Farm Alliance ........................................................................................ 26
7 AUSTRALIA .............................................................................. 27
7.1 Natural Sequence Farming ........................................................................... 27
7.2 Regenerative Farming ................................................................................... 27
8 EUROPE ................................................................................... 28
8.1 Platform ABC ................................................................................................. 28
8.2 British Ecological Society, Agricultural Ecology Group ................................. 28
8.3 (The) European Food Declaration ................................................................. 28
8.4 Friends of the Earth Europe .......................................................................... 29
8.5 Food Otherwise............................................................................................. 30
8.6 The Network Vital Agriculture and Food ...................................................... 30
8.7 PAN Europe ................................................................................................... 30
8.8 The province of Drenthe ............................................................................... 31
8.9 Wervel ........................................................................................................... 31
9 WORLDWIDE ........................................................................... 32
9.1 The Biodiversity Fund ................................................................................... 32
9.2 IFOAM ........................................................................................................... 32
9.3 Biodiversity International ............................................................................. 32
9.4 CAAANZ ......................................................................................................... 32
9.5 Canadian Foodgrains Bank ............................................................................ 32
9.6 Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) ................................................................... 33
9.7 Conservation agriculture .............................................................................. 33
9.8 EcoAgriculture Partners (2004)..................................................................... 34
9.9 Fairfood International ................................................................................... 34
9.10 Forum for Indigenous People ....................................................................... 34
9.11 The Future We Want .................................................................................... 34
9.12 GIAHS ............................................................................................................ 35
9.13 Groundswell International ............................................................................ 35
9.14 International Society of Tropical Foresters .................................................. 36
9.15 International Sustainable Seed Development (ISSD).................................... 36
9.16 La Via Campesina (LVC) ................................................................................. 36
9.17 Landscapes for People, Food and Nature ..................................................... 36
9.18 EcoAgriculture Partners ................................................................................ 37
9.19 Palm Oil Platform .......................................................................................... 37
9.20 Permaculture ................................................................................................ 38
9.21 Prolinnova ..................................................................................................... 39
9.22 Slow Food ...................................................................................................... 39
9.23 The Sustainable Landscapes Partnership (SLP)............................................. 40
9.24 The Terra Madre Network ............................................................................ 40
9.25 UN: Rethinking is necessary! ........................................................................ 40
9.26 United Nations in 2013 ................................................................................. 41
9.27 The Zero Hunger Challenge .......................................................................... 41
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 10 Emerging Knowledge & Technologies for Agro-Ecology ........ 43
10.1 Communicating ecology: Improving the traditional journal model ............. 44
10.2 Cattle husbandry, cause or solution for the climate crisis? ......................... 44
10.3 Carbon sequestration ................................................................................... 44
10.4 CGIAR Challenge Programme ....................................................................... 45
10.5 Conference October 2012 - UNEP ................................................................ 45
10.6 Conference on Agro-Ecology September 15, 2015 in Cuba ......................... 45
10.7 Cuba-U.S. Agro-Ecology Network (CUSAN)................................................... 46
10.8 Enhancing Agricultural Biodiversity .............................................................. 46
10.9 FAO Symposium 2014 ................................................................................... 46
10.10 Food Otherwise ........................................................................................... 47
10.11 Heterogeneous farms are an advantage in rural development ................. 48
10.12 ‘Holistic Science’ study ................................................................................ 48
10.13 How to feed and not to eat our world? ...................................................... 48
10.14 IASS / GIZ/ German Cooperation & Development ...................................... 49
10.15 IIED, International Institute for Environment and Development ............... 49
10.16 ISIS ............................................................................................................... 50
10.17 A workshop in Mozambique in May 2015 .................................................. 50
10.18 Rodale Institute ........................................................................................... 51
10.19 The annual international course on Agro-Ecology...................................... 51
10.20 Sustainable Inclusive Investments in Agriculture ....................................... 51
10.21 System of Rice Intensification (SRI)............................................................. 52
10.22 The Scientific Council for Integrated Sustainable Food and Agriculture .... 52
10.23 Sustainable International Agriculture ......................................................... 52
10.24 Shaping the Future of Agriculture............................................................... 52
10.25 The potential to prevent a world food crisis exists! ................................... 53
10.26 The current system must be overhauled .................................................... 53
10.27 Transformation of research approaches .................................................... 53
10.28 The protein transition ................................................................................. 54
10.29 The Trews .................................................................................................... 54
10.30 Climate-resilient agriculture by smallholder farmers ................................. 54
10.31 Urban food policy ........................................................................................ 55
10.32 Revitalisation of smallholder farms ............................................................ 55
11 Emerging books, movies and debates on agro-ecology ......... 56
11.1 BOOKS ........................................................................................................... 56
11.2 MOVIES ......................................................................................................... 61
12 Debate and Fora ..................................................................... 64
13 References .............................................................................. 66

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1 Emerging movements towards agro-ecology

“Agro-ecology is the structural answer for future agriculture.”

This statement was made by the IAASTDi, the International Assessment of

Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, in its report
Agriculture at a Crossroads, 20071, based on all the investigations carried
out all over the world by this group of well-known scientists.

Subsequently the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier de

Schutter,ii stated in 2010 that agro-ecological agriculture can generate an
increase in agricultural production and food security, as well as an increase
in income for small farmers, while providing a barrier against genetic
erosion, resulting from industrial agriculture.
In Europe in 2012, Andrea Ferrante2 gave a passionate speech on small
agro-ecological farmers: “It is impossible to see Europe without small
farmers and entrepreneurs! Their essential function in guaranteeing food
security is finally recognised. On top of this they play a central role in the
dynamic development of all the European landscapes and regions.
Furthermore they put a low claim on the Commons, the communal natural
resources of this world. They are essential. But we still lack a coherent policy
to support these small farmers and their function.”
Through research, Prof. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg (Wageningen University)
and Prof. Jules Pretty (London) show us that at least smallholder farmers
are producing 75% of the world’s food. Supporting those smallholder
farmers to grow food more sustainably and to double their harvests by
better access to inputs like compost, seed, tools, and agro-ecology
practices, will solve the food problem.
For the February 2016 conference in Wageningen, Netherlands, the
organising team states that, “Agro-ecology is becoming the new normal.”
In my book Transition to Agriculture, for a food secure world’3 you can read
how, all over the world, the change to agro-ecology is taking place and how
each of us can support this transition, be it as an agricultural professional, a
consumer, a donor agency, a researcher, a policy maker, a decision maker,
an investor, a food processor, a student. You can download the book from:
issuu.com/jellekeforagroecology

Worldwide emergence of agro-ecology.

From around 2005 onwards, in increasing tempo and all over the world,
initiatives come up. These yellow pages present a large selection of all those

http://www.unep.org/dewa/Assessments/Ecosystems/IAASTD/tabid/105853/Defa
2
by ECVC, European Coordination Via Campesina
3
You can download the book from issuu.com/jellekeforagroecology
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positive initiatives promoting agro-ecology. All of them have emerged
between 2000 and 2016. Discover how surprising they are and how they
aim to strengthen regional self-sufficiency and social justice all over the
world!
Join!
All movements need support and strengthening, if they have not been
accepted as the ‘New Normal’. Do not hesitate to join them, or to act as a
catalyst for these movements.

Underground movements materialising.

It is impressive how many emerging initiatives have already materialised!
Both long-standing, traditional and new organisations have started working
in an integrated way; they now become visible on a world-wide scale. We
see them popping up at local, regional and national level, in books, movies
and on the web. There are organisations involved in the restoration of the
soil; dissemination of knowledge on agro-ecological agriculture; restoration
of closed-loop cycles in agriculture, regionalisation and food sovereignty.
They are organised as NGO’s; societal initiatives; businesses; in government
policies; and at centres of knowledge.

Acceleration
Some innovative movements for more sustainable living and working
started already in the 1980s. At that time, transition had not yet been
defined as such, yet some early starts for real change were made. Between
2000 and 2010 many sustainability initiatives started. However, during this
period most of these innovative movements remained underground; it is
only since 2010-2012 that they have become visible. I here refer to the
quadrant of Ken Wilber, in which he explains how change starts in the
invisible ‘I’ and ‘We’, and only becomes visible after a while, when the
changed attitude materialises in the personal actions and the physical
world, showing other ways of decision making, organising, dealing with our
natural resource and doing agriculture.4
It looks as if acceleration is taking place between 2012 and 2016. Notably in
the period between 2012 and 2016, the discussions and agendas directed
towards the New Normal way of living and working, including the transition
to AgroEcology, became visible; people and organisations are making the
change from ‘I’ to ‘We’, they make the change to context-awareness, to
social responsible entrepreneurship and to working along new economic
and integrated principles. In 2013, food and its sustainable production
became the centre of the public debate. Also in 2013, seemingly all of a
sudden, attention for healthy soil, urban agriculture and permaculture
increases everywhere in the world.

4
See the book Transition to Agro-ecology, chapter 8. Transition
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It is encouraging to see how many people and organisations are involved.
Suddenly they have become visible as the main stream of the New Normal.
We need only a little more to arrive at the Tipping Point.

This Yellow Pages document starts with movements for a healthy soil. Then
it continues with initiatives and organisations for agro-ecology by continent:
Asia; South & Central America; Africa; North America; Australia; Europe;
and worldwide. It concludes with a section about interesting knowledge
institutes, courses and technologies on agro-ecology, including books, films
and debates. Of course you can find all in alphabetical order as well.

Am I missing someone?
Do you find an organisation missing? That is quite possible, as this
document shows the organisations that I have come across, but I could not
possibly capture them all. So I would like us to make this a living, dynamic
document, accessible for all who want to find out more about the
movements to agro-ecology.
I plan to update these Yellow Pages on a monthly basis, so do send me the
name and website of your organisation, or an important book or
conference result, and possibly some text to explain the purpose and
activities.

Please send your info to info@jellekedenooy.nl

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2 Emerging initiatives for a healthy soil
From 2010 onwards, a rapidly increasing number of people and
organisations started to work on the restoration of soils and soil fertility;
departments for soil that had disappeared were reinstalled, and new
movements started. All those organisations aim for a healthy soil, improved
carbon content (C/N ratio) and the rehabilitation of the coherence of agro-
ecological agricultural landscapes. Often they are not aware of each other’s
existence or activities. Yet they contribute to an ever-stronger movement
for fertile soils and agro-ecological agriculture.
According to the FAO (2013)5, 90% of our food is grown in soils, and 25% of
our soils have been so severely damaged that it no longer contributes
towards food production. Ten million hectares of fertile soil are lost every
year, approximately 30 soccer fields per minute. Agricultural practices are
responsible for 75% of this soil erosion. The FAO, the European Union and
others acknowledge the crucial function of the soil and sounded the alarm
bell (in 2013) on the negative impact of unsustainable agriculture and soil
exploitation on our health and food security.6

2.1 A soiled reputation

A soiled reputation; adverse impacts of mineral fertilizers in tropical
agriculture.7
The idea that more fertilizer will produce higher yields is far too simplistic.
On the contrary, industrial agricultural production is a major cause of lower
soil fertility and rising soil degradation worldwide. The improper and
disproportionate use of chemical fertilizers drives this trend. This study
opposes the African Development Bank’s recommendations and offers a
critical analysis of fertilizer subsidies. Instead, it focuses on various aspects
of soil fertility. This is because the nature of soils in the tropics and
subtropics present enormous challenges that must be faced when including
fertilizer in a comprehensive soil management strategy. That is the only way
to improve soil fertility and, ultimately, to rise yields.
Fertile soils are amongst our most important resources worldwide.
Healthy soils store water, are home to a large share of biodiversity, and
store carbon. Fertilizer subsidy programmes ignore the challenges and
potentials of agriculture that conserves the resources on which it depends.
Only healthy soils will be able to meet the food requirements of the nine
billion people in the future.8

5
http://www.summerofsoil.se/
6
FAO news 2013
7
Johannes Kotschi/AGRECOL – Association for AgriCulture and Ecology. Published
by The Heinrich Böll Foundation and WWF Germany, Berlin, April 2013
8
http://www.boell.de/en/content/soiled-reputation-adverse-impacts-mineral-
fertilizers-tropical-agriculture
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2.2 Effective micro-organisms (EM)
EMs were introduced in the 1980s by Prof. Dr. Teruo Higa. He developed a
food production method in Japan without using harmful substances. He
cultivates and uses a mix of micro-organisms to improve soil fertility, to
suppress pathogenic microbes and increase the efficiency of organic
matter. The technology has proven to be very effective, and has many
followers all over the world.9

2.3 The Global Soil Forum/IASS

Founded in 2009, IASS10 is an international interdisciplinary hybrid between
a research institute and a Think Tank, located in Potsdam, Germany. The
publicly funded institute promotes research and dialogue between science,
politics, and society on developing pathways to global sustainability.

The Global Soil Forum is dedicated to achieving responsible land

governance and sustainable soil management worldwide. IASS provides the
secretariat. There is an active forum for discussion and a debate among
various stakeholders. The Global Soil Forum organised the first Global Soil
Week in Berlin in 2013, which was so successful that it has since become an
annual conference.

2.4 IFPRI
In 2000 the International Food Policy Research Institute started a serious
action to promote integrated nutrient management, to improve soil fertility
and to increase sustainable agro-eco agriculture.iii The institute’s
justification for this action is based on its analysis of the serious degradation
of soils world-wide: 45 million hectares in Africa, 15 million hectares in Asia
and 60 million hectares in South America are degraded in various degrees
and have thus become unsuitable for agriculture. These soils, however, can
still be restored, and erosion and degradation of still productive soils can be
prevented, which is the main aim of this action.

2.5 ISRIC
World Soil Information is an independent international scientific institute,
based in Wageningen, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1964 by the
International Soil Science Society (ISSS) and UNESCO. Their mission is to
supply information on soils to the international community in order to
tackle crucial questions and problems. ISRIC is also the World Data Centre
for Soils (WDC-Soils). ISRIC works in three priority areas: soil data and soil
mapping; application of soil data in global development issues; and training
and education. Apart from tailor made trainings, ISRIC organises a ‘Spring
School’ once a year for both new and experienced soil scientists who wish

9
Effective Microorganisms- http://www.emearth.com/NewFiles/CropsSoil.html
10
IASS, www.iass-potsdam.de/en; info@iass-potsdam.de
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to increase or refresh their knowledge about diverse soil science related
topics, including advances in soil geo-informatics. The 5-days ‘Spring
School’ is organised in Wageningen and includes a visit to the
World Soil Museum. Topics may vary year by year and are
chosen from the list of training modules.

2.6 Save our Soils

On 29 May 2013, a launching conference for the Save Our Soils movement
was organised in Berlin, Germany. To counter the industrial agriculture
movement, Save Our Soils recommends sustainable agricultural practices,
efficient water use and conservation agriculture: restorative agriculture,
recycling agriculture or agro-ecology.

