Agroecology

From Feminist School for Climate Action, we question the global agri-food system that is based on AGRIBUSINESS. This model is promoted by many States and companies, arguing that it is what is needed to combat hunger and feed the world. But agribusiness exploits the environment, degrades our lands, pollutes our waters and our air. In addition, it uses genetically modified transgenic seeds, promotes monoculture and concentrates land, which – contrary to what they say – generates hunger and poverty.

But we are convinced that there are alternatives to this, and we also know, based on real experiences, that AGROECOLOGY is a possible path. Agroecology does NOT use pesticides or GMOs. It takes care of your health, preserves the environment, builds fair and supportive relationships between people. It values ​​the knowledge of the practices of traditional peoples and communities.

At the meeting, the Sabiá Center (Brazil) shared its experience and reported the results of a research they conducted with the German cooperation agency MISEREOR. This study showed that agroecological production systems are more productive than non-agroecological systems.

Some of the results they reached are:

• The food production of families that practice agroecology is larger and more diverse when compared to non-agroecological production.
• In an agroecological system, a family produces almost 1.5 tons more food per hectare per year. In the non-agroecological system, this amount does not reach 1 ton.
• In agroecology, each year, a family consumes 600 kilos more food from its own production than in non-agroecological production.
• Income generation is also greater in agroecology.
• The number of species cultivated in agroecological systems is double compared to non-agroecological systems.

Those who produce agroecologically market a richer variety of products indirectly to the consumer, whether at agroecological fairs, in communities or in government purchasing programs.

In agroecology, production is more sustainable, contributing to the preservation of biodiversity, the recovery of degraded areas and the formation of agricultural landscapes that are in harmony with the different biomes.

AGROECOLOGY PLACES LIFE AT THE CENTER. AND THAT IS WHAT FEMINISM DOES.

WE ARE ECODEPENDENT AND INTERDEPENDENT. OUR PASSAGE THROUGH THE WORLD MUST BE IN HARMONY WITH THE EARTH THAT SHELTERS US, IN HARMONY WITH OTHERS.

Below, we share some testimonies from the workshop held on 10/23/21:

“With this chemical-free method within the forests, we also achieve cooling. That is, we minimize global warming. And we are also contributing to food security because the families that live off these forests, practically only need to go out and buy a little salt and maybe sugar if there is no cane. And there is nothing else needed, everything is found within the forest.”

“Agroecology proposes the appropriate use of the forest and generating these processes of high regeneration of biodiversity, biomass, soil and water use”

“With the analog forestry network, we are really achieving healthy food not only for humans, but for birds, mammals, etc. Here we do not achieve quantity but we do achieve quality. Our cocoa, especially the one under the laurel trees, has more minerals than those in the open sun. Crops in similar forests have more quality.”

Argentina:

“In Argentina there is no agroecology policy, much less programs and funds. What is more adopted by the government is Family Agriculture, which does not necessarily adopt agroecology practices. What supports or promotes them are the organizations in the territories and we have a great challenge to be able to better install or institutionalize the agroecology proposal. Because our governments, being a country that depends so much on agricultural exports, increasingly become or deepen their agroextractivist/export model. There are proposals to launch important programs that promote and enable agribusiness much more than we already have.”

Brazil:

“In 2016, it was identified that 70% of the food consumed by the Brazilian population is produced by family farming. And recently, a review of this data showed that this figure is even higher.”

Bolivia:

“I think there is already a degree of awareness that you assume that you are eating so much pesticide, so many chemicals in your body that you end up opting for the organic, for the healthy. But here in Tarjia, healthy organic is very expensive. The price is really very high. There is a fair for organic consumers, but it is 1/2 bolivianos more and that peso adds up. Here it is expensive if you want to lean towards the organic.”

“At the moment there are already about 50 farms in the country where we have already implemented this system. Let’s say that the country is only 5% in the field applying it and it has yielded excellent results, it is quality, quantity here is not important. Self-consumption, for sale and to exchange with other provinces, we exchange with Manabí towns. We even hardly see any currency anymore.”

Ecuador:

“We do not have specific legislation on agroecology, but on family farming. However, the agroecological movement in Ecuador is gaining quite a bit of strength in recent years. We have a national agroecology collective that even has training schools, we also have a network of seed guardians and we have processes like those we work on in analog forestry. An Ecuadorian network where 55 farms participate that are working on the regeneration of forests imitating native forests. Within the forests, the production of what we know as forest gardens, forest garden products, is done.”

Guatemala:

“Because agroecology is knowledge from the West. It is not something that has been named that way by the people. Although it uses techniques and methodologies that are from the people. And specifically, at least here in Guatemala, there is a break with that. Maybe the communities, from our perception, are doing agroecology, but they have never named it that way. It is ancestral agriculture. Ancestral knowledge. Although we call it agroecology. So it also goes for the recognition of those methodologies and those ways of doing agriculture.”

One of the great challenges is to break with the individualistic logic to which we are accustomed. Agroecology proposes collective work, an exchange of knowledge where we all have something to contribute and which also implies exchanging with other communities, articulating. All of this has another logic and is a fair way of life between the ecosystem, the earth and human beings. That is one of the difficulties because it implies being able to work from another logic that is not the one that prevails.

We share some difficulties and limitations identified by the companions who participated in the workshop on 10/23/21:

“One of the biggest difficulties for us is the State’s public policies. Because there is a huge investment in agribusiness. But when it comes time to promote agroecological products, from people, peasants, indigenous people, women, there are no resources. And that discourages the peasant bases that look to the side, large monoculture productions, agribusiness, agrotoxins, and for us, nothing.
So that is the first obstacle that implies a lot for us. It is very unfair.”

“I want to tell you that there is a difficulty for us in the market. And the awareness of the population to consume healthy, agroecological products. Because sometimes people go to larger products, which are produced by chemicals and do not know how to appreciate organic production. That is a healthy production. That would be difficult for us.”

“In Guatemala, access to land is a limiting factor. Absolutely. The best lands or lands suitable for agriculture are being used by eleven families, and there are bananas, sugar cane, palm and so on. So I think that is a limiting factor.”

“Public financing is very important. Because without public financing we cannot think about the scale of agroecological experiences. And I am not talking about the scale of agribusiness, which is all too big. It is so that more families can go through a transition process. Support for things that are necessary, such as water. Water capture technologies are needed, access to water, especially in semi-arid areas. It is a fundamental element.”

IT IS WITH FEMINISM THAT THERE IS AGROECOLOGY

In the process of strengthening agroecology, there continues to be a strong gender inequality even within farming families. Women spend almost 42% of their time on domestic work and care, while men spend only 2.3%.

“The sexual division of labor in families: whether in agroecological or non-agroecological systems, women still work more than men and therefore have an overload of work. If we do not advance towards a context of equality between men and women and non-violence, it will be difficult to build a true agroecology. It is also necessary to strengthen the equal political participation of men and women in spaces of representation, this guarantees the voice and perspective of women in the public and domestic space.”

It is important to recognize the work and knowledge of women on biodiversity and the management and conservation of agroecosystems. It is therefore essential to have an equitable division of the wealth generated.

“We talk a lot in Latin America, in CLOC, in Via Campesina, that without feminism there is no agroecology. But for us, peasants of the MNCI, we change it a little. We say that IT IS WITH FEMINISM THAT THERE IS AGROECOLOGY. We put the phrase, the words on the positive side. In valuing and making women visible. Because we are the ones who do it.”

AGROECOLOGY IS A FAIR WAY OF LIFE. IT IS A FAIR RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATURE AND HUMANITY.