Agroecology and La Via Campesina I. The symbolic and material construction of agroecology through the dispositive of “peasant-to-peasant” processes

ABSTRACT

In this essay, we look at the symbolic and material territorialization of agroecology in La Via Campesina (LVC) through peasant-to-peasant processes (PtPPs) in the broad sense. The most significant examples of the scaling up of agroecology are clearly tied to organizational processes and in our perspective, PtPPs are the motor of these changes. We contend that agroecology, subjects, and territories are articulated in these processes, making up a powerful dispositive or device for agroecological transformation and scaling up. We also introduce a discussion on the emergence of a historical-political subject, the “agroecological peasantry,” within the larger territorial dispute concerning the transformation of the agri-food system and living conditions in the countryside.

KEYWORDS:

• La Via Campesina
• peasant-to-peasant process
• dispositive
• agroecology
• scaling up

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the compañeros and compañeras of La Via Campesina, CLOC-VC and the Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños (ANAP) of Cuba, and in particular to the Cuban guajiros and guajiras from whom we learned so much. We would also like to thank Nathan Einbinder and Mateo Mier y Terán for valuable comments on an earlier draft. V. Val wishes to thank CONACYT for the graduate scholarship that made it possible to conduct part of this research. P. Rosset wishes to thank FUNCAP-CAPES for a PVE fellowship at the Universidade Estadual do Ceará.

Notes

1. Used sensu Foucault (1992, 2000) as explained further by Bussolini (2010).

2. In a new stage of the agrarian reform process that is still ongoing today, large farms, and other state-owned properties have been divided up and distributed in usufruct to peasants organized in various types of cooperative associations (Pérez Rojas and Echeverría León, 1998; Merlet 1995; 2011).

3. The Programa Productivo de Promoción Agroecológica (PPPA, Productive Program for the Promotion of Agroecology) started in the province of Villa Clara with 13 facilitators (one per municipality), and 27 promoters all of whom were peasants who, from their own farms and based on their own experience, spread and promoted agroecology (Figueras Matos 2005).

4. It is no accident that Cuba has become a reference for peasant (as well as many other) anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist organizations and struggles. It is a model for the effective construction of counterhegemonic alternatives and offers popular social movements that are seeking to transform the reigning social and economic order the potent symbolism and moral legitimacy of the Cuban revolution. The ANAP has historically been a highly important space for the training of activists, cadre, and leaders of peasant organizations from around the world, especially Latin America and Africa.

5. Based on the participatory observations of two of the authors, one of which was a member of the LVC technical team (Rosset) and the other a volunteer supporting various LVC activities and processes (Val), we can assert that in the CLOC (Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations, which is LVC in Latin America), the Cuban experience is being emulated in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, among others. In the last few years, its influence has extended to other regions, with various PtP processes initiated in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal) and Asia Pacific (Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Korea); Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe); and Europe (Belgium, Spanish State, France, Norway, and the United Kingdom).

6. For more insight into the origin, development, and different perspectives of agroecology, see: Altieri (2000); Altieri and Toledo (2011), Ferguson (2015); Gliessman (2007; Gliessman 2015), Rosset and Altieri (2017), among others.

7. While there exists an enormous diversity of productive practices, cultural traditions, and ecological particularities, we can delineate some general agroecological characteristics of the emerging agroecological peasantry within LVC. Of course not all exhibit all of these characteristics, but still we can assemble some of the most characteristic traits. Among them we highlight: small-scale family and/or community production; high levels of agrobiodiversity and intercropping of crops and trees, plus livestock; significant use of resources with few purchased inputs; preparation and use of organic fertilizers and mulches; use of homemade natural repellents for pest control; high level of integration and synergy between production systems, as in crops, trees and livestock; high degree of organization and associativity (family, collective, communal, cooperative, etc.); practices of exchange, cooperation, and reciprocity; and organized spaces for training and transmission of knowledge; among many others (Altieri and Koohafkan 2009; Altieri and Nicholls 2008; 2012 da Silva 2014; Gliessman 2015, 2018; Holt-Giménez 2001; Machín Sosa et al., 2011; Pachicho and Fujisaka 2004; Perfecto, Vandermeer, and Wright 2009; Rosset and Altieri 2017; Rosset et al. 2011; Rosset and Martínez-Torres 2013; Rosset and Val 2018; Val 2012; Von der Weid, 2000).

8. It is important to emphasize that when we talk about the role of PtPPs in the conformation of a peasant political subject, we do so within the context of LVC processes and we are not suggesting that this extends to the entire peasantry. Furthermore, we do not think of the agroecological peasantry as the revolutionary political subject, but rather as a subject with specific demands and its own agenda, yet articulated in a broad front of struggle with other social sectors (feminisms, indigenous peoples’ organizations, other rural and urban social movements, workers living under conditions of precarity, trade unions, movements for sexual diversity, among many others).

9. The PtPP dispositive that we refer to articulates a great diversity of sectors (peasants, small-scale farmers, landless workers, rural workers, indigenous Peoples, hunters and gatherers, artisanal fisherfolk, nomadic pastoralist and transhumant peoples, forest dwellers, riverside and coastal peoples, and others) that self-identify with the international peasant movement (LVC, 2009, 2013; Martínez-Torres and Rosset 2008, 2010). The PtPPs open this space of dialogue to form a global peasant movement based on unity in diversity (Martínez-Torres and Rosset 2008, 2014; Rosset and Martínez-Torres 2013).

10. Some illustrative recent cases might include: Brazil (Sauer and Mészáro, 2017; Schmitt et al. 2017), Bolivia (Sabourin et al. 2017; Webber 2017), Cuba (Machín Sosa et al. 2010; Vázquez, Marzin, and González 2017), India (Khadse et al. 2017; Khadse and Rosset in this issue; Kumar 2017), Mali (Beauregard 2009), Nicaragua (Freguin-Gresh 2017), Venezuela (Sabourin et al. 2017; Domené and Herrera, in this issue), among others. For a critical analysis of the limits of institutional processes and public policies see Giraldo (2018) and Giraldo and McCune in this issue.

11. http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/second-international-agroecology-symposium/en/.

12. See “Declaration by organizations of small-scale food producers and civil society organizations at the II international symposium on agroecology convened by FAO,” April 2018, https://viacampesina.org/en/declaration-at-the-ii-international-symposium-on-agroecology/.

13. The visibility and demands of sexual diversity in the countryside have recently been added to this major contribution. An important LGTBI movement is emerging (especially in Latin America) that is adding this new issue to the peasant political project. Although it is somewhat recent and is not clearly present in all regions, we believe that it will soon become an important and dynamic element in the construction of alternative ways of life within LVC.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología [Graduate Fellowship awarded to Valentín Val]; FUNCAP-CAPES [PVE-65/2014 awarded to Peter Rosset]