2.7 Summer of Soil, August 2013

Motivated by the urgency of the statement of the FAO (earlier in this
chapter), Imagineers Sweden organised ‘The Summer of Soil’ in August,
2013 in Järna, Sweden. ‘Summer of Soil’ is a 5-week, multidisciplinary
accelerator programme aiming at waking up and inspiring a movement to
restore and guard the living soil. The programme comprises of a series of
practical courses, an exhibition of regenerative methods and the ‘Living Soil
Forum’, a five-day conference to turn collective decisions into action. The
exhibition presented the crucial processes in Soil biology, which agricultural
practices are beneficial to the soil and soil regeneration, both in rural and
urban areas. There was a pavilion presenting small-scale solutions, a walk
along examples of sustainable agriculture and the ‘2000 Square Meter
Project’, which presented the ecological footprint of a human being.

2.8 SoCo
The Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation project (SoCo) carried
out an inventory on which approaches could be followed in Agriculture to
restore soil fertility.iv Conservation Agriculture or restorative agriculture (no
or less tillage, continuous soil cover, crop rotation) and organic agriculture
(no chemical herbicides and insecticides, closed nutrient cycles) are the
recommended approaches.

2.9 The Fertile Grounds Initiative

This initiative started in 2014 by some inspired soil professionals in the
Netherlands, from ZOA (NGO), Soil&More (company) and Alterra (research
Institute Wageningen UR Netherlands). Their concept is to bring balance in
demand and supply of various nutrients within a region11.

11
https://www.wageningenur.nl/en/article/fertile-grounds-initiative.htm
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2.10 The Global Soil Partnership
While the availability of soil is such a natural phenomenon, the fact that it is
a finite natural resource is often ignored. For this reason
the FAO, together with a number of other organisations
established the Global Soil Partnershipv (GSP) in 2012. This
worldwide soil partnership wants to improve soil
management at a global scale. The United Nations have
declared December 5th as International Soil Day, while 2015 will be the
International Year of Soils.vi

2.11 The Soil Association

The Soil Association in the United Kingdom is a well-known nationwide
organisation that advocates for a healthy ecological (especially
organic) approach to agriculture. They focus on a healthy soil.
This is realised by Low Carbon Farming: a reduction of carbon
dioxide, storage of carbon dioxide in the soil and an increase of
the sustainability of the farming enterprise.

2.12 The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA)vii

This is a progressive international scientific movement, with
6000 members, which wants to disseminate (practical)
knowledge on soils in order to maintain and protect our soils
worldwide. In 2012 they launched a campaign “I

2.13 The Soil Resolution

“An international resolution on soil is required as a basis for legislation on
the utilisation of agricultural land.” This statement was made by Boris
Boincean and David Dent, scientists and co-authors of The Black Earth
(2009). They argue that agro-ecological practices, such as crop rotation,
contribute considerably to a way of crop production ,which is less
exhaustive and maintains soil productivity. Boris Boincean is professor
ecological agricultural systems and director of the research centre, Selectia,
in Balti, Moldova. He supports his statements with the results of 30 years of
integrated research, different crops, different crop rotations and irrigated
and rain-fed agriculture. He concluded that crop rotation and organic
management give the best results.

2.14 The No Till Association

The worldwide ‘No Till Association’ is a federation of organisations
promoting a no tillage approach. During the GCARD2 conference of 2012,
the Brazilian Ivo Mello presented a review of the activities of this
federation. The main conclusion was that an increase in food production

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could be attributed to an increase of carbon fixation and a reduction of
eutrophication of the soil.

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Movements for Agro-Ecology

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3 ASIA

3.1 Angoc
ANGOC is a coalition of Asian NGO’s, located in Quezon City, the
Philippines, aiming to reform landscape and rural development. This
coalition was founded in 1979 and consists of 20 national and regional
networks, working for food security, transformation of existing agricultural
practices into sustainable agro-ecological agriculture, participatory
management and rural development.

3.2 Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutes

Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) in the Asia-Pacific
region is effectively promoted and facilitated through novel
partnerships among NARS and other related organizations so that it
contributes to sustainable improvements in the productivity of
agricultural systems and to the quality of the natural resource base
that underpins agriculture, thereby enhancing food and nutrition security,
economic and social well being of communities and the integrity of the
environment and services it provides.

3.3 APNAN
The Asia Pacific Natural Agriculture Network (APNAN) in Bangkok,
Thailand, was founded to promote scientific research into Effective
microorganisms (EM) and Kyusei Nature Farming in Asia. The
network also develops training programmes for education and
technology. APNAN has a wide network on other continents, as
well.

3.4 MSSRF
The M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) is a non
profit, NGO trust based in Chennai, India. It develops and promotes
strategies for economic growth that directly target increased employment
of poor women in rural areas. Their methods maximize the use of science
and technology for equitable and sustainable social development and
environmental stability. The MSSRF logo signifies continuity and change,
invoking the DNA model of open-ended, many-sided, and continuous
evolution.
MSSRF was founded in 1988 by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, who is also the
chairman of the foundation. In 1970, C.V. Raman, the Nobel Prize–winning
physicist, urged Swaminathan to start an autonomous research centre to
realize his goals of sustainable development, which he now terms the
‘Evergreen Revolution’. In 1988, after receiving the World Food Prize,
Swaminathan used the US$200,000 prize to start the MSSRF. Swaminathan
also currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology and is chairman of
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the National Commission on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security of
India.

3.5 The Peoples’ Science Institute.

The world record yield for paddy rice production is not held by an
agricultural research station or by a large-scale farmer from the United
States, but by Sumant Kumar who has a farm of just two hectares in
Darveshpura village in the state of Bihar in Northern India. His record yield
of 22.4 tons per hectare, from a one-acre plot, was achieved with what is
known as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). To put his achievement in
perspective, the average paddy yield worldwide is about 4 tons per hectare.
Even with the use of fertilizer, average yields are usually not more than 8
tons.

3.6 Seeds for Change

While the government of Nepal is promoting
improved and hybrid seeds, in 1998 the Nepalese
NGO Local Initiatives for Biodiversity Research and
Development (LI-BIRD) developed a method called
‘Participatory Four Cell analysis’, which enables
communities to assess the status of their
agricultural biodiversity. It visualises the amount of
crop diversity available in a community and the varieties that might be at
risk of being lost.
The ‘Four Cell analysis’ consists of a matrix, with one axis mapping the
number of farmers planting a specified variety and the other the size of the
area in which the crop is grown. This method has gained worldwide
recognition. It provides a basis for communities to manage their
biodiversity, including seed production, expansion of areas planted with
local varieties, breed purification, and processing and marketing of
traditional and local food items. LI-BIRD has worked with over 11,000
farming households across Nepal, who are now managing their agro-
biodiversity better as a result. This generates social, economic and
environmental benefits. For example, local aromatic rice varieties such as
Tilki and Kalonuniya were about to disappear, but thanks to community
seed selection and enhancement, they have become commonly grown
12
varieties and people are now selling them at premium prices.

3.7 SWI - System for Wheat Intensification

The extension of SRI practices to wheat, the next most important cereal
crop after rice, was quickly seized upon by farmers and researchers in India,

12
For more information contact Pitambar Shrestha or Sajal Sthapit at Local
Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD). Visit
www.libird.org or e-mail: pitambar@libird.org or ssthapit@libird.org
16 | P a g e
Ethiopia, Mali and Nepal. SWI was first tested in 2008 by the People’s
Science Institute13 which works with farmers in Himachal Pradesh and
Uttarakhand states of India. Yield estimates showed a 91% increase for un-
irrigated SWI plots over usual methods in rain fed areas, and an 82%
increase for irrigated SWI. This has encouraged an expansion of SWI in
these two states. The most rapid growth and most dramatic results have
been in Bihar state of India, where 415 farmers, mostly women, tried SWI
methods in 2008/09, with yields averaging 3.6 tons/ha, compared with 1.6
tons/ha using usual practices. The next year, 15,808 farmers used SWI with
average yields of 4.6 tons/ha. In the past year, 2011/12, the SWI area in
Bihar was reported to be 183,063 hectares, with average yields of 5.1
tons/ha.
With SWI management, net income per acre from wheat has been
calculated by the NGO PRADAN (www.pradan.net) to rise from Rs. 6,984 to
Rs. 17,581, with costs reduced while yields increased. This expansion has
been done under the auspices of the Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion
Society, supported by the International Development Association (IDA) of
the World Bank.

13
(PSI, http://peoplesscienceinstitute.org),
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4 SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA

4.1 Buen Vivir

Buen Vivir (living well) is an age-old principle of the endemic peoples ofthe
Andes and the Amazon area, like the Quechuas and the Aymaras.
It involves the harmonious co-existence of mankind and nature.
The farmer is the link between man and nature and meets the
demands of society in a sustainable way.viii This has become a
leading principle in various countries in Latin America. The
Government of Ecuador, for instance, cooperates with the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in a
projectix whereby Buen Vivir principles have been included in the
integrated landscape approach.

4.2 CLADES
In 1989, twelve South American NGO’s founded CLADES14, convinced of the
need for a new institutional arrangement for the intensification,
strengthening and promotion of agro-ecological agriculture. Countries
involved a.o. are Peru, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. At the same
time, CLADES aims to preserve traditional agricultural practices of small-
scale farmers by merging small unproductive holdings into larger more
sustainable and productive enterprises.x

4.3 Costa Rica

In the Talamanca region of Costa Rica a cooperative of small organic
farmers, in cooperation with the local community, has set up a system to
monitor biodiversity, developed farmer training courses and an exchange of
knowledge communication. At the same time they are trading in cocoa, an
internationally important commodity. Crop diversification and preservation
of bio-diversity contribute towards maintaining the traditional food
production systems, the improvement of the living conditions of the
farmers and the strengthening of their position in the world market.xi

4.4 Community Agro-ecology

Network (CAN)
CAN supports rural communities in Mexico and
Central America with sustainable agricultural methods

14
Consorcio Latino Americano sobre Agroecología y Desarrollo, the Latin American
consortium for Agro-ecology and development.
18 | P a g e
and integrated approaches with the aim to become self-sufficient. Targets
of the CAN are (1) Action research –extend activities for food security to
other regions (2) establish a multinational, intercultural network of young
people in North and Central America to promote food security and food
sovereignty and (3) empowerment15 of youth leaders to find a solution for
the malnourishment and migration amongst young people. The last target is
achieved by preservation and restoration of sustainable food cultures.

4.5 Seeds of Passion

So-called ‘Seeds of Passion’ secures farmers’ access to environmentally and
culturally appropriate seeds. Synergies between collective action, politics
and science were put to work in Paraíba, Brazil. The establishment of a
Seeds Network supported knowledge exchange, the conservation of agro-
biodiversity and a growing political voice of farmers.

15
Empowerment means self strengthening, personal development and self
realisation
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5 AFRICA

5.1 CAADP
‘Towards Enhancing Innovation Systems Performance in Smallholder
African Agriculture’. Within the “New Partnership for Africa's Development
(NEPAD), a programme of the African Union, the ‘Comprehensive Africa
Agriculture Development Programme’ (CAADP) was created that is entirely
African-led and African-owned and represents African leaders' collective
vision for agriculture in Africa. For example, agricultural reform in Africa
aims for an annual growth rate of 6% in agriculture by 2015. CAADP has
four pillars:
1) Sustainable land and reliable water control systems;
2) Private sector development, rural infrastructure, improved trade &
market access;
3) Increasing food supply and reducing hunger; and
4) Agricultural research and dissemination of agricultural technology.
Within this last pillar, CoS-SIS focuses on research on the impact of
agricultural innovation systems approaches.

5.2 Grow Africa

In Africa in 2011, a ‘New Green Revolution’ came into
existence, promoted by public and private investors; a revolution which
respects community structures and small farmers. Grow Africa.16 Mention is
made of leapfrogging: Africa has the advantage of a delayed development;
because of that, harmful practices that were developed in the USA and
Europe can be skipped and more beneficial approaches can be
implemented immediately. “The earlier we start, the better” is the opinion
of the Grow Africa Initiative of the World Economic Forum.xii

5.3 Heifer
Heifer17 trains poor African families to become farmers. Donors fund a cow,
sheep or chicken and the receiving families pass on the first-born
calve or lamb to another family. In this way the receivers are
transformed into donors and start developing an independent
future. An important aspect of this project is that the vicious circle
(no money no food no school no work no money) is
broken and replaced by a sustainable local cycle. Some have
reservations on this approach as the feeding needs of the animals
are not always considered and the subsequent overgrazing leads to
unwanted erosion.

16
https://www.growafrica.com/
17
Heifer, a Non Governemt Organisation. http://www.heifer.nl/
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5.4 Farming systems in Africa - mitigation the old new way
Frederic Mousseau, policy director of the Oakland Institute, California,
coordinated the research for the institute’s agro-ecology programme.
His findings are based on 33 case studies in sub Saharan Africa 18:
“Millions of farmers don’t need to adapt to climate change; they have done
that already!”

One example comes from Kenya (smallholder farmers switched to bio

intensive agriculture, using 90% less water and 50-100% less purchased
chemical fertilizers), another from Southern Africa (farmers switching from
expensive and harmful maize mono cropping to conservation and
regenerative farming practises), the next one from Ethiopia. The high
biodiversity in the Gamo highlands of Ethiopia, which forms the basis of the
local farmers’ traditional Enset (false banana) based agricultural system,
allows them to easily adjust their farming practises to climate adaptations.
Although African indigenous system are often perceived as backwards by
central governments, they have a lot of learning to offer to the rest of the
world when contemplating the challenges of climate change and food
insecurity.
Farmers in the drivers’ seat. This, and other success stories, are just a
sample of what Africans are already doing to adapt to climate variations
while preserving their natural resources, improving their livelihoods and
food supply. What they have in common is that the farmers, including
women farmers, are in the driver’s seat of their own development. Millions
of farmers are local innovators who experiment to find the best solutions in
relation to water availability, oil characteristics, landscapes, cultures, food
habits and biodiversity.
From high external to low external inputs. That is another common
feature. Those farmers have switched from reliance on commercial seeds,
synthetic fertilisers and chemical pesticides, the so-called conventional
agriculture, to agro-ecological practises, the New Normal. The main inputs
required here are people’s own energy and common sense,
shared knowledge and of course respect for a sound use of
natural resources.

