Why We Need Agroecology
Agroecological peasant production is not an alternative! This isthe model of production that has allowed us to feed the world for thousands of years, and it is still the dominant model for food production. More than half of the world’s population works in peasant agriculture, and the majority of the world’s population depends on peasant agriculture for food.
This model of smallholder, agroecological agriculture is the best way to feed the world in the future, to meet the needs of populations today, and to protect the environment and preserve our natural heritage, as well as our common property.
The model of the Green Revolution has failed: we havealmost one billion hungry people in the world and animpressive amount of environmental problems. We needa new paradigm, which is agroecology.
By committing to produce food to feed the world, we have made the commitment to practice peasant, “sustainable agriculture,” because only agroecological peasant production can disconnect the price of food from financial speculation and from market distortions, restore land degraded and polluted by industrial agriculture, and produce local and healthy food for urban consumers and for our people in general.
So, agroecology is beneficial not just for the agricultural producers (family farmers), but actually for the whole world. Our future will depend on the attention that we give to family farms, and consequently, to the agroecological practices which underlie their existence.
We view agroecology as the fundamental instrument to achieve food sovereignty and resiliency in the face of climate change, but this collides with the interests of large multinational companies.
Agroecology represents a chance for all the producers of food in the world. It also represents a chance for the consumers in the cities. Finally it represents a chance for sustainability in our environment and our planet. We have only one planet; therefore we must preserve it for us and those who will come after us.