Agro-ecology

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see main organic food</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://theconversation.com/finding-opportunity-in-crisis-3-essential-reads-about-environmental-solutions-129119"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://theconversation.com/finding-opportunity-in-crisis-3-essential-reads-about-environmental-solutions-129119</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Finding opportunity in crisis: 3 essential reads about environmental solutions</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">December 19, 2019 4.37pm EST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Author</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jennifer Weeks</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From climate change to omnipresent plastic waste, 2019 delivered a lot of discouraging environmental news. Several special reports this year from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change documented how global warming is altering the planet’s lands, forests, oceans and frozen regions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another U.N. report warned that the Earth is losing species at an alarming rate, with around 1 million animal and plant species facing extinction. Key causes include changes in land use, such as clearing forests for agriculture; unsustainable fishing rates; climate change; pollution; and the spread of invasive species.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Governments may seem unable or unwilling to confront these challenges, but scholars are proposing innovative solutions. Here are three articles that we published this year that put forth responses to urgent environmental challenges.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>1. Cooling the planet and saving species</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate change and biodiversity loss are interconnected problems that together can seem overwhelming. But in a study published in April, 18 scientists proposed a “Global Deal for Nature” that can help avert both catastrophic climate change and mass extinction.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The plan identifies about a thousand “ecoregions” on land and sea that each contain unique ensembles of species and ecosystems, and also help curb climate change by storing carbon.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Our plan would require a budget of some US$100 billion per year. This may sound like a lot, but for comparison, Silicon Valley companies earned nearly $60 billion in 2017 just from selling apps,” Arizona State University conservation scientist Greg Asner, a co-author of the report, wrote for The Conversation. “Today, however, our global society is spending less than a tenth of that amount to save Earth’s biodiversity.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Healthy coral reefs like this one in American Samoa store carbon, house numerous species and protect other valuable ecosystems from storm surges and flooding. NOAA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Forests, grasslands, peatlands, mangroves and a few other types of ecosystems pull the most carbon from the air per acre of land,” Asner notes. “Protecting and expanding their range is far more scalable and far less expensive than engineering the climate to slow the pace of warming. And there is no time to lose.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>2. Stemming the tide of plastic trash</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Global markets for scrap material, including recyclables, have been in turmoil since early 2018, when China – which was importing a large share of the world’s scrap – shut that window almost completely. This year other Asian countries followed suit, saying they would no longer accept materials they were ill-equipped to handle.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These shocks have left U.S. scrap dealers searching for markets. Many are sending plastics – the hardest materials to recycle – to landfills.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alarmed by these developments and the growing scale of plastic waste, many communities and businesses are intensifying the search for new solutions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Recycling authorities have launched public education campaigns, and investment in recycling infrastructure is on the rise,” reports Kate O'Neill, professor of global environmental politics at the University of California, Berkeley. “There is palpable energy at trade meetings around improving options for plastics recycling. Chinese companies are investing in U.S. pulp and paper recycling plants, and may extend into plastics.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This process won’t be quick, since it also requires action at the global level to connect national policies. And reducing production and use of plastic remains key. “But as one Asian country after another shuts the door on scrap exports, it is becoming increasingly clear that business as usual will not solve the plastic pollution challenge,” O'Neill writes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">3. A new New Deal for US farmers</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Severe weather, corporate consolidation in agriculture and a trade war with China put heavy pressure on U.S. farmers in 2019. Farm bankruptcies are at historic highs, and many experts wonder where the next generation of farmers will come from.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kyle Griffin</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@kylegriffin1</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Speaking in Wisconsin, Trump Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the small dairy farmer might not be able to survive in today's economy: "In America, the big get bigger and the small go out."http://www.startribune.com/trump-farm-secretary-blames-china-for-trade-wars/561869562/ …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ag secretary: No guarantee small dairy farms will survive</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump's agriculture secretary said Tuesday during a stop in Wisconsin that he doesn't know if the family dairy farm can survive as the industry moves toward a factory farm model.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">startribune.com</font></div><div>
