Agroecology and Politics. How To Get Sustainability? About the Necessity for a Political Agroecology

Abstract

Agroecological movements are spreading and many local experiences are being carried out. But agroecology still has not developed instruments and approaches to elaborate state and regional strategies, where the political and institutional aspects play a key role. This text contributes to overcoming these oversights by means of a theoretical foundation that demonstrates why agroecology should engage politics. First, we argue that agroecosystems, as socioecological constructions, are produced through power relations. Second, we show the close relationship between agroecosystem dynamics and politics, and, therefore, the crucial role that political agroecology plays in the agroecological transition. Finally, we evaluate the world food system as the context in which agroecological experiences should be developed.

Keywords:

• agroecology
• politics
• agroecological movements
• agrarian sustainability
• agroecological transition
• public policies
• food crisis

Notes

1. In relation to the concept of social metabolism and its application to agriculture, see Fischer-Kowlaski and Hüttler (1999); Toledo and González de Molina (2007) or González de Molina and Toledo (2011).

2. See, for example, part three of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) report for 1993: “Agricultural trade: entering a new era?”(http://www.fao.org/es/esa/es/pubs_sofa.htm).