As previously posted (originally on IATP and subsequently here), nearly 70 scientists and scholars of sustainable agriculture and food systems sent an open letter to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) yesterday, praising the organization for convening an International Symposium on Agroecology for Food and Nutrition Security.
The text of the letter is reprinted below.
Updated 23 Sept 2014: 6 names added to signatories, denoted by “***”.
Scientists’ Support Letter for the International Symposium on Agroecology, 18-19 September, 2014
As scientists and scholars working in sustainable agriculture and food systems, the undersigned praise the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (the FAO) for organizing and convening the International Symposium on Agroecology for Food and Nutrition Security.
This Symposium comes at an opportune time as climate change, continued food insecurity and rural poverty present myriad challenges to sustainability. Agroecology, especially when paired with the developing principles of food sovereignty and food justice, offers opportunities to address all of these problems to an extent not matched by other approaches or proposals. This is why agroecology has been endorsed by the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter[1]; the 10,000-member Ecological Society of America[2]; through the formation and statements of the Latin American Society for Agroecology[3]; in the scientific report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD); by La Vía Campesina, the world’s largest organization of peasant farmers; by a growing number of research institutions around the world and most recently, further endorsed by over 250 scientists and experts[4].
As the organizers and attendees of the Symposium likely already know, these groups—and the undersigned—view agroecology as a well-grounded science, a set of time-tested agronomic practices and, when embedded in sound socio-political institutions, the most promising pathway for achieving sustainable food production. Agroecology integrates multiple fields into a unique “trans-discipline”, drawing on ecology, agronomy, political economy, and sociology, among other fields. It can be considered a science, a set of practices, and a social movement for distributive and procedural justice. In fact, without these elements of justice—which are often lacking in other approaches (for example, “climate-smart agriculture” or “sustainable intensification”)—no approach can be scientifically assessed as “sustainable” according to most established definitions of sustainability[5]. The procedural justice element has been associated with the growing conceptualization of and movement for “food sovereignty”—the right for people to design and decide on the shape of their own food system within their own localities, to the maximum extent practicable, with the maximum possible participation.
Based on established research and science, we affirm that:
- No approach can be called sustainable without explicit planning for and realization of procedural AND distributive justice;
- With regards to food and agriculture, this means specifically and substantively addressing issues around who gets access to resources and the processes to determine this access. Empirically established pertinent resources include: education, land, gender equity, infrastructure, credit, market access, affordable inputs and affordable food.[6] Means of “value-adding” and processing must also be available for farmers. (These issues may be thought of in terms of distributive justice.) Procedurally, point (1) may be addressed by ensuring the active and equitable participation of small farmers and the food insecure in all decisions affecting them. Allowing the sole decision-making at any stage to be undertaken by government officials, development experts, multi-national corporations or wealthy donors can interfere with appropriate local processes that Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom found could be robustly and sustainably effective in managing resources, given the right facilitating factors[7].
- Agroecology is uniquely positioned to support the realization of these principles and needs.
The evidence for the contributions of agroecology are amply documented, including in the reports and letters mentioned above (e.g. as found in the footnotes of this missive). Highlighted peer-reviewed work has examined the numerous benefits to both social and ecological systems—from ecosystem services[8], to lowering the amounts of synthetic inputs and reducing run-off[9], increasing nutrition security and supporting women’s empowerment[10], and improving resilience and mitigation and adaptation to climate change[11]. Agroecological practices can also substantially boost yields in areas where productivity increases may be most needed[12], and support vital biodiversity and environmental conservation objectives[13].
