permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Karl S North <knorth@binghamton.edu>
Date: Fri, Nov 4, 2016 at 3:55 PM
Subject: [SANET-MG] Agroecology “Lite:” Cooptation and Resistance in the
Global North
To: sanet-mg@googlegroups.com


​​https://foodfirst.org/agroecology-lite-cooptation-
and-resistance-in-the-global-north/

This piece really hits the nail on the head. The alternative ag movement in
the US should take its message as seriously as any agronomic challenge for
the future of the food system.

Snips:

The political dimension of agroecology is problematic in the Global
North—particularly in the United States—because challenging the root causes
of industrial agriculture’s socio-environmental destruction implies
challenging capitalism itself.

The northern arena of agroecological debate is dominated by an eclectic
soup of apolitical narratives (read: avoiding the subject of capitalism),
largely promoted by consumers and academics, global institutions, big NGOs
and big philanthropy. This institutional camp uses a variety of terms
(sustainable intensification, climate-smart agriculture, diversified
farming systems, etc.) to promote a reformist definition of agroecology as
a set of additional tools to improve everyone’s toolbox. Big, small,
organic, conventional… will all get along better with a little more
agroecology.

Everyone claiming to be an "agroecologist" I have met who has trained in a
landgrant institution and claims to be politically aware is actually
woefully ignorant in my view, usually for three reasons: 1)  Landgrant
training programs do not consider the study of the political economy of
agriculture as necessary to a Phd program, and in fact avoid it like the
plague, 2) Students don't have awareness or the courage to seek out the few
radical political economists to learn from in these institutions, 3)
Students are afraid such training will damage their careers.

My advice to prospective agroecologists: train with someone like Altieri
who knows better that to try to teach in a landgrant university, or study
agroecology in a country in the global south, at EcoSur in San Cristobal de
las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, for example.

-- 
Karl North -  http://karlnorth.com/
"Pueblo que canta no morira" - Cuban saying
"They only call it class warfare when we fight back" - Anon.
"My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet-plane. His son
will ride a camel."
 —Saudi saying

-- 

-- 
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared