The restorative promise of agroecology: Farming for sovereignty and resilience in Malawi – Part II
In Malawi, farmers who have embraced agroecology are navigating the challenges of climate change, market pressures, and community needs.
In Malawi, farmers who have embraced agroecology are navigating the challenges of climate change, market pressures, and community needs.
In Malawi, where agriculture is central to daily life, an internship with an agroecology organisation offers an inside look at farming practices that challenge industrial food systems and support food sovereignty.
Hundreds of grassroots groups have called out the UN, saying they are still being excluded and claiming the summit is “poised to repeat the failures” of two years ago and want to see fundamental change in food systems.
Agroecological research has proven that agroecology and local food systems bring a range of goods, including making better use of resources, spending less on packaging and materials, using less transport, and health benefits. Why then is its implementation not supported more broadly?
Despite regenerative agriculture’s popularity and its focus on sustainable food production, it fails to tackle systemic social and political issues. As a result, the movement may perpetuate business-as-usual in the food system, rather than transform it.
Throughout the European part of the Mediterranean – an area stretching from Greece through Italy, France and Spain, the coltura promiscua or coltura mista (translated as “promiscuous agriculture”, polyculture or mixed farming) landscapes predominated in many regions.
Rural Europe Takes Action – No more business as usual”, the book published by ARC2020 and Form Synergies in June last year, ended with a mysterious unwritten regulation, the Common Agricultural Policy of the future.
Recognition of the contribution of small-scale farms and horticulture differs in each UK nation, yet the sectors commonly receive little or no support in proposals for the new policies.
Will carbon farming be a greenwashing disaster or a real opportunity for farmers and climate change mitigation?
Beyond the classical thematic advocacy for organic farming, animal welfare and nature conservation there is a new opportunity to embrace the climate, biodiversity, CAP, job-sharing movements – and the desire to reach a humane work-life balance.
This episode of the podcast miniseries ‘A Journey Through Feminist Agroecology’ explores the encounter between Indigenous feminisms and food sovereignty as a decolonial project of reparations and reconstruction.
By working with – not against – nature, and diversifying our farms, landscapes, fishing waters and the foods we eat, agroecology supports biodiversity, contributes to the majority of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promotes resilience. All while supporting livelihoods and some of the healthier diets on the planet.