5.5 Institute for Sustainable Development

(ISD), Ethiopia
ISD’s mission (since 1990) is to raise the importance of using sustainable
knowledge, practices and innovations in order to support and improve the
livelihoods of local communities in Ethiopia. They work to incorporate the
best of both traditional and modern knowledge through sharing
experiences, open dialogue, research and training, based on genuine

18
http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/01agroecology-in-africa-mitigation-the-old-new-
way
21 | P a g e
participation. One of the four topics they focus on is the advancement of
agro-ecology and agro-ecological practises. They aim to help raise crop
yields for local food security and train farmers how to take good care of
their soils.19

5.6 Maputo Earth Market

The Maputo Earth Market proves that markets and agro-biodiversity can
support each other. Like its counterparts in Austria, India and the United
States, Africa’s first Earth Market taps into the rich, but often hidden,
potential of local ecosystems and cultures. Traditional leafy vegetables,
fruits, street food, fresh vegetables, liquors, jams and more are on display.
In contrast to other urban market places, all the products are local,
seasonal, organic or artisanal, and small scale family farmers man all of the
stalls.
Farmers appreciate the market as it enables them to by-pass intermediaries
and sell their produce directly to consumers. Having a diverse range of
seasonal and traditional vegetables and other foods is also valued by
consumers. This encourages family farmers to plant a diversity of crops on
their farm and maintain local varieties. The market is not merely a purchase
point. It is also a meeting place for farmers and consumers.
Farmers eagerly talk about how they cultivate their crops. They explain how
traditional foods are prepared or delve into the nutritious value of certain
foods. In this way local food cultures are shared and maintained. The
Maputo Earth Market is a collective effort for food sovereignty, introduced
by Slow Food, its local chapter Muteko Waho, Gruppo di Volontariato Civile,
and the National Union of Mozambican Farmers.20

5.7 MERET
Of the many projects for the improvement of food security and agriculture
in Ethiopia, the participatory development of a watershed for food security,
MERET, is a successful example. This watershed approach21 was a new
concept in 2009. Water and food production have a strong
interrelationship. In the MERET22 project local communities construct small
retention dams, hand-dug wells, build water storage reservoirs, implement
soil conservation measures and build terraces and irrigation networks. In
less than ten years over 85,000 hectares of grass and farmland have been
made productive again. This successful approach has improved food
security and living conditions and contributes to a better functioning of
ecosystems and biodiversity.

19
http://www.isd.org.et/
20
For more information contact Velia Lucidi at Slow Food International.
E-mail: lucuiedi@slowfood.it
21
Implemented by the UN World Food Programme (WFP)
22
Meret means ‘the Earth’.
22 | P a g e
5.8 PELUM
Participatory Ecological Land Use Management Association (PELUM)23 is a
network of civil society organisations and NGOs working with smallholder
farmers in east, central and southern Africa. This regional network
facilitates learning, networking, advocacy and lobbying for ecological land
use and agriculture in Sub Saharan Africa. The association membership has
grown from 25 pioneer members (in 1995) to over 250 member-
organisations in 2014. PELUM’s Kenyan chapter has 44 members. PELUM
operates in 10 countries of East, central and southern Africa (South of the
Sahara). In east Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia. In
Central Africa: Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. In Southern Africa: South
Africa, Lesotho and Botswana.
What is PELUM doing?
 It promotes participatory ecological land use management practises.
 It builds the capacity of members and partners to respond appropriately
to community needs as they work to empower the communities they
work with
 It increases the visibility of small-scale farmers.
 It promotes sharing of information of development experiences,
innovations and best practises.
 It strengthens linkages and collaboration through action learning among
partners and members.
 It lobbies directly for change and formulation of policies in favour of
smallholder farmers.
 It promotes seed security and hence food security among smallholder
farmers.
 It promotes the use of indigenous food (programmes).
 It focuses on mainstreaming of gender and HIV/Aids campaigns in
agriculture programmes.
 It offers consultancies.

5.9 SRI, System of Rice Intensification

See also http://sri.ciifad.cornell.educ. The ideas and practices that
constitute SRI were developed in Madagascar some 30 years ago, for rice.
They are now being adapted to improve the productivity of a wide variety
of other crops, like wheat, finger millet, tef and sugarcane. Producing more
output with fewer external inputs may sound improbable, but it derives
from a shift in emphasis from improving plant genetic potential via plant
breeding, to providing optimal environments for crop growth. Using SRI
methods, smallholding farmers in many countries are starting to get higher
yields and greater productivity from their land, labor, seeds, water and

23
http://pelum.net/

23 | P a g e
capital, with their crops showing more resilience to the hazards of climate
change.24
Philosophically, SRI can be understood as an integrated system of plant-
centered agriculture. Fr. Laulanié, who developed SRI thinking and practice
during his 34 years in Madagascar, in one of his last papers, commented
that he did this by learning from the rice plant; “the rice plant is my
teacher”, he wrote. Each of the component activities of SRI has the goal of
maximally providing whatever a plant is likely to need in terms of space,
light, air, water, and nutrients. It also creates favorable conditions for the
growth and prosperity of beneficial soil organisms in, on and around the
plant. SRI thus presents us with the question: if one can provide, in every
way, the best possible environment for plants to grow, what benefits and
synergies will we see?
Already approximately 4-5 million farmers around the world are using SRI
methods with rice. The success of SRI methods can be attributed to many
factors. They are low risk, they don’t require farmers to have access to any
unfamiliar technologies, they save money on multiple inputs, while higher
yields earn them more. Most important is that farmers can readily see the
benefits for themselves.

5.10 Songhai
An example of how local and regional agriculture in Africa can improve
without changes in scale can be found at www.songhai.org. Here we see
how sustainable small-scale agriculture has been developed while
remaining innovative and resilient; they have their own strategy for sales,
marketing and mechanisation. The movement was started in the 1980s by
father, Godrey Nzamujo, and developed into a centre of activities. There
are now five such centres in Benin and a couple in neighbouring countries.25

5.11 Thousand Kitchen Gardens in Africa

Terra Madre26 communities have created Thousand Kitchen Gardens in
schools, villages and urban fringes in 25 different African countries in the
past 10 years. Meanwhile the international Slow Food networkxiii is
collecting money in the rest of the world to establish more kitchen gardens.

24
Thakur et al 2009; Zhao et al 2009.
25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCiUFzNfI5k
26
See also lower down in this chapter. Terra Madre is a world-wide network of
food communities, CSA’s or other cooperations of producers and consumers. They
aim for sustainable production of healthy food (generally agro-ecological or
organic). Terra Madre is coordinated by Slow Food.
24 | P a g e
6 NORTH AMERICA

6.1 Green Planet

A non-profit consulting organization focused on sustainable agriculture,
conservation and environmental stewardship. Their team of consultants,
agriculturalists and business experts provide support and solutions to
agricultural focused small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), NGOs and
community based initiatives. They recently started the Green Seeds
Initiatives. Through small seed grants, they encourage grass-root agriculture
on a grand scale.

6.2 Holistic Management International

This is an organisation27 in the USA that trains people to work their land in a
holistic manner and become a more sustainable
farmer. The mission is to educate people to manage
land for a sustainable future. They accomplish this by
motivating, connecting, supporting and training
farmers, ranchers, and land stewards through the practise of holistic
management, a whole farm/ranch planning system, that addresses and
improves environmental health, sustains economic viability and enhances
the quality of life of farm and ranch communities, (A new) Grazing
28
Philosophy
What do grazers do in nature? Under natural conditions, grazers are
nature's gardeners: their hooves create seed-to-soil contact, helping
dormant seeds to germinate and establish; they break soil crusts that keep
seeds from growing; they trample standing vegetation into mulch that
protects the soil and keeps it moist; their guts act like living compost piles,
turning vegetation into high-quality fertilizer; by pruning stale growth, they
keep forage plants at peak production. Pruning a plant's top causes its
roots to self-prune. These dead roots become new soil. It's an exquisitely
balanced interplay of biological processes that let an estimated 60,000,000
bison build prairie soils up to 3 meters (9 feet) deep across the vast plains of
North America. Today it supports millions of wildebeest, zebra, impala, and
other game in East Africa.

6.3 Organic Consumers Organisation

The organic29 consumers organisation (OCA) is an online and grassroots
non-profit, campaigning for health, justice and sustainability. The OCA deals
with crucial issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering,
children’s health, corporate accountability, fair trade, environmental
sustainability and other key topics. We are the only organisation in the US
27
http://holisticmanagement.org/
28
Thomas J. Elpel; http://managingwholes.com/grazing-soils.htm
29
https://www.organicconsumers.org/
25 | P a g e
focused exclusively on promoting the views and interests of the nation’s
estimated 50 million organic and socially responsible consumers.

6.4 Sustainable-Food-Systems Real Estate Foundation

In Canada, British Columbia, the Sustainable-Food-Systems Real Estate
Foundation30 has expressed a particular interest in land use initiatives that
remove barriers and/or contribute to new approaches and practices for
sustainable food systems in BC. This includes projects involving land use
planning, policy, regulation, design, mapping and feasibility studies that
seek to advance more resilient food systems.
Why? Sustainable food systems are a vital part of vibrant, healthy
communities. In recent years, there has been rising concern about the
resiliency of local food systems. Mounting oil prices, awareness of climate
change, loss of biodiversity, and urban growth pressures on agricultural
land have increased public concern. In response, there are a growing
number of initiatives across British Columbia that address these challenges
by helping create more sustainable food systems. A sustainable food system
integrates production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food,
and waste diversion, in ways that enhance community well-being at the
local level. BC communities are facing challenges – such as climate change,
rising oil prices, and development pressure on agricultural land – which
affect food security. We fund initiatives that contribute to innovative
approaches in land use policy and planning to support sustainable food
systems.
Community-based urban farming, like Integration of local food systems
into community planning and urban design; strengthening the inter-
relationships between food systems, ecosystems and the built
environment.
Land access: Tools, policies and legal mechanisms to support access to land
for all activities required in a sustainable food system.
Regional food systems planning: Planning approaches that integrate
production, processing, distribution, consumption and waste diversion of
food in a region

6.5 Wild Farm Alliance

The Wild farm Alliance is an alliance of nature farmers. “We envision
a world in which community-based, ecologically managed farms and
ranches gracefully meld into landscapes that accommodate the full
range of native species and ecological processes.” Wild farms can be
found in all shapes and sizes. They range from small wild gardens to

30
http://www.refbc.com/grants/sustainable-food-systems

26 | P a g e
farms that are well integrated in the larger surrounding landscape. Their
common element is the cooperation in the field of nature management and
the responsiveness to nature. Some 90 organisations in North America have
joined this alliance and thus combine food supply and nature management.
www.wildfarmalliance.org.

7 AUSTRALIA

7.1 Natural Sequence Farming

‘Save our farmers and the world with natural cycle agriculture’, is the
message of this approach. On 26 January 2011, Peter
Andrews was awarded Australia’s highest distinction for
the development of the Natural Sequence Farming
approach. He was also appointed Honorary Member of the
Carbon Farmers Hall of Fame, because of his activities for
carbon fixation through agricultural practices; this is actually an element of
the entire cycle approach. This award could become the turning point for a
wider application of Natural Sequence Farming throughout Australia. More
information at www.nsfarming.com.

7.2 Regenerative Farming

Soils for Life is a movement in Australiaxiv that wants to promote integrated
landscape management through sustainable agriculture. They call their
approach regenerative farming. They are officially registered as
environmental organisation. The Soils for Life programme31 is implemented
in three stages:
1. Inventory, documentation, and promotion of the regenerative farming
experiences already in existence.
2. Remove the largest obstructions for further development of regenerative
farming. This also includes encouraging and initiate change in education
and training.
3. Promote acceptation of the New Normal throughout Australia by setting
the right example in combination with effective training for farmers, a
change in government policy, support by agribusiness and consumers and
creation of awareness with citizens.

31
http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/
27 | P a g e
8 EUROPE

8.1 Platform ABC

For Aarde (Earth), Boer (Farmer) and Consument (Consumer), was founded
in July 2000. They are critical of the existing agricultural policy and lobby for
sustainable and socially responsible food production and food sovereignty.
At the European level they work through the European Platform for Food
sovereignty.32 www.aardeboerconsument.nl.

8.2 British Ecological Society, Agricultural Ecology Group

Its mission:
To be a forum for exchange of information between
ecologists, conservationists, agricultural researchers, land
managers and policy makers.
To consider conservation in the farmed landscape, using
ecological theory to address agricultural problems, economic
and ecological sustainability of current farming systems, and
the implications of
agricultural policies.
To do this, a) through meetings, workshops, field visits, an email bulletin
board and a website; and b) through contact with other societies.33 See
more at:

8.3 (The) European Food Declaration

In 2010 a group of 21 eminent scientists from various European countries
formulated a proposal for a new European Agricultural and Food Policy.xv
The final report and the related budget can be found at

32
See also www.europeanfooddeclaration.org and www.nyelenieurope.net
33
http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/getting-involved/special-interest-
groups/agricultural-ecology/#sthash.Sip31tom.dpuf
28 | P a g e
www.europeanfooddeclaration.org under ‘documents’. The internal
European market was selected as a starting point, while the impact of the
policy on consumers’ behaviour was assessed as well. It turned out that the
income percentage spent on food would increase from 14 to 14.6% only.
The new policy, including more emphasis on a greener environment, would
cost the EU around 30 billion Euros instead of the current 55 billion Euros.

8.4 Friends of the Earth Europe34

Friends of the Earth, for the people for the planet, for the future.
Over the past 50 years, our food system has become more globalised and
more heavily dependent on cheap raw materials, chemical inputs and
mechanisation. Big business has moved in, with control of our food
increasingly concentrated in a handful of multinational corporations
operating throughout the food chain. The social and environmental impacts
of this system are devastating: small-scale farmers and food companies
worldwide are driven out of business; obesity and food poverty are rife;
while taxpayers and citizens foot the bill as one food crisis follows another.
Meanwhile, as consumers, we find it more and more difficult to know what
we are buying, who has made it and where it comes from. Yet there are
alternatives. Innovative projects seeking to re-connect producers and
consumers by promoting short food supply chains and food produced in a
sustainable way can be found in most European countries. These include
short supply chains, alternative food networks, local farming systems and
urban gardening. Friends of the Earth Europe and other movements and
organisations believe that control of food and farming needs to be put in
the hands of local people and farmers, shifting to agro-ecological systems
that work within environmental and equitable limits to achieve food
sovereignty in Europe and the rest of the world.

Published February 2015: Transitioning Towards Agro-Ecology: using the

CAP to build local food systems.
Published May 2015: Eating from the farm: the social, environmental and
economic benefits of local food systems.

34
https://www.foeeurope.org/
29 | P a g e
Citizens demand more local food!

8.5 Food Otherwise

This organisation came up in the Netherlands and Flemish Belgium,
originally as a team to organise the Food Otherwise35 conference on Agro-
Ecology in Wageningen in 2013. The team is a coalition of farmers, farmers
organisations and civil society which also organises the February 2016
Conference. They point out that industrialisation and globalisation of
agriculture in the last decade has led to a lot of mishap. We face
deterioration of soils, unsecure future for smallholder farmers, public
health problems, environmental pollution, loss of biodiversity, and loss of
influence of consumers on how their food is being produced. In a manifest
they suggest radical transition in agriculture - through agro-ecological
practices and other rules of the game’- to a more conscientious, sustainable
and fairer agriculture.

