Rising food prices, increasing climate instability and food riots have sparked profound political changes around the world and put agriculture high on the international agenda. What kind of agriculture is best suited to respond to those challenges, however, is the subject of profound disagreement. Too much of the current policy debate on food security, climate change and agriculture assumes that industrial agriculture and related biotechnology are the only options for feeding a growing global population. Agribusiness and agrochemical companies have created and supported this image through aggressive advertising, lobbying and support for research institutions.
Alternatives do exist. The three case studies presented in this report represent successful approaches, both in terms of the techniques they have applied, and because of the active involvement of farmers’ organizations in changing the policies needed to ensure their success. Agroecological systems, which start from the interplay between the natural environment and agriculture, and build on local priorities and knowledge about site-specific conditions, are at the center of proposals advanced by farmers’, environment and human rights movements and advocates around the world. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) (Available at www.agassessment.org), among other studies, provide sound scientific grounding to this approach.
