A global grassroots agroecology movement is shifting policies, practices, and investments toward climate-friendly food systems. With industrial agriculture responsible for more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions, the need is urgent. Led by women, Indigenous people, youth, and smallholder farmers, powerful decentralized networks are giving rise to climate-resilient and equitable food systems. A wide range of donors, including governments, are now supporting agroecological solutions — and who gets these funds and how is key to consider.
Agroecology, recognized in most parts of the world as a climate and hunger solution, is gaining traction worldwide. Perhaps a new term to some, it helps to encourage people to dissect it — agro (soil, crops) and ecology (natural systems). Farming with nature.
When you remind people that modern, or industrialized, farming is just a blip in the over 10,000-year history of agriculture, the inevitability of our fossil fuel-heavy food system becomes less certain. Questions follow: How did we box ourselves into a food system that is estimated to be responsible for more than a third of all global anthropogenic GHG emissions? And more urgently: How do we rebuild food systems that put people and the planet first?