8.6 The Network Vital Agriculture and Food

This network of farmers, researchers and other professionals, started in
2008 in the Netherlands. It promotes and exchanges
knowledge and experiences on closed loop
agriculture, as a compromise between regular and
organic agriculture. Principles derived from organic
farming are: a healthy soil is the base, respect for natural cycles and
manage your enterprise in line with the animals’ natural behaviour.
www.netwerkvlv.nl/en/

8.7 PAN Europe

The Pesticide Action Network (PAN) was founded in 1982. The network
comprises of over 600 NGO’s, institutions and individuals in over

35
www.voedselanders.nl
30 | P a g e
60 countries. Their goal is to minimise the negative impact of harmful
pesticides and their replacement by ecological alternatives.xvi PAN Europe
envisages a world where increased agricultural production will be achieved
through sustainable small scale practices, in which chemical inputs and
ecological and environmental damage will be reduced to a minimum, where
local people have an impact on food production and where local crop
varieties and cattle breeds are part of the production cycle.

8.8 The province of Drenthe

The province of Drenthe in the Netherlands will develop an agricultural
policy based on closed-loop agriculture for the coming seven years. This is
the result of the large potential of the ‘Farming Sustainably’ project. In
cooperation with two other provinces and water boards they will further
develop closed-loop agriculture and promote this approach with farmers,
extension agents and researchers.

8.9 Wervel
Wervel is the working group for Righteous and Responsible
Agriculture in Flanders with HQ in Brussels. Through networking
activities they help farmers, environmental groups, consumers
and third world farmers and movements to cooperate. Their
slogan is ‘Think global – Eat local’. Their basic principle is the
unbreakable link between agriculture and culture.

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9 WORLDWIDE

9.1 The Biodiversity Fund

Founded 2000 by Oxfam Novib, Hivos and the Dutch Government, it
supports programmes promoting agro-biodiversity with emphasis on local
practical knowledge, especially for farmers in marginal areas. They,
together with the inhabitants of still natural forests and fishing
communities, are assisted in developing new, practical technologies and in
managing genetic resourcesxvii through the promotion of best practices.

9.2 IFOAM
In 2012 over 750 organisations, covering 116 countries, are members of the
‘International Federation of Organic Agriculture
Movements’ (IFOAM).xviii Around 1.5 billion hectares of the
surface of the earth is used for agriculture. Some 26 million
hectares, or 2% of this area is already used for certified
organic agriculture. The increase in the worldwide trade in
organic products shows, that organic is changing from a niche market to
mainstream, the New Normal.

9.3 Biodiversity International

Sustainable agriculture requires coherence between three important
social aspects: the human habitat, the economy and society.
Biodiversity Internationalxix supports this coherence through
projects: 1. Promoting crop diversity 2. Investigating and integrating
market forces 3. Supporting a participatory approach in crop cultivation for
biodiversity and 4. supporting cultural diversity in nutrition.

9.4 CAAANZ
CAAANZ was founded in 2005 to represent ‘conservation farmers’ xx
worldwide and to facilitate exchange of information and
knowledge. Members apply all kind of management systems
for fertile soils, ranging from research to practical
experience in carbon fixation, but also the no-tilling system.
http://www.caaanz.org.au

9.5 Canadian Foodgrains Bank

“We want a world without hunger!” the Canadian
Foodgrains Bank works toward this goal by: providing
food in times of crisis for hungry people in the
developing world; helping people grow more food to
better feed themselves and their families; and providing
32 | P a g e
nutritional support to malnourished people with a focus on pregnant and
breastfeeding mothers and young children. They also advocate for public
policies that enable families and communities to better feed themselves.
International programs provide food assistance to people in emergency
situations and longer-term support to help people provide for their own
food; amongst others through conservation agriculture.

9.6 Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA)

By changing to more resilient agro-ecological systems, agriculture can
contribute to a reduction in the impacts of climate change, and provide
enough food for everyone. Seventy% of these changes can be realised in
developed countries.36 Since 2012, therefore, FAO is advocating that
agricultural policy is the cornerstone for food security and improved living
conditions. A more productive and resilient agriculture requires improved
management of natural resources (soil, water and biodiversity). This can be
achieved through integrated practices such as conservation agriculture,
integrated crop protection, agroforestry, agro-ecologic agriculture and
more sustainable consumption patterns, with emphasis on a reduction of
the intake of animal proteins.
CSA acknowledges the fact that climate change is a crosscutting issue with
the need for an integrated approach to food security, environmental
quality, human welfare and other development goals. Agriculture is
uniquely situated between climate
change adaptation and mitigation strategies, because it is both a major
contributor to the world’s changing climate as well as a vulnerable socio-
ecological system. Thus, transitioning to CSA requires a landscape approach
that considers the multi-functionality of agricultural practices and the need
for cooperation at many levels and across all sectors.
Sometimes, it helps to see a practice in action. In Niger, a landscape
approach to farmer-managed natural resource generation provides a strong
example of CSA. Traditional woodland management was expanded from
forests to farmland by strategically planting and allowing naturally
germinating trees to integrate with crops. Food security, nutrient-rich
fodder trees and fertile top soils have all increased. Diversified livelihoods
make for better-adapted communities, while mitigating the contributions of
agriculture to climate change.

9.7 Conservation agriculture

Today, 842 million people do not have enough to eat. And the pressures on our
food system are only growing.We must figure out how to feed the world —
without destroying it.37

36
www.fao.org.
37
http://www.conservation.org/what/pages/food-agriculture-and-fisheries.aspx
33 | P a g e
9.8 EcoAgriculture Partnersxxi (2004)
This organisation manages and develops landscapes
following a holistic systems approach, without considering
agriculture as a separate sector. Their aim is to create and
maintain agro-ecological landscapes at a worldwide level.
EcoAgriculture Partners promotes management of natural
resources by local rural communities, thus realising three outputs at
regional level (1) maintaining biodiversity (2) improving agricultural and
food production and (3) reinforcement of the social and economic viability.
The terminology agro-ecology covers both management and development
of agro-eco-systems, it acknowledges local communities as managers of
eco-systems and biodiversity and enables them to take up this
responsibility in an effective manner. The stakeholders in the area are
collectively responsible for the management of their landscape and their
region. They support individuals as well as organisations in agricultural
xxii
practices from local to global levels. EA-Partners is a network of farmers,
communities, international companies, policy makers and donors.

9.9 Fairfood International

This is a not-for-profit organisation which represents the worldwide
interests of Fair Food: food produced in a fair manner. Fairfood envisages a
future with fair and sustainable food production that can feed the world
population while maintaining and protecting the environment and
biodiversity for future generations, while respecting human rights. Fairfood
therefore encourages large corporations in the food and beverage industry
to adapt their production chains to reach socio-economic and ecological
sustainability.

9.10 Forum for Indigenous People

In February 2013 the first Forum was organised in Rome by the
International Fund for Agricultural Development38 (IFAD), in order to
emphasize the importance of traditional knowledge and experience in
management of land and natural resources, including agricultural practices.

9.11 The Future We Want

This is the title of the ‘agenda’ agreed upon during the Rio+20 conference.
It describes how a green economy can promote sustainable development. It
describes how the organisation of the UN has to be modified in order to
meet a set of sustainable development goals by 2015; and it presents a
Framework of Action for special sectors and special areas in the world.

38
International Fund for Agricultural Development;
http://www.ifad.org/events/ip/2012/index.htm
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The most important conclusion is: Business as usual cannot be an option;
transformative change is needed. As the challenges are highly inter-
dependent, a new, more holistic approach is needed to address them.
Because the challenges (read solutions to the problems) are directly linked,
a new, more holistic approach is necessary.

9.12 GIAHS
This stands for Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. These
systems are special land use systems and landscapes, rich in biodiversity.
This diversity is the result of a long period of mutual adaptation of a
community to the natural surroundings, and a strong link with nature. In
order to preserve and support these integrated landscapes the FAO
founded the GIAHS in 2002. It promotes an integrated approach for
sustainable agriculture and rural development.

9.13 Groundswell International

“Our global agricultural and food system is broken and needs to transition
to one that is more sustainable and beneficial to the world’s population.
This must happen in the face of the linked challenges of climate change,
natural resource depletion, and worldwide economic and social upheaval. At
the same time, farmer-led social movements are growing, and there is
increasing recognition that agro-ecology and food sovereignty are key
solutions.”
Groundswell therefore is working to build healthy farming and food
systems by supporting rural communities across the globe. In August 2009,
12 people from eight countries – Burkina Faso, Canada, Ecuador, Ghana,
Haiti, Honduras, the Philippines, and the United States – gathered at
Overlook Farm in Rutland, Massachusetts to create Groundswell
International as a global partnership to contribute to this movement and
these bottom-up solutions.
xxiii
Their motive : A partnership of local civil society organizations, NGOs and
people grounded in diverse contexts and experiences, yet whom share a
common approach to supporting social change, a history of collaborating
over many years, and a common dream.39 They have been at the leading
edge of developing methods to spread agro-ecological farming practices,
farmer innovation, farmer-to-farmer extension, community health, and
strengthening local organizations to lead their own development processes.

39
: http://www.groundswellinternational.org/our-
story/#sthash.Pssn8x9v.dpuf
http://www.groundswellinternational.org/our-story/
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9.14 International Society of Tropical Foresters
In January 2013 the society held an annual conference. The main topic was
the promotion of resilient landscapes where food production and forest
development go together. Forests and jungle offer a wide range of food
products for about 1 billion humans, while providing natural resources (soil
fauna, insects and natural crop protection) necessary for agricultural
production.

9.15 International Sustainable Seed Development (ISSD)

ISSD contributes to agricultural development. Quality seed is a key input for
agriculture with an immediate effect on agricultural production and
productivity. Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) is an inclusive
approach that recognizes and builds upon a diversity of seed systems in the
sector.
At the Centre for Development Innovation (CDI), Wageningen UR and at
Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), the ISSD approach is used to guide us in the
design and implementation of seed sector interventions that are coherent
with farmers’ agricultural practices. The main objective is enhancing
farmers’ access to quality seed of superior varieties, and contributing to
food security and economic development.

9.16 La Via Campesina (LVC)40

This is an international movement, uniting over 200 million self-sufficient
farmers, small and medium scale farming enterprises, artisans, farmhands
and indigenous peoples. LVC wants to strengthen small-scale sustainable
agriculture in order to create protection against large-scale industrial
agriculture, which often destroys nature and local communities. Their major
aim is to create food security and self-sufficiency.

9.17 Landscapes for People, Food and Nature

Development and application of eco-agriculture was the aim of this three
year cooperation programme (2009-2012) between various UN
organisations, NGO’s and European governments. It was an international
initiative for trans-sectorial sharing of knowledge, dialogue and action.
Following the whole landscape approach, this
initiative is looking for new approaches to integrated
sustainable landscape development. The agricultural
landscape approach is a new concept that has been
used since the Rio+20 Conference on sustainable
development in 2012. This approach includes, among others: eco-
agriculture, participatory watershed management, management of natural
resources by beneficiary communities and an ecological framework. This

40
http://viacampesina.org/en/
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approach has been developed by the UN Environmental Programme
(UNEP), FAO, IFAD and the international NGOs, World Resources Institute
and Conservation International. An integrated landscape approach for
sustainable food production is more effective for the protection of
ecosystems than the current system of supporting individual farmers. Tim
Benton of Leeds University showsxxiv how diversified agricultural landscapes
can provide the resilience necessary in a rapidly changing world.

9.18 EcoAgriculture Partners

Landscape labelling for better smallholder product-marketing. In recent
years, voluntary certifications and labels like fair trade, organic and shade
grown have gained popularity, enabling consumers to pay farmers a
premium in reward for sustainable practices. In 2014, EcoAgriculture
Partners released a frame-work and case studyxxv exploring the possibility
of labelling products to reflect the location and integrated management
practices of their landscape of origin.

Landscape labeling is a strategy that practitioners of integrated landscape

management can use to market their products.41 A landscape label captures
and brands the social and ecological assets, growing conditions, soil,
topography, and management practices of producers in a landscape. It
serves as a mechanism for increasing the visibility of small producers,
improving market access, and generating premium payments. Based on
actor interest, EcoAgriculture Partners decided to design and test a
landscape labeling approach to marketing. The approach was tested in
collaboration with local partners in two locations, Lari, Kenya and Mbeya,
Tanzania. Despite notable barriers, landscape labeling represents an
exciting and viable approach to marketing for smallholders

9.19 Palm Oil Platform

42
“It’s where and how it’s grown that we need to change.” In the U.S. it’s
estimated that palm oil, or ingredients derived from it, are used in half of
the products on the average supermarket shelf. So it is in your cookies, your
baked goods, your margarines, your lipsticks and skin lotions, your
shampoo and toothpaste and a wide range of other packaged foods and
personal care products. As far as edible oils go, palm oil is actually quite
good. Oil palm yields 4–10 times more oil per hectare than other oilseed
crops, including soybean and canola. Palm oil represents about 38% of the
world’s supply of edible oil, but it’s grown on only 5% of the land dedicated
to oilseed crops globally. With international demand for edible oils growing
steadily, more oil from less land is a good thing.

41
http://bit.ly/1nXz7oB
42
http://blog.conservation.org/2014/04/why-palm-oil-isnt-the-
enemy/#sthash.nttOSGy1.dpuf
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But it isn’t all good news! Deforestation, draining and planting palm on peat
lands, land disputes with rural communities — all of these have been major
consequences of the global palm oil boom. Many problems stem from the
fact that too much oil palm has been planted at the expense of tropical
forests. These forests are a critical source of food, medicines and other
materials; they are vital to regulating weather patterns and buffering local
communities from storms and floods, and are home to many of the world’s
most unique and threatened species (including orang utans). Forests also
play a critical role in maintaining healthy watersheds and river systems that
are essential for communities and downstream agriculture. And loss of
forests doesn’t just impact local communities. Deforestation is one of the
leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate
change.

So how can we change for the better? Palm oil and deforestation do not
have to go hand in hand. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO is a
network of hundreds of organizations with interests in the global palm oil
supply chain, from oil palm growers to consumer goods manufacturers to
NGOs. Presently, the RSPO has developed a set of sustainability standards
for the industry, and in just six years, the group has certified 16% of global
production. In addition, several major producers are voluntarily exceeding
these standards, and the Indonesian government has developed a national
standard with the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) initiative. We
need not deforest more. The World Resources Institute43 estimated there
might be 14 million hectares (more than 34.6 million acres — an area about
twice the size of Ireland) of previously cleared or degraded land in
Indonesian Borneo alone, that could potentially be suitable for palm oil.
Compared to the roughly 9 million hectares (22.2 million acres) currently
covered by oil palm in Indonesia, that’s room for a lot of growth without
clearing more forest.