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Social scientists Maywa Montenegro of the University of California, Davis</b>, Annie Shattuck of Indiana University and Joshua Sbicca of Colorado State University see this convergence as an economic, environmental and social crisis for farming communities. In response they propose a “just transition” to a system that cuts carbon emissions from agriculture, makes farmers less vulnerable to the effects of climate change and delivers economic justice to rural communities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Two elements are essential: Agriculture based in principles of ecology, and economic policies that end overproduction of cheap food and reestablish fair prices for farmers,” they assert.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To picture what such a transition would look like, they point to New Deal agriculture policies adopted in the 1930s that directed public investments to rural communities, set price floors for crops and paid farmers to adopt conservation policies. This system was largely scrapped after World War II in favor of rules that promoted large-scale commodity production and maximized output. Today, the authors argue, farmers are locked into an economic model that is “unsustainable for farmers, eaters and the planet.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But in political and agricultural circles, new proposals are emerging for reducing corporate power in agriculture and restoring parity for farmers – payment that reflects production costs. Redirecting an industry this large is a long, slow process, but Montenegro, Shattuck and Sbicca assert that “if policymakers can envision a contemporary version of ideas in the original New Deal, a climate-friendly and socially just American agriculture is within reach.”</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/07/agroecology-as-innovation.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/07/agroecology-as-innovation.html</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><header class="entry-header" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="entry-title single-post-title" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/07/agroecology-as-innovation.html" class="nc-orange" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Agroecology as Innovation</font></a></h1><div class="single-title-meta" style="margin-bottom: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="sep">Posted on</span> <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/07/agroecology-as-innovation.html" title="Agroecology as Innovation" rel="bookmark" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">July 18, 2019</a> <span class="sep">by </span><span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/author/yves-smith" title="Yves Smith" rel="author" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Yves Smith</a></span></font></div></header><div class="entry-content" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="pf-content"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">By Timothy A. Wise, a Senior Researcher on the <a href="https://www.smallplanet.org/land-food-rights" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Land and Food Rights Program</a> at <a href="https://www.smallplanet.org/" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Small Planet Institute</a> and a researcher at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. He is the author of <a href="https://www.smallplanet.org/eating-tomorrow" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food</a> (New Press, 2019). Originally published at <a href="http://triplecrisis.com/13722-2/" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Triple Crisis</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recently, the High Level Panel of Experts of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its much-anticipated report on agroecology. The report signals the continuing shift in emphasis in the UN agency’s approach to agricultural development. As outgoing FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva has <a href="https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf&id=227958d9de&e=5bde67549b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf%26id%3D227958d9de%26e%3D5bde67549b&source=gmail&ust=1563457656589000&usg=AFQjCNGRaibqIir4d-vB76ZYVLgcYXm5ZA" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">indicated</a>, “We need to promote a transformative change in the way that we produce and consume food. We need to put forward sustainable food systems that offer healthy and nutritious food, and also preserve the environment. Agroecology can offer several contributions to this process.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The commissioned report, <a href="https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf&id=51d3275050&e=5bde67549b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf%26id%3D51d3275050%26e%3D5bde67549b&source=gmail&ust=1563457656589000&usg=AFQjCNFB6X9KdV2SANJZBgUr4Y2n7I_J0w" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">“Agroecological and other innovative approaches for sustainable agriculture and food systems that enhance food security and nutrition.”</a> Two years in the making, the report makes clear the urgent need for change. “Food systems are at a crossroads. Profound transformation is needed,” the summary begins. It stresses the importance of ecological agriculture, which supports “diversified and resilient production systems, including mixed livestock, fish, cropping, and agroforestry, that preserve and enhance biodiversity, as well as the natural resource base.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is not surprising, of course, that those with financial interests in the current input-intensive systems are responding to growing calls for agroecology with attacks on its efficacy as a systematic approach that can sustainably feed a growing population. What is surprising is that such responses are so ill-informed about the scientific innovations agroecology offers to small-scale farmers who are being so poorly served by “green revolution” approaches.