Important and productive questions to be addressed by agroecologists include the strong and well-replicated empirical observations of greater per-unit-area productivity or higher land efficiency ratios of smaller farms; total farm and landscape ecosystem service provision and productivity (instead of yield measured for single crops on farms and landscapes producing multiple goods), and the means of promoting and maintaining agroecological models that will support and provide public goods, resilience, food security, and farmer autonomy. Notably, despite the broad promise, none of the areas of agroecology have seen the levels of investment in research, education, and extension seen for input-intensive conventional agriculture[14]. This may be due to the fact that the provision of public goods, avoidance of negative externalities[15] and the lower commercial input needs of agroecological farmers provide ample services to society, but fewer possibilities for private gains to large corporate concerns who supply and buy food and agricultural products.
The idea that simply making more food with less land and other inputs—sustainable intensification—will lead to a smaller overall land use in agriculture has historically not been the case[16]. Theory and empirical observations show that the determinants of land use and land areas under cultivation are far more complex[17]. Proponents of sustainable intensification have themselves acknowledged that intensification without carefully crafted policies will not necessarily lead to lower land-use[18]. However, what has not been emphasized is that carefully crafted policies that promote equitable access to land, credit, markets and inputs, along with environmentally-sound farming methods, are able to preserve nature and provide food security in many, if not most, cases[19]. Focusing on “intensification first”, or in the absence of these policies, risks failures in achieving sustainability or alleviating poverty and food insecurity[20].
We suggest that “climate smart agriculture” and “sustainable intensification” cannot be alternative terms for agroecology as they do not include the transdisciplinary breadth nor the specific experimental and empirical depth of established agroecology. A sound and scientifically-supported approach must pursue climate mitigation and adaption strategies as part of a larger approach under the umbrellas of agroecology and food sovereignty. Under these two concepts, established and innovated methods are used to provide greater farmer security, greater diversity and greater autonomy. They draw on an active but under-supported research agenda and a tradition of strong partnerships and leadership from farmers. In contrast, the exact conditions of “climate-smart agriculture” and “sustainable intensification” are not only vague but also subject to abuse through misleading or incomplete definitions. Agroecology’s long history, existing discourse[21], and better-defined transdisciplinary space[22] help guard against such dangers.
If we are to further the socially responsible goals of sustainable agriculture, food security, and climate change mitigation and adaptation, then logically we must build on these foundations within agroecology. Other approaches cannot similarly count on the science, practices and movements behind agroecology, yet we know that all three, particularly social movements, are as crucial as scientific and technical innovation in sustainably implementing the right to food. Although agroecology does increase yields in many important cases, the centrality of procedural and distributive justice as parts of the agroecological tradition might be remembered with this simple phrase: “No intensification without representation.” Efforts to realize such representation may be practically seen in examples like Empowered Participatory Governance[23], the Just Sustainability Paradigm[24], and many elements of specific approaches like participatory budgeting, deliberative polling, the principles of subsidiarity, and many of the examples elucidated by Ostrom and colleagues[25].
We therefore call upon FAO member states and the international community to build upon the proceedings of this Symposium in order to launch a UN-system wide initative on agroecology as the central strategy for addressing climate change and building resilience in the face of water crises: an initiative centered around social, cultural, and food sovereignty issues in agriculture and food systems. We see such an activity as becoming one of the pillars of the future work of the Committee on World Food Security as it develops the Global Strategic Framework on Food Security and Nutrition while making an invaluable contribution to discussions and negotiations about agriculture within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change process and the post-2015 Sustainable Development agenda.
We look forward to seeing a discussion of our proposal at the forthcoming Committee on World Food Security meeting 13-18 October 2014.
Sincerely,
M. Jahi Chappell, Ph.D.
Director of Agroecology and Agricultural Policy
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Visiting Scientist, Washington State University
Minneapolis, MN, USA
* All institutional affiliations provided for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement by the respective institutions.
**Please direct return correspondence to Dr. M. Jahi Chappell at jchappell@iatp.org. Correspondence will be forwarded to the following individuals who have endorsed the letter.
Signing on behalf of:
David J. Abson, Ph.D.
Research fellow, Future of Ecosystem Services (FuturES) Research Center, Faculty of Sustainability
Leuphana University
Lüneburg. Germany
Miguel A. Altieri, Ph.D.