9.20 Permaculturexxvi
Permaculture is the deliberate design and maintenance of agricultural eco-
systems, which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural eco-
systems. Permaculture is a fast growing sustainability movement. The
Permaculture Learning And Network Demonstration project (LAND) in UK is
growing daily and the ‘Permaculture Research Institute’ in Australia is
developing a worldwide network of demonstration and training centres,
which in their turn are responsible for spin off activities in the region. A
44
number of development organisations assist small farmers in increasing
their production and in accessing the market. Small-scale farmers support
the development of areas that are at war, or major conflict zones. They

43
wri.org/blog/
44
Development organisations such as Oxfamnovib, Cordaid, SNV, ICCO, Hivos,
Plan Nederland, Terre des Hommes .
38 | P a g e
ensure that there is sufficient food for society and create job opportunities.
This is a serious issue as over 800 million people in countries in
development are suffering from food shortages. Furthermore cooperation
between farmers and salespersons can create trust where there was
mistrust before.

9.21 Prolinnova
Prolinnova45 stands for PROmoting Local INNOVAtion. This is done on a
local scale in ecological oriented farming enterprises and in the
management of natural resources. In twenty different countries in Africa,
Asia, Latin America and Oceania, various NGO’s have joined forces to
increase the impact of their network.

9.22 Slow Food

Founded in 1989 as a not for profit organisation, Slow Food promotes
biodiversity and sustainable and environmental friendly food production
and consumption. Slow Food also wants to be an intermediary between
producers and consumers of quality food and organises events to facilitate
contacts.
The farmer in the drivers’ seat! In Zimbabwe, support from IFAD, Oxfam
Novib and its partners, has encouraged farmers and NGOs to build on the
46
experience of LIBIRD in Nepal. Community seed fairs are a valuable
opportunity to exchange seeds and knowledge, and to take stock of the
status of biodiversity in their communities.
One way to do this is by using the ‘Diversity Wheel’, originating from the
‘Four Cell Analysis’ in Nepal and further developed by the Zimbabwean
Community Technology Development Trust. At a seed fair, a facilitator picks
up one seed variety and asks the farmers present: “How many of you are
growing this variety?” and “Is this variety grown on a large or small area of
land?” A fifth cell was added to the original tool, referring to varieties that a
community lost. This prompts farmers to discuss why certain varieties are
no longer being grown, or why they value a specific variety. It leads them to
reflect on how to pro-actively ensure the conservation of varieties at risk.
Once all the crops that farmers grow are placed on the Diversity Wheel the
farmers find it easy to visualise how their food security and diet
composition is evolving. The Diversity Wheel is a story of partnerships,
where good ideas build on each other and travel across continents. It is also
an example of a tool that puts the farmers firmly in the driver’s seat.

45
http://www.prolinnova.net/
46
For more information contact Rima Alcadi and Shantanu Mathur at the Strategy
and Knowledge Department of the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD).
Visit www.ifad.org or e-mail: r.alcadi@ifad.org
39 | P a g e
9.23 The Sustainable Landscapes Partnership (SLP)
SLP is an innovative public-private partnership that brings together
governments, businesses and NGOs to identify, develop and test new
solutions aimed at avoiding deforestation and associated greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions. They do this through the development of low emission
business models. The SLP — whose founding members are Conservation
International, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and
the Walton Family Foundation — will focus activities in select district-scale
landscapes.
Each landscape will be anchored by a REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus conservation, the sustainable
management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) project.
Low emission business opportunities will be developed in the adjacent
areas with the aim of a 50% reduction of potential emissions in specific
land-use change investments over the next five years, as well as conserving
Indonesia's unique biodiversity.
The first pilot program will be launched in district-level sites of high-
conservation value in Indonesia, which is the world's third-largest emitter of
GHGs, the majority of which comes from burning peat lands and from
deforestation and forest degradation caused by large-scale land conversion
to commodities like oil palm and pulp and paper. In response to this
growing concern, the Indonesian government has announced its intent to
commit to significant GHG emissions reductions over the next decade — by
26% by 2020 (up to a 41% reduction with international assistance), while
still growing the economy at 7% per year.

9.24 The Terra Madre Networkxxvii

Terra Madre was founded in Turin in 2004 by the Slow Food movement to
give a face and a voice to small and traditional farmers, gardeners, dairy
farmers and other food producers, who, through their production methods,
support the environment and the society worldwide. The network brings
them together and connects them to academia, cooks, consumers and
youth groups, to enable them to improve the entire food production system
and render it sustainable.

9.25 UN: Rethinking is necessary!

In 2012, the report Sustainable Development in the 21st Century (SD21),
was published by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations.xxviii In the section ‘Food and Agriculture’ it is stated that the
status of our food security and the reduction of our natural resources is
mainly caused by industrial agriculture. Also is says that the importance of
public health in the coming 20 years is a serious matter.
Many of the interviewed experts plead for a complete change in thinking: it
concerns a transformation of our current habits and ways of thinking and a

40 | P a g e
transformation of our current (Western based) food production and
agricultural systems.xxix
Re-thinking is necessary because we are aiming for the wrong goals:
 Our eating habits result in poor health and the destruction of eco-
systems.
 The importance of healthy food for the worldwide population is the
responsibility of the wrong parties and not related to correct
agricultural and water management practices.
 We have to restore the nutritive value and the vitality of food through
better soil management. No more empty calories!
 In the developed countries, imported food is more important than its
production; while there are 50,000 edible crops in the world, fifty
percent of our food consists of three crops, grain, rice and maize.
 Farmers and emerging organisations that contribute to the resilience
and reinforcement of natural resources through the use of ecological
agriculture and soil management are hardly supported.
 Industrial agriculture is the largest water user; on top of that it is the
cause that annually some 2,000 to 50,000 km squared of productive
land is lost as a result of erosion and land degradation.

9.26 United Nations in 2013

In 2013, the United Nations announced that the world’s agricultural
needs could be met with localized organic farms. Food security, poverty,
gender inequality and climate change can all be addressed if we adopt a
significant paradigm shift, according to the UN’s Trade and Environment
Review (TER)47, a 320-page report written by 63 authors from organizations
around the world. They provide evidence with numerous coherent case
studies and surveys. “Wake up before it is too late: Make agriculture truly
sustainable now for food security in a changing climate.”

The solution to all these interrelated problems is establishing a

conglomerate of small, bio-diverse, ecological farms around the world and
a localized food system that promotes consumption of local/regional
produce.

9.27 The Zero Hunger Challenge

Since it was launched in 2003, Brazil’s Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) strategy has
allowed 28 million people to break free from the cycle of hunger.48 These
impressive figures suggest that public policy can have a significant impact in
the fight against hunger. A French report looks at some of the conditions
contributing to the success of the strategy, including political will combined
with a plan that is coherent, consistent, multidimensional and participatory.

47
http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=666
48
19 February 2014, Marília Mendonça Leão Renato S. Maluf
41 | P a g e
The United Nations launched the Zero Hunger challenge in 2012, and
countries and regions around the world are looking at the lessons from
Brazil’s experience. In West Africa, the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) has initiated a process for achieving Zero Hunger
in West Africa. An editorial by the West Africa GROW campaign and a
preface by Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
(2008–2014) are included in the French report and as separate documents
in English. The editorial reflects on the practicalities and challenges in terms
of social mobilization and the sub-region’s capacities to carry such an
ambitious initiative.
A key question we look to address: How can the necessary ‘political will’ be
ensured in a region of diverse states?

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10 Emerging Knowledge & Technologies for Agro-
Ecology
A striking number of innovative initiatives in the field of integrated
knowledge development, exchange of experiential knowledge,
implementation of endogenic practical knowledge and co-creation of
knowledge is emerging worldwide.
Agriculture is roughly three times more effective at reducing extreme
49
poverty than non-agricultural sectors. Grounds for optimism! Growing
academic evidence highlights agriculture’s unique role in helping to reduce
extreme poverty. An important 2011 paper by economists Luc
Christiaensen, Lionel Demery and Jesper Kuhl, shows that. Complementary
investments in transport infrastructure, irrigation, farmer credit and input
support systems were essential to Asia’s 20th century green revolutions,
which laid the foundation for that region’s subsequent economic
breakthroughs. The same basic approach, updated for today’s social and
environmental realities, can help to ensure that Africa’s long-term
economic success is equally, if not more, robust.
Applying agro-ecology to enhance the productivity of peasant farmers in
Latin America.50 The great majority of farmers in Latin America are
peasants who still farm small plots of land, usually in marginal
environments utilizing traditional and subsistence methods. The
contribution of the 16million peasant units to regional food security is,
however, substantial. Research has shown that peasant systems, which
mostly rely on local resources and complex cropping patterns, are
reasonably productive despite their land endowments and low use of
external inputs. Moreover analysis of NGO-led agro-ecological initiatives
show that traditional crop and animal systems can be adapted to increase
productivity by biologically re-structuring peasant farms, which in turn leads
to optimization of key agro-ecosystem processes (nutrient recycling,
organic matter accumulation, biological pest regulation, etc.) and efficient
use of labour and local resources. Examples of such grassroots projects are
herein described to show that agro ecological approaches can offer
opportunities to substantially increase food production while preserving the
natural resource base and empowering rural communities.

49
World Economic Forum blog. http://forumblog.org/2014/05/ending-extreme-
poverty-by-2030
50
MIGUEL A. ALTIERI, Department of Environmental Science Policy and
Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.(e-mail:
agroeco3@nature.berkeley.edu)
43 | P a g e
10.1 Communicating ecology: Improving the traditional journal
model
British Ecological Society,51 Edinburgh, December 15, 2015. A wide range of
knowledge dissemination tools is available, yet science remains heavily
reliant on academic journals. For the applied sciences in particular, it is
critical that knowledge generated is transferred into action. There may be
alternatives to the journal model that would support the delivery of action
more effectively. This workshop focuses on developing a framework for
knowledge dissemination for agro-ecology. After evaluating and ranking
models of dissemination, participants will consider the Indian context. The
output of this workshop will be made available of the Agricultural Ecology
SiG website for societies and groups wishing to consider their KE
(Knowledge Exchange) strategy. The outcome of the workshop will be:
framework for delivering agro-ecological knowledge into practice,
contribution to the strategy for the Society for Agro-ecology in India.

10.2 Cattle husbandry, cause or solution for the climate crisis?

According to the Zimbabwean biologist and conservationist Allan Savory,
cattle husbandry offers interesting opportunities for the restoration of
ecosystems. He presents examples of projects in degraded steppes in
Africa, Australia and North and South America, where cattle husbandry is a
necessary and natural contributor in the restoration of degraded lands. Of
course water conservation is essential. Through applying the right
techniques flora will become more abundant and the groundwater levels
will increase.

10.3 Carbon sequestration

According to Rattan Lal, director of Ohio State University’s Carbon
Management and Sequestration Center, the world’s cultivated soils have
lost between 50 and 70% of their original carbon stock, much of which has
oxidized upon exposure to air (by ploughing and laying bare) to become
CO2. Now, armed with rapidly expanding knowledge about carbon
sequestration in soils, researchers are studying how land restoration
programs in places like then former North American prairie, the North
China Plain, and even the parched interior of Australia might help put
carbon back into the soil.

Absent of carbon and critical microbes, soil becomes mere dirt - a process
of deterioration that’s been rampant around the globe. Many scientists say
that regenerative agricultural practices can turn back the carbon clock,
reducing atmospheric CO2 while also boosting soil productivity and
increasing resilience to floods and drought. Such regenerative techniques
include planting fields year-round in crops or other cover, and agroforestry
that combines crops, trees, and animal husbandry.

51
https://futureagriculture.wordpress.com/
44 | P a g e
10.4 CGIAR Challenge Programme
In 2014, the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) came to
an end and is now fully integrated into the CGIAR Research Program on
Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). Andrew Noble reflects on its ten-year
legacy: “For me, it is also a time to reflect on the personal transformation
that I have undergone in my perceptions and views of CPWF since becoming
familiar with the program and its activities.” CPWF’s main objectives were
always two-fold and interlaced. First, it was to generate practical knowledge
to improve water and food productivity that would yield tangible
development outcomes for the poor and improve how water is managed.
The second was based on the need to change the way we do research and
to move towards an inclusive approach to research-for-development that
results in outcomes and impact; so they explored new ways of doing
research and engaging with partners.

10.5 Conference October 2012 - UNEP

The Ecological Foundation on food security and realising sustainable food
systems held a conference in October 2012. Joseph Alcamo, chief scientist
of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), showed us that
food security (availability, access, utilisation and stability) has an ecological
foundation - agriculture- and that we are undermining that.52 Society
undermines the requirements for good agriculture: competition for water,
for land. On top of that there is loss of land through degradation, through
overgrazing improper cultivation and monocultures.
He proposes to do the following things about it:
 Work worldwide on sustainable agriculture: integrate at farm level,
integrate at landscape level (multipurpose landscapes).
 Invest (0.16% of GNP to 2050) in sustainable agriculture. It will create 47
million new jobs and sustainable food production.53 (UNEP economic
report). Comment [HR1]: Reference?

 Invest in smallholders with rewards for ecosystem stewardship and land

tenure rights.
 Make progress in scaling up of conservation agriculture - we have 125
million hectares now.

10.6 Conference on Agro-Ecology September 15, 2015 in Cuba

La Via Campesina Interrnational and the Asociación Nacional de
Agricultores Pequeños of Cuba (ANAP, National Association of Small
Farmers) hosted the 5th International Conference of Agro-Ecology and
Cooperatives in November 2015, at the Centro Nacional de Capacitación
Niceto Pérez, in Güira de Melena, Cuba.

52
http://www.unep.org/publications/ebooks/avoiding famines
53
www.unep.org/greeneconomy/.../GER_synthesis
45 | P a g e
 The conference brought together farmers, peasants, agro-ecology
promoters, facilitators, scientists, students, and everyone interested in the
development of agro-ecology throughout the world. It was meant as an
opportunity for peasant and indigenous organizations from around the
world working in this field, to exchange their knowledge and experience.
Several days were spent in small groups visiting the agro-ecology
experiences of farmer cooperatives in several provinces. Other days had a
conference format, where farmers gave some 75% of the talks.

10.7 Cuba-U.S. Agro-Ecology Network (CUSAN)

“Cuba, out of necessity, has applied agro-ecological practices to develop the
most sophisticated and time-tested system of growing agricultural crops
without the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Our goal is to
explore opportunities for research, education, and marketing collaborations
between Cuba and the United States that will support the development of
this globally important sustainable farming system in both countries.” 54

10.8 Enhancing Agricultural Biodiversity

Agricultural biodiversity plays a huge role in maintaining resilient local
economies, balanced diets and balanced ecosystems. The rapid
disappearance of agricultural biodiversity and the lack of measures to
protect it are therefore great causes of concern. Although mainstream
agricultural policies threaten such agricultural biodiversity, in recent years
many promising initiatives have been launched around the world, that aim
to preserve and manage agricultural biodiversity.
Small-scale family farmers often play a central role in these initiatives. But
other actors and institutions also play important roles: farmers and
researchers are taking up joint research initiatives, and farmers’
organisations are engaging in dialogues with policymakers, pushing for
policies that enhance agro-biodiversity.
Issue 30.1 of Farming Matters, April 2014, looks at these emerging
initiatives and at the insights gained from the efforts to up-scale these
experiences.