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One <a href="https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf&id=bd84d19c40&e=5bde67549b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf%26id%3Dbd84d19c40%26e%3D5bde67549b&source=gmail&ust=1563457656589000&usg=AFQjCNFQy_viAiytLBNDWU4n6h6kYn2qKA" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">recent article</a> from a researcher associated with a pro-biotechnology institute in Uganda was downright dismissive, equating agroecology with “traditional agriculture,” a step backwards toward the low-productivity practices that prevail today. “The practices that agroecology promotes are not qualitatively different from those currently in widespread use among smallholder farmers in Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa more broadly,” writes Nassib Mugwanya of the Uganda Biosciences Research Center. <span style="font-weight: 700;">“</span>I have come to conclude that agroecology is a dead end for Africa, for the rather obvious reason that most African agriculture already follows its principles.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nothing could be further from the truth. As the new expert report shows, and as countless ecological scientists around the world can attest, agroecology brings much-needed innovations to prevailing smallholder practices. With a long track record of achievements in widely varying environments, the approach has been shown to improve soil fertility, increase crop and diet diversity, raise total food productivity, improve resilience to climate change, and increase farmers’ food and income security while decreasing their dependence on costly inputs.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The failing policies of the present</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The predominant input-intensive approach to agricultural development can hardly claim such successes, which is precisely why international institutions are actively seeking alternatives. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is the poster child for the promotion of input-intensive agriculture in Africa. At its outset 13 years ago, AGRA and its main sponsor, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, set the goals of doubling the productivity and incomes of 30 million smallholder households on the continent.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is no evidence that approach will come anywhere near meeting those worthy objectives, even with many African governments spending large portions of their agricultural budgets to subsidize the purchase of green revolution inputs of commercial seeds and synthetic fertilizers. <a href="https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf&id=01b0ac9f40&e=5bde67549b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf%26id%3D01b0ac9f40%26e%3D5bde67549b&source=gmail&ust=1563457656589000&usg=AFQjCNGsRj5h1nx_X12DW0yMv6svjwpYLg" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">National-level data</a>, summarized in the conclusion to my book <em>Eating Tomorrow,</em> attests to this failure:</font></p><ul style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding-left: 40px; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;"><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smallholders mostly cannot afford the inputs, and the added production they see does not cover their costs.</font></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rural poverty has barely improved since AGRA’s launch; neither has rural food insecurity. Global Hunger Index scores remained in the “serious” to “alarming” category for 12 of the 13 AGRA countries.</font></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even in priority crops like maize and rice, few of AGRA’s 13 priority countries have seen sustained productivity increases.</font></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Production increases for maize in Zambia have come as much from shifting land into subsidized maize production as from raising productivity from commercial seeds and fertilizers.</font></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is no evidence of improved soil fertility; in fact, many farmers have experienced a decline as mono-cropping and synthetic fertilizers have increased acidification and reduced much-needed organic matter.</font></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Costly input subsidies have shifted land out of drought-tolerant, nutritious crops such as sorghum and millet in favor of commercial alternatives. Crop diversity and diet diversity have decreased as a result.</font></li></ul><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A <a href="https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf&id=62b706531c&e=5bde67549b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf%26id%3D62b706531c%26e%3D5bde67549b&source=gmail&ust=1563457656589000&usg=AFQjCNF8bf7AK36B1GOXClSSW2lMvSl57Q" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">recent article</a> in the journal <em>Food Policy</em> surveyed the evidence from seven countries with input subsidy programs and found little evidence of sustained—or sustainable—success. “The empirical record is increasingly clear that improved seed and fertilizer are not sufficient to achieve profitable, productive, and sustainable farming systems in most parts of Africa,” wrote the authors in the conclusion.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Agroecology: Solving farmers’ problems</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 700;"> </span>Branding agroecology as a backward-looking, do-nothing approach to traditional agriculture is a defensive response to the failures of Green Revolution practices. In fact, agroecological sciences offer just the kinds of innovations small-scale farmers need to increase soil fertility, raise productivity, improve food and nutrition security, and build climate resilience.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Do these innovations sound backward looking to you?</font></p><ul style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding-left: 40px; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;"><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf&id=885e60db1c&e=5bde67549b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf%26id%3D885e60db1c%26e%3D5bde67549b&source=gmail&ust=1563457656589000&usg=AFQjCNF3yXNQlm3mxyh0ySCdFmzuRVgFGg" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Biological pest control</a> – Scientist Hans Herren won a World Food Prize for halting the spread of a cassava pest in Africa by introducing a wasp that naturally controlled the infestation.