Professor of Agroecology
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, USA
Molly D. Anderson, Ph.D.
Partridge Chair in Food & Sustainable Agriculture Systems
College of the Atlantic
Bar Harbor, ME, USA
Catherine Badgley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Residential College, Museum of Paleontology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Kirsten Valentine Cadieux, Ph.D.
Research Associate in Sociology and Geography, Society and Environment
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Jill Carlson, M.S.
Madison, WI, USA
Ademir Antonio Cazella***
Dr. em Ordenamento Territorial, Coordendor do Programa de Pós Graduação em Agroecossistemas (PGA)
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) do Brasil
Sandra Andrea Engelmann, Master’s in Geography
Professora do Instituto Federal do Paraná
Campo Largo – PR – Brasil
Miguel Ángel Escalona Aguilar, Ph.D.
Profesor de la Facultad de Ciencias Agrícolas
Universidad Veracruzana
Xalapa, Veracruz, México
Bruce G. Ferguson, Ph.D.
Research Professor and Department Coordinator, Department of Agriculture, Environment and Society
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
Luiz Carlos Pinheiro Machado Filho, Ph.D.
Professor; Secretário de Relações Internacionais (SINTER) – UFSC
Secretary for International Affairs – UFSC
Florianópolis, SC – BRASIL
Joern Fischer, Ph.D.
Professor, Faculty of Sustainability
Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany
Charles A. Francis, Ph.D.
Professor of Agronomy & Horticulture
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Lincoln, NE, USA
Harriet Friedmann, Ph.D.
Visiting Professor, Agrarian, Food and Environmental Studies
International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) Erasmus University Rotterdam
Professor Emeritus and Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON, Canada
Ryan E. Galt, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Human Ecology; Provost Fellow, Agricultural Sustainability Institute
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA, USA
Stephen R. Gliessman, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Agroecology
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Katherine E. Goodall, Ph.D.
Botany Postdoctoral Fellow
Wellesley College
Wellesley, MA, USA
Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, American University’s School of International Service
Washington, DC, USA
Emily Green-Tracewicz, M.Sc.
PhD Student, Individual Interdisciplinary PhD Program; Research Assistant, Crop and Soil Sciences
Washington State University
Pullman, WA, USA
Doug Gurian-Sherman, Ph.D.***
Director of Sustainable Agriculture and Senior Scientist
Center for Food Safety
Washington, DC, USA
Jan Hanspach, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Sustainability
Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany
Amber A. Heckelman, M.A., M.S.
Ph.D. Student, Land & Food Systems
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada
Eric Holt-Giménez, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
Oakland, CA, USA
Maria José Hötzel, Ph.D.
LETA – Laboratório de Etologia Aplicada e Bem-estar Animal
Departamento de Zootecnia e Desenvolvimento Rural
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Alastair Iles, S.J.D.
Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Policy and Management; Faculty Co-Director, Berkeley Food Institute
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, USA
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
Pesticide Action Network North America
Oakland, CA, USA
Nicholas Jordan, Ph.D.
Professor, Agroecology
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
MN, USA
Alexandra-Maria Klein, Dr. Prof.***
Professor of Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources
University of Freiburg
Freiburg, Germany
Jack Kloppenburg, Ph.D.
Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI, USA
Claire Kremen, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, USA
Anna Lappé, M.I.A.
Founder/Director, Real Food Media Project & Small Planet Institute and Fund; Author; Contributor, Al Jazeera America
Oakland, CA, USA
Frances Moore Lappé
Co-Founder, Small Planet Institute; Author; Right Livelihood Award Winner; Recipient of 18 honorary doctoral degrees
Cambridge, MA, USA
Jacqueline Loos, M.Sc.
Ph.D. Candidate, Sustainable Landscapes, Faculty of Sustainability Science
Leuphana University
Lüneburg, Germany
Pedro Antonio Macario Mendoza, Ph.D.