10.9 FAO Symposium 2014

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, hosted a two-day International
Symposium on ‘Agro-Ecology for Food Security and Nutrition’, culminating
in a high-level round table which discussed recent experiences and
experiments in the field with agriculture ministers from several countries,
18 -19 September 2014 in Rome
More than 50 experts, including academic professors, researchers, private
sector, government officials and leaders of civil-society organizations, made

54
http://www.agroecologynetwork.org/; https://bfi.org/dymaxion-
forum/2015/09/agroecology-conference-cuba
46 | P a g e
presentations or speeches at the symposium, which was attended by more
than 400 people.
“Agro-ecology continues to grow, both in science and in policies. It is an
approach that will help to address the challenge of ending hunger and
malnutrition in all its forms, in the context of the climate change adaptation
needed,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.
FAO hosted the symposium as a means to allow experts and advocates to
debate agro-ecology, an emerging set of practices that seek to apply
ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of
sustainable food systems. Agro-ecology is increasingly becoming part of the
debates of intergovernmental bodies and its approaches are repeatedly
mentioned by the Committee on World Food Security.
The closing round-table discussion featured interventions by several
agriculture ministers, including Stéphane Le Foll, Papa Abdoulaye Seck for
Senegal Abdelwahad Nouri, Luis Felipe Arauz-Cavallini, and Hidemichi Sato,
Japan’s parliamentary vice minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Brazil’s agriculture minister, Laudemir André Müller, and Dacian Ciolos, the
European Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, also
participated with video messages.55

10.10 Food Otherwise

Voedsel Anders (Food Otherwise)56 is a network of farmers, fisher folk,
scientists, beekeepers, students, artists, professionals, policymakers,
journalists and other active citizens in the Netherlands and Belgium
engaged in building healthy food systems. “While the current agri-food
system is depleting the soil and biodiversity, causes major greenhouse gas
emissions and squeezes farmers out of business, many local, national and
international initiatives show that there is another way. Around the world,
we can feed ourselves sustainably with good and healthy food that is
produced regionally, with fair prices and dignified lives for farmers,
fishermen and citizens, while respecting the environment and biodiversity.
This is the system we promote.” Read their manifest.57
Food Otherwise organised its second Conference on agro-ecology in
Wageningen in February 2016, with 1000 participants (the first and very
successful one was in 2013).

55
http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/afns/en/
56
http://www.voedselanders.nl/towards-fair-and-sustainable-food-systems/
57
http://www.voedselanders.nl/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Manifest-Voedsel-Anders-
engels.pdf
47 | P a g e
10.11 Heterogeneous farms are an advantage in rural
development58
According to the neo-classical economic model, farmers were seen as
entrepreneurs who aimed at profit maximisation. This goal would be
achieved through intensification of production, scale enlargement, and
higher competition which led to the adoption of the latest technology by
farmers and to the elimination of small holdings which could not operate
efficiently in such a competitive environment. Consequently, substantial
variation in agricultural practices was related to low levels of development.

A different approach perceives heterogeneity not as an obstacle that needs

to be eliminated but as an advantage in the rural development process. In
this alternative model, diversity is seen as a consequence of the
acknowledgement of agriculture as a social structure. More specifically, the
selection of agricultural practices was heavily dependent on the decisions of
the agents involved and on their strategies. Heterogeneity reflected
different development patterns, each emerging from corresponding
farming style. Farming styles were the outcome of the strategic behaviour
of the agents involved in agricultural production and denoted specific
market relations, specific selection of technologies and specific structuring
of the process of production. According to the definition provided by Long
and van der Ploeg: “Endogenous development patterns are founded mainly,
though not exclusively, on locally available resources, such as the
potentialities of the local ecology, labour force, knowledge and local
patterns for the use of natural resources.”

10.12 ‘Holistic Science’ study

The Schumacher College in England has already existed over twenty years
but we see an increase in the number of students attending their trainings
over the past few years. Their basic principle is that nature is our teacher,
especially in these times of transition. They follow a holistic approach of
science and thus systems, complexity and chaos theory, eco-psychology and
values are part of their study programme. They are walking along the
borders of science and practice in order to tackle ecological, economic and
social challenges.

10.13 How to feed and not to eat our world?

In a dissertation by Ruben Boonen for the KU Leuven of Belgium in
December 2015, he states that within the finite boundaries of planet Earth,
agriculture plays an essential role in the production of renewable resources.
As production inputs (soil, water, nutrients) are limited, choosing between
different functions for agriculture (food or fibre of flowers, crops or

58
Introduction to different conceptualisations of endogenous rural development.
Katharine HASSAPOYANNES,University of Patras. lrene DASKALOPOULOU, Natasa
PETROU,Mediterranean Agronomic lnstitiuotef Chania.
48 | P a g e
animals, fuel crops or food crops) results in moral discussions. Boonen
argues that animal production can play an important role in producing food
on ’useless’ land or by converting ‘useless’ energy/ proteins. Some new
ethical discussions will probably occur during the next decades, e.g. the
globally increasing population of pets that demand larger numbers of
animals raised and killed to feed them- food that instead could be used to
feed people. There is also an interesting chapter on how sustainable
agriculture is defined by your worldview: ecological or reductionist.

10.14 IASS / GIZ/ German Cooperation & Development

‘Soil protection and rehabilitation for food security’ is the title of a research
and development programme, in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya and
India, between 2015 and 2017. Sustainable land management techniques
such as green manure and agro-forestry, have long been known.
Nevertheless in many agricultural areas, unsustainable land use still
prevails. A large number of studies have investigated and identified the
factors that constrain sustainable land management. Among these are:
limited access to finance, too little and biased support, insecure land
tenure, and insufficient rural infrastructure. IASS59 research focuses on
entry points to overcome those challenges. Social learning and participative
processes are some key instruments.

10.15 IIED, International Institute for Environment and

Development
IIED started the Knowledge Programme on Small Producer ‘Agency’ in the
Globalising Market, in 2009.60 The reason? There are about half a billion
(500,000,000) small-scale famers in the world.
A lot of expectations are piling up at their doorstep! Small-scale farmers are
expected to be engines of rural poverty reduction; they are expected to
manage natural resources; they are expected to organise themselves in the
agricultural value chain in regional and international markets. That means
that those smallholder farmers need to be able to make effective choices
that advance their interests and those of their community. So they need to
be ‘agents’ in their own social and economic development, in their own
right. Rather than being treated as passive beneficiaries of an external
(Western) policy or agri-business agenda.
At the same time, globalisation is changing the way markets operate,
exposing small-scale producers to risks and opportunities. The price of food
is going to be very versatile because of increased demand, climate change
and speculation. NGO’s in the countryside advise farmers to diversify, to

59
IASS, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam Germany.
www.iass-potsdam.de/en
60
From the article ‘small scale farmers & markets - a knowledge programme;
Farming Matters, Dec. 2010
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grow high value crops, to form a cooperative etc. there are companies
looking for new sources of supply so they propose contract farming. There
are new instruments to pay land users for carbon sequestration in their
soils and manage biodiversity on their farms. So the smallholders have to
make choices all the time even when they haven’t got all the information
available.
The IIED global learning network is pursuing a programme of research and
advocacy, to support smallholder agency, like empowering smallholders in
supply chains, and to shape the global debate on this matter. See
www.iied.org and www.hivos.org.

10.16 ISIS
In fact, small farms are known to be two to 10 times as productive as large
industrial farms and much more profitable, not just in the developing world,
but also in the developed world, reports the Institute of Science in Society
ISIS. Industrial agriculture and our globalized food system is a
major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, up to 50% if proper
account is taken of emissions from land use change and deforestation, most
of which are due to agriculture, and for food-related transport, processing,
storage and consumption.

10.17 A workshop in Mozambique in May 2015

The participants of the workshop identified five ways to sustainably
intensify agriculture. In food insecure countries, large-scale investments are
often considered a major driver of agricultural growth, but these can
promote monocultures and intensive approaches that damage the
environment and progressively decrease soil fertility.61
Push Pull technology
This is a technology applied to protect crops like sorghum and maize from
the parasitic weed, Strega, and the stem borer moth. The technology uses
planting of Desmodium intercropped with maize and sorghum to suppress
Strega and drive away egg-laying stem-borer moths. Napier grass
(Pennisetum purpureum) or Sudan grass (Sorghum sudanensis) is planted
around the farm to attract and trap the stem borers. The stem borers are
more attracted to the grasses than maize or sorghum and they lay their
eggs on the grass. But the Napier grass does not allow stem-borer larvae to
mature. When the eggs hatch and the small larvae bore into the Napier
grass stems, the plant produces a sticky substance that traps them and they
die. The grasses are great for fodder (for grazing emclosures, to prevent soil
erosion) and Desmodium is – apart from fodder - very good for soil
improvement. .

61
http://www.iied.org/tag/agroecology

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10.18 Rodale Institute
A 30-year study from the Rodale Institute showed that organic farm
fields yielded 33% more in drought years compared with chemically
managed ones. In an article titled “’Yes Organic Food Can Feed the world’,
Anna Lappe, author and educator, known for her work as an expert on food
systems, writes that, “organic agriculture is taking off around the world,
especially where it’s needed most.” She reports that 80% of all organic
producers are based in developing countries, with India, Uganda, Mexico
and Tanzania leading the charge. To date, 162 nations are now home to
certified organic farms, and in 2012, the 37.5 million hectares of farmland
produced a harvest worth $63.8 billion.

10.19 The annual international course on Agro-Ecology

This annual course in Vermont concentrates on the application of agro-
ecological principles to increase resilience under climate change and to
promote solid, sustainable food production systems. The leading principle is
that farmers innovate on a daily basis in their day-to-day practice and that
there is a lot that can be learned together.

10.20 Sustainable Inclusive Investments in Agriculture

Sonja Vermeulen and Lorenzo Cotula describe business models which
provide opportunities for small farmers in development countries in their
booklet ‘Making the most of agricultural investments; a survey of business
models that provide opportunities for smallholders’.
An important conclusion is that international support should be
more than the establishment of minimum standards to prevent
negative impacts. It is important to promote income-generating
models, which create maximum opportunities for small farmers.
The next important step is to discover which factors are crucial,
what works under which conditions.
Investments in integrated landscape management. Public and
civic sectors have difficulty promoting landscape-scale action as they tend
to operate in sectorial silos and undertake parallel planning processes at
national, subnational and local scales for agricultural production, watershed
management, forestry, biodiversity, bio-energy, climate adaptation, climate
mitigation and community development. Integrated Landscape
Management (ILM) provides a context to spatially target and harmonize
investments so that they can efficiently yield public goods and private
financial returns while mitigating investment risks.
To scale up financing for ILM, the full spectrum of private and public
financial institutions will need to adapt and develop innovative mechanisms
that can move beyond sector-based approaches. Each institution will have
to figure out how best to engage given its objectives and capabilities, and
some of them are already beginning to operate in this space. Meanwhile,
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stakeholders of ILM processes throughout the world are figuring out how to
exploit the opportunities that are already available to finance their
investments.

10.21 System of Rice Intensification (SRI)

Since the start of this experiment on Madagascar in 1980, SRI is a
resounding success.xxx SRI comprises of a number of coherent actions to
intensify rice cultivation. By increasing the planting distance, the plants
develop a better root system, which increases the efficiency of water and
nutrient uptake, while a larger leaf area improves photosynthesis. Plants
are thus better developed and more resistant against pests, diseases and
drought. While scientists are still discussing how this is possible, the use of
SRI is increasing. At this moment farmers in over 50 countries apply the
system. It is interesting to see how this bottom up innovation spreads like
an oil slickxxxi due to the rapid acceptation by the farmers.

10.22 The Scientific Council for Integrated Sustainable Food

and Agriculture
This Council was founded in 2011 as an interdisciplinary think tank of
independent persons with experience in integrated systemic thinking. The
Council states that closed-loop cyclic approaches are required. “Present day
agriculture and food supply are not sustainable as food has lost its position
in the social and environmental context, while at the same time the present
system, which exists of loose elements, has run off the rail. This has resulted
in an organised irresponsibility. We have to get away from linear food
chains and restore closed-loop and complex-systems approaches and feed
back mechanisms.”

10.23 Sustainable International Agriculture

A Master of Science (MSc) programmexxxii, ‘Sustainable International
Agriculture’ was set up in the winter of 2009 as a communal study
programme of the agricultural faculties of the Universities of Göttingen and
Kassel-Witzenhausen, Germany. The idea is to train specialists who can
provide solutions for specific area related problems for the production of
food while making minimal use of non-renewable resources for a fast
growing world population.

10.24 Shaping the Future of Agriculture

This is the title of a BSc programme on sustainable agriculture, offered by
Rein-Waal Hochschule62 in Germany. They offer a course with a holistic
approach, environmental stewardship, economic profitability and social
responsibility.

62
www.hsrw.eu
52 | P a g e
10.25 The potential to prevent a world food crisis exists!
An inventory by Jules Pretty, professor at University of Sussex, UK, shows
that in 2010 over 1.5 million farmers are already applying agro-ecological
principles. The change to agro-ecology has in many cases resulted in a
doubling or even tripling of the yields. In addition to this there are
advantages such as a positive energy balance, a low consumption of fossil
energy, economic use of scarce water resources and preservation of soil
fertility, which are not found in industrial agriculture.
The combined positive effects of agro-ecology are so substantial that it can
be considered deservedly as the structural answer to the problems we are
currently facing, especially how we can feed the continuously growing
world population.

10.26 The current system must be overhauled

Alinson Power states in a scientific article xxxiii that only re-modelling of
farming practices along agro-ecological principles will be effective. This re-
modelling involves a paradigm change: the system has to be overhauled. It
will only work if the farmer (or his boss or his cooperative) has an overview
of the coherent system and understands how the interactions and the
feedback process in the system works. His conclusion is that only making
more efficient use of the inputs only (optimisation, the aim of most of the
current sustainability initiatives) is not enough. Only re-modelling along
agro-ecologic principles can provide a breakthrough to sustainable food
production and maintain biodiversity and improvement of the
environment.