</font></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf&id=c436b565ca&e=5bde67549b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf%26id%3Dc436b565ca%26e%3D5bde67549b&source=gmail&ust=1563457656589000&usg=AFQjCNHwzrv6Pok0K4iHZjaeCh8dTBdoTw" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Push-pull technology</a> – Using a scientifically proven mix of crops to push pests away from food crops and pull them out of the field, farmers have been able to reduce pesticide use while increasing productivity.</font></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf&id=27361b05cb&e=5bde67549b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf%26id%3D27361b05cb%26e%3D5bde67549b&source=gmail&ust=1563457656589000&usg=AFQjCNHrfyHKi8lucw4wEFGA26ThqaL6vQ" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Participatory plant breeding</a> – Agronomists work with farmers to identify the most productive and desirable seed varieties and improve them through careful seed selection and farm management. In the process, degraded local varieties can be improved or replaced with locally adapted alternatives.</font></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf&id=cd10005577&e=5bde67549b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf%26id%3Dcd10005577%26e%3D5bde67549b&source=gmail&ust=1563457656589000&usg=AFQjCNEaSENJZqf83uC43VdSIi7mGIn3uw" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Agro-forestry</a> – A wide range of scientists has demonstrated the soil-building potential of incorporating trees and cover crops onto small-scale farms. Carefully selected tree varieties can fix nitrogen in the soil, reduce erosion, and give farmers a much-needed cash crop while restoring degraded land.</font></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf&id=83b1b36cb6&e=5bde67549b" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smallplanet.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D8eec5cd5151a8346637209ddf%26id%3D83b1b36cb6%26e%3D5bde67549b&source=gmail&ust=1563457656589000&usg=AFQjCNGzYyDK2MvAXH-Sci4I3OaZAHEKFA" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Small livestock</a> – Reintroducing goats or other small livestock onto farms has been shown to provide farmers with a sustainable source of manure while adding needed protein to local diets. Science-driven production of compost can dramatically improve soil quality.</font></li></ul><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These innovations and many others are explored in depth in the new U.N. report, the full version of which will be available in English in mid-July, other FAO languages in September. Those advocates of industrial agriculture would do well to read it closely so they can update their understanding of the sustainable innovations agroecological sciences offer to small-scale farmers, most of whom have seen no improvements in their farms, incomes, or food security using Green Revolution approaches. Many farmers have concluded that the Green Revolution, not agroecology, is a dead end for Africa.</font></p><div class="printfriendly pf-alignleft" style="float: left; margin: 4px 12px 0px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 1000;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: none; vertical-align: bottom; box-shadow: none !important;"><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/07/agroecology-as-innovation.html#" rel="nofollow" class="noslimstat" title="Printer Friendly, PDF & Email" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: none; vertical-align: bottom; box-shadow: none !important;">
</a></font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> posted in</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/africa" rel="category tag" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration="text-decoration" inherit="inherit">Africa</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">,</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/free-markets-and-their-discontents" rel="category tag" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration="text-decoration" inherit="inherit">Free markets and their discontents</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">,</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/guest-post" rel="category tag" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration="text-decoration" inherit="inherit">Guest Post</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">,</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/permaculture" rel="category tag" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration="text-decoration" inherit="inherit">Permaculture</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">,</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/social-policy" rel="category tag" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration="text-decoration" inherit="inherit">Social policy</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">,</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/technology-and-innovation" rel="category tag" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration="text-decoration" inherit="inherit">Technology and innovation</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">on</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/07/agroecology-as-innovation.html" title="5:08 am" rel="bookmark" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration="text-decoration" inherit="inherit">July 18, 2019</a><span class="by-author" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> by <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/author/yves-smith" title="View all posts by Yves Smith" rel="author" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: inherit;">Yves Smith</a></span></span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">.</span></font></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/21/the_battle_for_paradise_naomi_klein"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/21/the_battle_for_paradise_naomi_klein</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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