Departamento de Agricultura, Sociedad y Ambiente
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
Mexico
Kathleen McAfee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, International Relations
San Francisco State University
2014 Fellow: Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society
Munich, Germany
Philip McMichael, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Development Sociology
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY, USA
Nathan McClintock, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning
Portland State University
Portland, OR, USA
Friederike Mikulcak, M.Sc.
PhD Fellow, Sustainable Landscapes
Leuphana University Lueneburg
Lueneburg, Germany
Albie Miles, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sustainable Community Food Systems
University of Hawai’i, West O’ahu
Kapolei, HI, USA
Maywa Montenegro de Wit
Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management; Communications Coordinator, Center for Diversified Farming Systems
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, USA
James R. Moore, M.S.***
Ph.D. Pre-Candidate, Biology
Washington State University Vancouver
Vancouver, WA, USA
Helda Morales, Ph.D.
Professor/Researcher, Departamento de Agricultura, Sociedad y Ambiente
El Colegio de La Frontera Sur
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México
Ezequiel Antonio de Moura
Biólogo e Educador, Instituto Federal do Paraná
Mestrando em Desenvolvimento Territorial Sustentável – UFPR
Paraná – Brasil
Danielle Nierenberg, M.S.***
President, Food Tank: The Food Think Tank
Chicago, IL, USA
Clara I. Nicholls, Ph.D.
President, Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology; Professor of Agroecology
Universidad de Antioquia
Antioquia, Colombia
Dale Nimmo, Ph.D.
Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Life and Environmental Science
Deakin University
Melbourne, Australia
Johan Oldekop, Ph.D.
EU Research Fellow, International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI)
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Marcia Ostrom, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, School of the Environment and Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources
Washington State University
Wenatchee, WA, USA
Damian Parr, Ph.D.
Research & Education Coordinator, Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS); Lecturer, Environmental Studies Department
University of California – Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Raj Patel, Ph.D.
Research Professor, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
University of Texas, Austin
Austin, TX, USA
Ivette Perfecto, Ph.D.
George W. Pack Professor of Natural Resources, School of Natural Resources and Environment
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Christine M. Porter, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Wyoming Excellence Chair in Community & Public Health; Food Dignity Project Director and Principal Investigator; Division of Kinesiology & Health
University of Wyoming
Laramie, WY, USA
Dr. Pedro Pablo del Pozo Rodríguez***
Profesor Titular; Vicerrector
Universidad Agraria de La Habana Cuba
Habana, Cuba
John E. Quinn, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Furman University
Greenville, SC, USA
Prof. Dr. Clarilton Ribas
Pós Doutor em Sociologia; Professor Associado IV na
Universidade Fedaral de Santa Catarina
Florianópolis – SC – Brasil
Dianne E. Rocheleau, Ph.D.
Professor of Geography and Global Environmental Studies
Clark University
Worcester, MA, USA
Ricardo J. Salvador, Ph.D.
Director and Senior Scientist, Food & Environment Program
Union of Concerned Scientists
Washington, DC, USA
Valter Roberto Schaffrath, Ph.D.
Professor e Pós Doutorado em Recursos Naturais e Ambiente
Instituto Federal do Paraná – IFPR
Paraná – Brasil
Mindi Schneider, Ph.D.
Convenor, Agrarian, Food and Environmental Studies
International Institute of Social Studies (ISS)
The Hague, Netherlands
Ilyas Siddique, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of Agroecosystems, Department of Crop Science, Center of Agrarian Sciences
Federal University of Santa Catarina
Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
Mateus José Falleiros da Silva, D.Sc.
Professor, Eixo Tecnológico de Recursos Naturais – Agroecologia
Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Paraná – IFPR
Paraná – Brasil
Fábio Kessler Dal Soglio, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
Doreen Stabinsky, Ph.D.
Professor of Global Environmental Politics
College of the Atlantic
Bar Harbor, ME, USA
Steve Suppan, Ph.D.