10.27 Transformation of research approaches

The Global Conference on Agricultural Research and Development (GCARD)
is a partnership between the Global Forum in Agricultural
Research (GFAR) and the International Consortium for
Agricultural Research (GCIAR).
During the second international conference in Uruguay in
November 2012, the research institutes of GCARD discussed on
how to take action in a “pro-active, together with partners,
with capacity development for innovation and with an impact
on viability for small farmers” way. During this conference the participants
first of all discussed the question which transformation of agricultural
research is required for development. The next question was, ‘How are we
going to realise this in practice and what difference will it make?’ The
message that a turnaround is necessary was impressive and explicitly
directed towards meeting the requirements and the needs of small farmers.

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10.28 The protein transition
If we do not succeed in curbing our animal protein consumption and turn to
a more sustainable, vegetarian diet, there will be serious consequences for
nature, the environment, landscape and food security in 2050. This was the
sentiment of a number of experts in 2008xxxiv. In the jargon, the expression
‘protein transition’ means: transition to a food package, which relies less on
animals and more on plants. The Agricultural Economic Institute of the
Wageningen University investigated (in 2013) how this transition can be
realised through more responsible production methods, international trade
relationships and a more sustainable consumption of food.

10.29 The Trews

“I try to raise awareness about the need to shift away from globalizing to
localizing,” Helena Norberg-Hodge recently told actor and activist Russell
Brand on his Internet show, ‘The Trews’ - (truth+news= trews). Norberg-
Hodge is an analyst on the impact of the global economy and on cultures in
agriculture worldwide. She states,“Localizing is a systemic alternative that
has incredible power.”

10.30 Climate-resilient agriculture by smallholder farmers

The Third World Network gives us a wake-up call for a true Climate Smart
Agriculture in 2014. “The world needs real low-emissions, climate-resilient
agriculture: by small producers using agro-ecological methods!”
The responses and solutions lie in real low emissions technologies: organic
fertilizers, composts, and manures; cover cropping; agroforestry and agro-
pastoral systems that use tree, crop, and animal diversity to increase the
fertility of cropping systems.63 Low emission solutions must drastically
reduce or eliminate the use of synthetic fertilizers, which are responsible
for a significant amount of global emissions from agriculture. Monocultures
of genetically engineered herbicide tolerant crops (as promoted by some
Climate Smart adverts) are not low emissions solutions. Developed
countries must also reduce their overconsumption of meat and eliminate
industrial production practices, both major sources of global greenhouse
gas emissions.
The responses and solutions to climate change lie in those technologies and
practices that increase the climate resilience of systems. Many of the
practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions also increase the resilience
of agricultural systems and increase the water-holding capacity of soils:
practices that increase diversity within the system; and practices that build
the humus content of soils through use of organic fertilizers and cover
cropping. In parallel, there is urgent need to widely disseminate as much
traditional and local seed varieties as possible among peasants and small-

63
The Gaia Foundation. 2011. Clear as mud: why agriculture and soils should not
be included in carbon offset schemes
54 | P a g e
scale farmers worldwide to provide them with wide options to adapt to the
changing climate and environmental conditions in the years to come.
These are the real needs and solutions that must be created for a truly low-
emissions, climate-resilient agriculture. If the practices promoted by the
Climate-Smart Agriculture Alliance depend on synthetic fertilizers and
herbicide tolerant plants, that’s really being climate-dumb.

10.31 Urban food policy

Such policies come up all over the industrialised world now as cities have to
deal with the logistics of providing sufficient food for their inhabitants from
all over the world. A master class on this subject was organised on 23
January 2013 by the Christian Agricultural College in Almere, the
Netherlands. Professor Gaston Remmers invited ‘local food pioneer’ Wayne
Roberts64 from Toronto, to present his experiences. The central message
was not to look at the problems in the food supply situation but to turn the
situation around. According to Roberts, one has to look at which problems
can be solved through food. Food can improve health, urban agriculture can
improve social cohesion and reduce mobility, regional food production and
– consumption can reinforce the economical basis of the region and
improve the relationship between town and rural area.

10.32 Revitalisation of smallholder farms

Five key reasons for supporting revitalisation of small farms in the Global
South65. Small farms are a planetary ecological asset for the following
reasons:
 They are the key to the world’s food security.
 They are more productive and resource-conserving than large-scale
monocultures.
 They represent models of sustainability.
 They represent a sanctuary of GMO-free agro-biodiversity.
 They cool the climate.

64
http://wayneroberts.ca/about;
65
© Miguel A Altieri 2008 www.twnside.org.sg
55 | P a g e
11 Emerging books, movies and debates on agro-
ecology
Recently published books and films give us tools to realise a more rosy
future with good food and integrated sustainable production methods.
They show us that transition is possible. The world can be changed for the
better and the change to agro-ecological and responsible production is
taking place. We only have to go for it, with everybody taking responsibility.
Most of the movies show us how things have gotten out of hand and what
we must definitely not repeat. They denounce certain events and call for
change. In the debates different opinions are compared and understanding
and realisations occur. In this way we can see what is happening, what
should change and how we could contribute.
You are herewith invited to implement the ideas and visions that are
presented in these books, movies and debates, in the reality of today and
tomorrow.

11.1 BOOKS
The grain, the pig and the smile of a child (1996)

“Is transition necessary? Or do we only talk about transformation without

changing to agro-ecology?” Renaat Tijskensxxxv discusses in his book the
ailing eco-agricultural system. He describes the symptoms, diagnoses and
prepares a prescription. Tijskens pleads for a different agricultural policy,
which goes for self-sufficiency of the basic foods. Too many imports and
exports destabilise the agro-ecosystem.

A Plea for Real Food (2008)

“Eat real food, not too much, especially more plants”, is the message of
Michael Pollan. In his book xxxvi, he shows how we, as consumers, are in the
grip of the food processing industry and the food sciences, which have
imposed on us a type of nutritional idealism, which makes us believe three
myths:
1. Food elements are more important than complete food;
2. Only specialists can decide what is good for us;
3. Chronic illnesses, resulting from the industrialisation of our food, can be
cured with diets that consist of the same food.

Pollan shows us a way out by explaining what ‘real food’ is, what we have
to eat and how we have to eat it.

Food Policy - integrating health, environment & society (2009)

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Professor Tim Lang of the City University of Londonxxxvii wrote this book in
cooperation with two colleagues. He says that a new Hot Springs
Conference is required, like the one that was called in 1943 by the American
president, F.D. Roosevelt. The first Hot Springs dealt with four topics:
increased food production and the quality of living on mankind; the
improvement of production and distribution of food; better conditions for
rural communities; and guarantees for food security. Actually, all topics that
are still important. But according to Prof. Lang the conference should now
deal with 1) sustainable diets and related international guidelines 2) food
that is beneficial for eco-systems and human beings 3) re-design of food
production systems according to sustainable principles and 4) transition
from consumentism66 to citizenship.

Terra Reversa (2009)xxxviii

In this book about the transition to a ‘just’ sustainability, Peter Tom Jones
and Vicky de Meyere explain the structural unsustainability of our current
agricultural and consumption patterns. They discuss the impact of our fish
and meat consumption and describe possibilities for transition to more
sustainable food, through family farming and agro-ecology. It should be
realised globally - that food is not just a product for sale, but that it is an
integral element of a way of life, which also provides job opportunities and
can contribute to ecological management of the earth.

Thriving beyond sustainability, pathways to a resilient society (2010)

In this bookxxxix Andrès R. Edwards demonstrates that apart from

sustainability principles we need criteriaxl for effective and continuing
initiatives to create habitable and resilient society. In the back of the book a
32 page, long list of organisations, initiatives and ‘Catalysts for Change’, is
presented which together could realise a powerful shift to an agro-
ecological society.

Making the most of agricultural investments: a survey of business models

that provide opportunities to smallholders67 (2010)

This report immerses the reader in the amazing arena of agri-business

models. Much attention is being given to land grabbing and the problem
this presents to small-scale farmers. Contracting, sharecropping, or joint
ventures are just a few of the possible models by which the global economy
can take over your farm. But what are the alternatives? In this book,
options are given that link businessmen with family farmers, with different
negotiating powers. This book is a must read for understanding the many

66
Consumentism or Consumerism: being led by consumption instead of other
values; http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/discontents.aspx
67
By Sonja Vermeulen and Lorenzo Coltula; IIED, FAO/ IFAD/ SDC, London,
57 | P a g e
ways by which farmers can benefit, or lose out, from their dealings with
agribusiness.

From Outrage to Change (2011)

Dirk Barrez, chief editor of the Belgian news site DeWereldMorgen.be

(TheWorldTomorrow) shows how the numerous forces, especially those in
the outraged centre, can be mobilised to realise an ecological, social and
xli
democratic global society.

The Urban Food Revolution (2011)

In this bookxlii Peter Ladner makes an appeal that we should change the way
in which we feed our cities ourselves. The subtitle of the book is ‘Change
the way in which we feed our cities’. He presents a prescription for food
security for communities, towns and villages and cooperating citizens.
xliii
A different agriculture? A different economy (2012)

Bavo Verwimp, organic farmer and agro-economist, makes this plea for an
ecological economy for sustainable agriculture. In his opinion, the current
agricultural policy needs more than a facelift. An ecological economy is
presented as the foundation for sustainable agriculture. A worldwide
acceptance is required of the fact that we need agricultural production
tuned to the possibilities of the region. The proposed model assumes
production of an item at a sustainable level of scale for that item and the
region, fair sharing and efficient use of scarce resources instead of one-
sided emphasis on economic growth.

The Last Hunger Season (2012)

Through this book by Roger Thurow we find heart-rending stories of bad

management and wrong approaches, resulting in situations where African
children are dying from starvation, while food is rotting away in nearby
stores. The author suggests that this will be the last time we reach such
situations if his solution is employed. He demonstrates how women,
through a new social organisation, the One Acre Fund, succeed in
structurally changing their lives. The underlying message “If they can do it,
we can do it!”

World Food - A plea for a fair and ecological food supply (2012)
xliv
In this book environmentalist Guus Geurts presents an alternative to the
present day food production and trade systems. He opts for regionalisation
and food sovereignty and, through this way, he expects more justice for
both humankind and nature. For fairer food distribution we need a drastic

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change in European and global trade policy, supported by each stakeholder
assuming their own responsibilities.

Restoring the Soil (2012)

This is a guide for using green manure/cover crops to improve the food
security of smallholder farmers, written by Roland Bunch for the Canadian
Foodgrains Bank.68
With the aim of promoting recovering soil fertility in a sustainable way, the
Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) and Roland Bunch launched a new book
entitled, ‘Restoring the Soil: A Guide for Using Green Manure/Cover Crops
to Improve the Food Security of Smallholder Farmers’. This book
synthesized Roland’s extensive field-based research gathered
from smallholder farmers around the world, who incorporated
green manure into their farming systems. It is written as a
practical manual for farmers to maintain and improve soil
fertility through the use of green manure/cover crops. The
decision tree is offered as a step-by-step guide for farmers to
identify and decide the most appropriate system for their work
environment.

The Food Paradox (2013)xlv

“After the two major food crises of 1880 and 1930, we stand now at
the beginning of a third global food crisis”, says Jan Douwe van der
69
Ploeg in one of the 14 interviews in this fascinating book. The
major merit of this book is that it shows us the strange paradox,
where rich and poor live in two different worlds.

Work on the WEconomy - on our way to a cyclic economy (2013)xlvi

Professor Jan Jonker of the Nijmegen University describes the cooperative

organisation of sustainability. There is a huge request for change. In a world
based on organisation, this implies that we have to start organising in a
different way. Sustainability requires different concepts, in which the worth
of things, but especially people, is respected again. A worth that resonates
in our organisation and decision-making.
70
Organic Farming, Prototype for Sustainable Agriculture? 2014
Much debate still arises about the value of organic farming as a model for
sustainable agriculture. Rather than questioning whether organic farming
performs better or not than conventional farming, the question addressed
in this new book is whether, and under what conditions, organic food and
farming can contribute to sustainable agriculture. The book was edited by

68
http://www.apaari.org/restoring-the-soil/
69
Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, Professor Rural Sociology at Wageningen University
70
A new book in 2014
59 | P a g e
the staff of the French Institute of Agronomic Research INRA and includes
contributions from FiBL researchers.

Regenerative Agriculture - a bibliography (2015)

This compilation of resources71 reflects the latest and best information on
organic regenerative agriculture and land use practises, especially as they
relate to carbon sequestration and climate change.
Restoration Agriculture (2015)
Restoration Agriculture by Mark Shepard explains how we can have all of
the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural
systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for
our food, building, fuel and many other needs — in your own backyard,
farm or ranch.

71
https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/regenerative-agriculture-annotated-
bibliography
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11.2 MOVIES
Cow Number 80 Has a Problem (2007)

Farmers all over the world are fighting for a different type of agriculture.
Altemir in Brazil, Ndiogou and Awa in Senegal, René in France and many
others are working together for a sustainable type of agriculture, which
respects man and animal. They do that through social organisations, at fairs
and through manifestations, right until the highest levels of the World
Trade Organisation. This is a story of people who produce our food. They do
not accept that the living conditions of a couple of billion people in the rural
areas are destroyed and that 850 million people suffer from hunger, of
which 600 million are farmers themselves. This is the story of the battle
between global industrial agriculture and family enterprises, a battle that is
mainly conducted at local and regional level. This film is financed by the
European Communion and produced by the Belgian organisation Iles de
Paix.

Meat the Truth (2007)

The title of this movie has a double meaning. Apart from the truth about
meat, it cleverly sounds like meet the truth. It is presented by Marianne
Thieme - a member of the Dutch House of Representatives for the Animal
Party. It is a documentary about the contribution of the bio-industry to
climate change. Animal husbandry not only uses land, water and energy for
cattle but also for the production of cattle feed. It is more efficient to use
agricultural land for the production of crops that are directly consumed by
man, instead of being transformed to cattle feed. Generating the same
amount of calories by growing grains and beans, one only needs 10% of the
land that is currently used for animal husbandry.

The World According to Monsanto (2009)

Using unpublished documents and witness reports from victims and

politicians, the French journalist, Marie-Monique Robin, presents a detailed
picture of this “industrial kingdom, based on lies, blackmail and
corruption”xlvii. Monsanto has become the world leader in Genetically
Modified Seed, without assessing the negative impact of their products on
nature and human health. Today Monsanto presents itself as a bioscience
company, which strictly adheres to the values of sustainable
entrepreneurship. This documentary is a cooperative enterprise from Arte
and the National Filmboard of Canada.

Bitter Seeds (2011)

US/India. Bitter Seeds is the last part of a trilogy on globalisation by director

Micha X Peled. This movie follows Manjusha Amberwar as she reports on
the suicide wave among Indian farmers, including her own father. These
farmers had switched to genetically manipulated seeds of Monsanto, but
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there are quite a number of negative consequences. Expenditures for
fertilizer and pesticides are unexpectedly high, the crop requires more
water, while the farmers in this dry area are dependent on rainfall and
seldom had good harvests, while seeds for the next season have to be
purchased on an annual basis. The farmers cannot repay their loan and can
no longer look after their families.

Hungry For Change (2013)

This online moviexlviii from the producers of the documentary Food Matters,
shows the shocking facts about diets, weight loss and the food industry.
They advise on the meaning of food labels, additives and their impact and
on what you should and should not buy in the supermarket. They also
explain that it is better for your skin and hair to eat good food than to buy
expensive unsustainable creams. They present interviews with medical
experts and people who are ridding themselves of obesity. People who
have seen the movie say they have discovered the relation between food
and their own life and health.

Food Myth Busters (2013)

A short film of about six minutes which shows that the biggest players in
the food industry – from manufacturers of pesticides and fertilizer to food
processors – who spend billions every year, not on the sales of food but on
the idea that we need their products to feed the world.xlix But do we really
need so much chemistry and advertisements to feed the world, or can
sustainably grown food provide the quantity and the quality that we need
now and in the future? That is the question that Anna Lappé poses us with
this film by foodmyths.org.

Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth72

The moviel follows six young Mayans in their natural habitat, where
globalisation and industrial agriculture are destroying the planet, the
natural resources and the people. It shows them in their daily life and how
they are resisting these developments. They explain how we have to deal
with Mother Earth. Their vision of the world is diametrically opposite to our
(Western) exploitation of the earth. According to the Maya’s vision of the
cosmos everything is related and agriculture takes the central position. In
the movie, the current ‘era of the fields’ has come to an end and we are
now preparing for the integration of forests and agriculture: agro-forestry is
the future.

Mother Earth - a new future for small farmers, 2008

This movie73 is like a sequel to Bitter Seeds. Millions of farmers in India have
turned their backs on modern agriculture after the bad experience with GM

72
http://www.heart-of-sky.com/
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seeds. They modernise their traditional practices. Their success is the result
of cooperation and the combination of local traditional seeds. Chandramma
Moegeri says in the film, “our own agriculture is beautiful and generous,
you cannot imagine anything better. We have gold in our hands and we
harvest gold”. The movie is available on DVD. For more information, e-mail:
xtvfilms@zonnet.nl

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https://archive.org/details/Mother_earth_A_new_future_for_small_farmers
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12 Debate and Fora
Foodlog.nl
li
Since 2010 this interesting weblog is giving information on recent
developments, agendas and backgrounds on food production and
consumption and everything related to it, including links to articles in other
magazines.

The Future of Agriculture (2012)

Oxfam Novib organised a 10 days online discussion forum on the required

and necessary policy for sustainable agriculture. Four crucial issues were
identified: 1) farmers’ practical knowledge as catalyst for innovation,
research and investment; 2) land rights for women; 3) the (too large)
dependence on fossil fuel of industrial agriculture; and 4) effective systems
for risk management.

Towards Sustainable Food Production

Between 2012 and 2014, the Association of Environmental Professionals in

the Netherlands organised a series of critical workshops on the
sustainability of our Western food production system. Questions raised
were: How sustainable is our food production system? Which criteria are
74
applied to test its sustainability? Some critics say that greenwashing
practices are being applied by the organisations concerned with the
sustainability of production chains of soy, palm oil and sunflower. The
question is whether the Round Tables are a mere pretext to a step in the
direction of sustainable agriculture.

Cooperation of development organisations and the business community

on the conservation of agriculture, soil and water resources (2013)

Cordaid, together with the Network for Vital Agriculture and Food (Network
VLV), organised a symposium with the title Which knowledge do we share?
The event resulted in useful recommendations that can be found at
www.nvlv.nl. An example: an economy of scale can be realised when
nucleus farming is practised - the combination of large commercial farming
enterprises with small-scale family enterprises (outgrowers).

The Alternative Trade Mandate (ATM) Alliance

The Alliance supported a week of action organized in Brussels from the 10th
to the 14th of March 2013 against the transatlantic free trade agreement,
defended by the EU and the US administration. They plea that in order to
achieve sustainable economic development and to diminish the
dependency on export, effective and transparent laws and regulations need

74
‘green washing’ an analogy to ‘white washing’ in the world of finance.
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to be put in place. When the people of developing countries have a say in
the exploitation of their own natural resources less social and
environmental calamities will occur. It will also lead to better distribution of
income from resources when local peoples have a share in the profits. The
Alternative Trade Mandate calls for an effective approach to diminish over-
consumption of natural resources – contradictory to present European and
American policies – that developing countries can use import tariffs on
resources to their own benefit. With import tariffs they also can better
regulate the activities of foreign investors in their own countries.

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 13 References

i
The IAASTD was a three-year project (2005-2007) that consisted of one
global and five sub-assessments. They all used the same framework, which
consisted of the impact of agricultural knowledge and technology on
hunger, poverty, nutrition, health, social, and ecological sustainability in
relation to the past and the future. All assessments were critically evaluated
by governments and independent experts and finally approved by a panel
of the governments from participating countries. The assessment
culminated in the report Agriculture at a Crossroads.
ii
The United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Olivier De Schutter in
2008, as special UN Rapporteur in the right to food. He is completely
independent and reports to the Council for Human Rights and the General
Assembly.
iii
Integrated nutrient management, soil fertility and sustainable agriculture,
current issues and future challenges. Peter Gruhn, Francesco Goletti and
Montague Yudelman. Sept 2000, International Food Policy Research
Institute
iv
http://soco.jrc.ec.eropa.eu
v
http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/highlights/detail/en/c/157597
vi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8TyaL2DAPA

At 15.2 The world-wide emergence of agro-ecological agriculture

At 15.1 Emerging Initiatives for a healthy soil

vii
Based in Madison, WI, SSSA is the professional home for 6,000+ members
dedicated to advancing the field of soil. https://www.soils.org/
viii
Buen Vivir does not take individual interests into consideration, but looks
into the possibilities to create a balance between social, economic, cultural
and environmental aspects, without one domineering the other. Only by
stepping back and taking a communal perspective the best possible solution
for all the stakeholders in an area can be identified.
ix
http://operations.ifad.org/web/ifad/operations/country/project/tags/ecua
dor/1588/project_overview
x
CLADES seeks answers to the following questions:
 Which economic policy will create a more just and sustainable agriculture in
each country?
 Which combination of technologies can reduce the negative impacts on the
environement without annihilating the advantages of these technologies?

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  What would the relation between export agriculture and small-scale agriculture
be if we would use agro-ecological practices under the current or less contorted
policy framework?
 How efficient are alternative technologies in comparison with the conventional
high input technologies if all cost centres, types of energy and the creation of
employment are included in the comparison?
 What kind of applied research is necessary to develop and promote agro-
ecological technologies? Technologies that increase the economic and social
quality of life and reduce the ecological expenditures.
 What are the costs and benefits for the natural resources when applying
different technologies?
xi
http://landscapes.ecoagriculture.org/documents/files/reported_impacts_
of_23_integrated_landscape_initiatives.pdf
xii
The Grow Africa Initiative: Countries across Africa are developing multi-
stakeholder partnership initiatives to promote investment in line with
national priorities for the agricultural sector. Click on the country on the
map to find out more about their partnership and investment
opportunities.
xiii
http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/pagine/eng/orti/cerca.lasso?-
id_pg=30
xiv
http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/what.html. Plus 17 descriptions of
sustainable farming enterprises: http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/case-
studies.html
xv
J. Boussard e.a.: Assessment of the budgetary effects of the New Policy
xvi
http://www.pan-europe.info/Campaigns/agriculture.html
xvii
Source: Hivos and Oxfam Novib, 2009
xviii
http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/index.html
xix

http://www.bioversityinternational.org/research/sustainable_agriculture.ht
ml

At 15.3 Emerging knowledge for agro-ecological agriculture

xx
CAAANZ. The FAO describes conservation agriculture as a “concept for
saving and protecting agricultural systems, which is profitable and at the
same time realises sustainable production and protects environment and
biodiversity.(FAO 2007).
xxi
Eco-agriculture. This description was introduced in 2000 by Sara Scherr
and Jeffrey McNeely, authors of “Common Ground, Common Future: How
Eco-agriculture Can Help Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity”xxi.

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 xxii
Eco-agriculture Partners are: Landcare Uganda, Landcare international;
ICRISAT, International Crop Research Institute; ILRI, International Livestock
Research Institute; Oasis Initiative; Kenya nut company; The Kenya Network
for Dissemination of Agricultural Technologies; Universidad Autonoma de
Yucatán (Mexico); Landcare Philippines; UNDP Equator Initiative; The
Katoomba Group; World Wildlife Fund; UNEP, United Nations Environment
Program; FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations;
The Nature Conservancy; Sustainable Food Laboratory; National Academy
of Sciences (USA); African Wildlife Foundation; AgroEco; BOPP, Business
and Biodiversity. The partners develop practical experience in regaining
biodiversity.
xxiii
Groundswell’s values:
1. Lasting Change –address the root causes of poverty and support social change
processes that bring lasting improvements in people’s lives and provide equal
opportunities for all.
2. Community-Led Processes – working people-centered, responding to local
priorities, and promoting creativity, innovation and learning.
3. Local Action, Global Impact –strengthen local leadership and organizations while
pursuing common global goals by fostering connections between partners.
4. Continual Learning –ensure practices that aresustainable, relevant and effective.
5. Walking the Talk –committed to transparent, grounded actions and maintaining
positive, coherent lifestyles that promote the causes.

xxiv
Abson, DJ, EDG Fraser, and TG Benton. 2013. Landscape Diversity and the
Resilience of Agricultural Returns: A Portfolio Analysis of Land-Use Patterns
and Economic Returns from Lowland Agriculture. Agriculture & Food
Security.
http://www.vilt.be/Denk_landschapswijd_na_over_duurzame_voedselprod
uctie
xxv
In 2014, EcoAgriculture Partners released a framework and case study
exploring the possibility of labeling products to reflect the location and
integrated management practices of their landscape of origin. The papers
were written by Abigail Hart, Chris Planicka, and Louise E. Buck of
EcoAgriculture Partners' Landscapes and Leaders team, as well as Lee
Gross, Senior Program Manager for Markets and Biodiversity.
xxvi
http://permaculturenews.org/2008/06/26/the-permaculture-master-
plan-permaculture-centres-worldwide/;
http://www.permaculture.org.uk/land; http://www.permaculturenews.org
xxvii
http://www.terramadre.info/pagine/welcome.lasso?n=en

At 15.4 Emerging exchange of knowledge for agro-ecological agriculture

xxviii
Written by Daniele Diavanucci, Gabriel Scherr, Danielle Nierenberg,
Charlotte Hebebrand, Julie Shapiro, Jeffrey Milder, Keith Weeler

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 xxix
Sustainable Development in the 21st Century, SD21. “Re-thinking is
necessary because we are aiming for the wrong goals. Our eating habits
result in poor health and the destruction of eco-systems. This is stupid; the
importance of healthy food for the worldwide population is the
responsibility of the wrong parties and not related to correct agricultural
and water management practices. We have to restore the nutritive value
and the vitality of food through better soil management. No more empty
calories! In the developed countries import of food is more important than
its production; while there are 50.000 edible crops in the world, fifty
percent of our food consists of three crops, grain, rice and maize; farmers
and emerging organisations which contribute to the resilience and
reinforcement of natural resources through the use of ecological agriculture
and soil management are hardly supported. Industrial agriculture is the
largest water user; on top of that it is the cause that annually some 20.00 to
50.000 km2 of productive land are lost as a result of erosion and land
degradation.”
xxx
http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/farmingmatters. 29/1 Maart 2013.
xxxi
http://sri.ciifad.cornell.edu/aboutsri/origin/index.html
xxxii
http://sustainableag.wordpress.com/tag/universitat-kassel/
xxxiii
Linking Ecological Sustainability and World Food Needs, Agro eco’ Alison
G Power, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY, USA. Agp4@cornell.edu +16072558088
xxxiv
The protein transition. http://www.wageningenur.nl/nl/Expertises-
Dienstverlening/Onderzoeksinstituten/lei/Onderzoeksthemas/Eiwittransitie
.htm

15.8 Books, movies and discussions supporting integrated agro-ecological

agriculture
xxxv
Het graan, het varken en de glimlach van een kind, Renaat Tijskens. ISBN
90-6966-102-2
xxxvi
In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan. De Arbeiderspers ISBN 978-90-295-
6633-9. oorspronkelijke titel: In defense of food.
xxxvii
Food Policy - integrating health, environment & society; Oxford, 2009
ISBN 978-01-9856-788-2
xxxviii
Terra Reversa is a think-tank and action group in Belgium. Their basic
idea is that we cannot apply the general Western economic concept to the
rest of the world and – even worse- to the future. We need a different
development model, based on the principles of an ecological economy and
global justice. Terra Reversa is developing those ideas in the fields of
agriculture, economy, biodiversity, employment and food production.
http://www.terrareversa.be/content/

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xxxix
Thriving beyond sustainability, pathways to a resilient society; Andrès R.
Edwards. New Society Publishers. ISBN 978-0-96571-641-4
xl
According to the SPIRALS Approach of Andrès R.Edwards criteria to be
used for effective projects towards a sustainable society are: Scalable,
Place-making, Intergenerational, Resilient, Accessible, Life Affirming.
xli
Van verontwaardiging naar verandering, Dirk Barrez. ISBN 978-90-8180-
340-3 Global society vzw en EPO. Order through info@globalsociety.be or
orders@EPO.BE
xlii
The Urban Food Revolution, Peter Ladner. Publisher: New Society
Publishers ISBN: 978-08-6571-683-4
xliii
Wervel organised on bio-farm De Kijfelaar on 02/06/12 "Different
agriculture? Different economy! – Ecological economy as foundation for
sustainable agriculture” The brochure can be ordered through
info@wervel.be. The text can also be downloaded at:
http://www.wervel.be/downloads/ecolecon2012.pdf
xliv
Wereldvoedsel, Guus Geurts, 2012. Uitgeverij De Republiek, ISBN 978-90-
8605-008-6
xlv
De voedselparadox, John Habets en Henk Gloudemans. Publisher
Stichting Werelddelen. ISBN 978-90-82068-0-5.
xlvi
Jan Jonker, Amsterdam, 1954, is since 1 January 2011 professor Business
Management, with special assignment Sustainable Business Management.
His vision is that the old organisational setups will be replaced by new ones
which are more oriented towards human scale and communality.
xlvii
A movie based on the book of Marie Monique Robin. Publisher: de Geus.
For DVD, 2008, zie livingcolour.nl
xlviii
http://www.hungryforchange.tv/free-worldwide-online-screening
xlix
Bron foodbusters. http://aardeboerconsument.nl/filmpje-hoe-kunnen-
we-vandaag-en-morgen-de-wereld-voeden
l
Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth is a documentary by Frauke Sandig & Eric
Black. www.heart-of-sky.com;
li
http://www.foodlog.nl/artikel/overzicht/meer/achtergrond

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