Senior Policy Analyst for Market Regulation, Trade and Technology
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Paul Thiers, Ph.D.
Associate Professor; Program Leader for School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs
Washington State University Vancouver
Vancouver, WA, USA
Paul B. Thompson, Ph.D.
W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food & Community Ethics; Dept. of Ag. Food & Resource Economics; Dept. of Community Sustainability
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, USA
L. Ann Thrupp, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Berkeley Food Institute
University of California Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, USA
Dr. Rémy Vandame
Researcher
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
Chiapas, Mexico
John Vandermeer, Ph.D.
Asa Gray Distinguished University Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Hans van der Wal, Ph.D.
Investigador Titular “A”, Grupo Académico de Agroecología
El Colegio d ela Frontera Sur
Villahermosa, Tabasco, México
Shiney Varghese, M.A., PGDRM
Member of the UN CFS High Level Panel of Experts on Water for Food Security and Nutrition
Senior Policy Analyst for Water, Agroecology and Global Governance
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Dr. A. Cristina de la Vega-Leinert***
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald, Institut für Geographie und Geologie
Lehrstuhl für Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaft und Angewandte Geographie
Greifswald, Germany
Oane Visser, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
International Institute of Social Studies (ISS)
The Hague, The Netherlands
Hannah Wittman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Faculty of Land and Food Systems
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada
*** Indicates signatories added to the letter subsequent to its original delivery.
——-
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[2] Ecological Society of America (ESA). “Letter to Dr. Catherine Woteki, under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics and Chief Scientist of the United States Department of Agriculture.” (Washington, D.C.: ESA, 2013).
[3] See http://agroeco.org/socla/.
[4] Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). “Scientist Statement of Support for Public Investment in Agroecological Research.” (Cambridge, MA: UCS, 2014). http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/strengthen-healthy-farm-policy/agroecology-research-scientist-statement.html.
[5] Jacqueline Loos, David J. Abson, M. Jahi Chappell, et al. “Putting Meaning Back into ‘Sustainable Intensification’.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 12 (2014): 356-361.
[6] De Schutter, Report of the Special Rapporteur; High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE). Investing in Smallholder Agriculture for Food Security: A Report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security. (Rome: Committee on World Food Security, 2013); Joern Fischer, David J. Abson, Van Butsic, et al. “Land Sparing Versus Land Sharing: Moving Forward.” Conservation Letters 7 (2013): 149–157.
[7] Ecological Society of America (ESA). “Elinor Ostrom 1933-2012.” Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 94 (2013): 17-19.
[8] Claire Kremen and Albie F. Miles. “Ecosystem Services in Biologically Diversified Versus Conventional Farming Systems: Benefits, Externalities, and Trade-Offs.” Ecology and Society 17 (2012): 40.
[9] Adam S. Davis, Jason D. Hill, Craig A. Chase et al. “Increasing Cropping System Diversity Balances Productivity, Profitability and Environmental Health.” PLoS ONE 7 (2012): e47149; Jennifer Blesh and Laurie. E. Drinkwater. “The Impact of Nitrogen Source and Crop Rotation on Nitrogen Mass Balances in the Mississippi River Basin.” Ecological Applications 23 (2013): 1017-1035; Sieglinde S. Snapp, Malcolm J. Blackie, Robert A. Gilbert, et al. “Biodiversity Can Support a Greener Revolution in Africa.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (2010): 20840-20845.
[10] Rachel Bezner-Kerr. “Gender and Agrarian Inequality at the Local Scale.” In Agricultural Systems: Agroecology and Rural Innovation for Development, edited by Sieglinde S. Snapp and Barry Pound, 281-308. (Burlington, MA: Elsevier, 2008); Andrew D. Jones, Aditya Shrinivas and Rachel Bezner-Kerr. “Farm Production Diversity Is Associated with Greater Household Dietary Diversity in Malawi: Findings from Nationally Representative Data.” Food Policy 46 (2014): 1-12.
[11] Eric Holt-Giménez. “Measuring Farmers’ Agroecological Resistance after Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua: A Case Study in Participatory, Sustainable Land Management Impact Monitoring.” Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 93 (2002): 87-105; Nadia El-Hage Scialabba and Maria Müller-Lindenlauf. “Organic Agriculture and Climate Change.” Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 25 (2010): 158-169; Brenda B. Lin, M. Jahi Chappell, John Vandermeer, et al. “Effects of Industrial Agriculture on Global Warming and the Mitigation Potential of Small-Scale Agro-Ecological Farms.” CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition, and Natural Resources 6 (2011): 1-18.
[12] Jules N. Pretty, Camilla Toulmin and Stella Williams. “Sustainable Intensification in African Agriculture.” International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 9, (2011): 5-24; Catherine Badgley, Jeremy K. Moghtader, Eileen Quintero, et al. “Organic Agriculture and the Global Food Supply.” Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 22, (2007): 86-108; Snapp et al., “Biodiversity Can Support a Greener Revolution”. Although many “before-after” case studies have been dismissed because one cannot control for what factor was “agroecology” per se (or “organic” or other related terms) as opposed to effects from confounding factors that may have changed over the same time—including farmer learning, education, etc.—these “before-after” cases are instructive in showing the possibilities with the broader dissemination of agroecological principles and practices.
[13] Chase D. Mendenhall et al. “Predicting Biodiversity Change and Averting Collapse in Agricultural Landscapes,” Nature 509, no. 7499 (May 8, 2014): 213–17, doi:10.1038/nature13139; Luke O. Frishkoff et al., “Loss of Avian Phylogenetic Diversity in Neotropical Agricultural Systems,” Science 345, no. 6202 (September 12, 2014): 1343–46, doi:10.1126/science.1254610.
[14] Liz Carlisle and Albie Miles. “Closing the Knowledge Gap: How the USDA Could Tap the Potential of Biologically Diversified Farming Systems,” Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 3 (2013): 219–225, doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2013.034.025
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[17] Michele Graziano Ceddia, Nicholas Oliver Bardsley, Sergio Gomez-y-Paloma, and Sabine Sedlacek. “Governance, agricultural intensification, and land sparing in tropical South America.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 20 (2014): 7242-7247; B. L. Turner and Paul Robbins. “Land-change science and political ecology: Similarities, differences, and implications for sustainability science.” Annual review of environment and resources 33 (2008): 295-316.
[18] Ben Phalan, Rhys Green, and Andrew Balmford. “Closing yield gaps: perils and possibilities for biodiversity conservation.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 369 (2014): 20120285.
[19] Fischer et al., “Land sparing vs. Land sharing.”
[20] Lisa C. Smith, Amani E. El Obeid, and Helen H. Jensen. “The geography and causes of food insecurity in developing countries.” Agricultural Economics 22, no. 2 (2000): 199-215; Thomas J. Bassett and Alex Winter-Nelson. The atlas of world hunger. University of Chicago Press, 2010; Raju J. Das. “The green revolution and poverty: A theoretical and empirical examination of the relation between technology and society.” Geoforum 33, no. 1 (2002): 55-72.
[21] Stephen R. Gliessman. Agroecology: the ecology of sustainable food systems. CRC Press, 2007.
[22] V. Ernesto Méndez, Christopher M. Bacon, and Roseann Cohen. “Agroecology as a transdisciplinary, participatory, and action-oriented approach.” Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 37, no. 1 (2013): 3-18.
[23] Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright, eds. Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance. (London: Verso, 2003).
[24] Julian Agyeman. Sustainable communities and the challenge of environmental justice. (New York: New York University Press, 2005).
[25] Amy R. Poteete, Marco A. Janssen, and Elinor Ostrom. Working together: collective action, the commons, and multiple methods in practice. (Princeton University Press, 2010).
Beginning to End Hunger 