Addressing the Knowledge Gaps in Agroecology and Identifying Guiding Principles for Transforming Conventional Agri-Food Systems
1
Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3BA, UK
2
School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3XQ, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Manuel González de Molina and Gloria Guzman
Sustainability 2017, 9(3), 330; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030330
Received: 12 January 2017
/
Revised: 10 February 2017
/
Accepted: 16 February 2017
/
Published: 23 February 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agroecology at the Crossroads: Challenges for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems)
Today’s society faces many challenges when it comes to food production: producing food sustainably, producing enough of it, distributing food, consuming enough calories, consuming too many calories, consuming culturally-appropriate foods, and reducing the amount of food wasted. The distribution of power within the current mainstream agri-food system is dominated by multinational agri-businesses that control the flow of goods and wealth through the system. This hegemony has implemented a regime whose structures reinforce its control. A growing response to the current agri-food regime is the rise of agroecology, in both developed and developing country contexts. This is not a new phenomenon, but it has evolved over time from its Latin American origins. However, agroecology is not a monolithic block and represents many different perceptions of what it means to advance agroecology and ways in which it can help today’s society tackle the crisis of the agri-food system. This paper addresses these sometimes discordant view points, as well as the gaps in our knowledge regarding agroecology in an effort to lay out some guiding principles for how we can move forward in transforming the current agri-food system to achieve sustainability and a more equitable distribution of power and resources.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
agroecology; agri-food system; political ecology; equity; power
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Sanderson Bellamy, A.; Ioris, A.A.R. Addressing the Knowledge Gaps in Agroecology and Identifying Guiding Principles for Transforming Conventional Agri-Food Systems. Sustainability 2017, 9, 330. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030330
AMA Style
Sanderson Bellamy A, Ioris AAR. Addressing the Knowledge Gaps in Agroecology and Identifying Guiding Principles for Transforming Conventional Agri-Food Systems. Sustainability. 2017; 9(3):330. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030330
Chicago/Turabian StyleSanderson Bellamy, Angelina, and Antonio A.R. Ioris. 2017. "Addressing the Knowledge Gaps in Agroecology and Identifying Guiding Principles for Transforming Conventional Agri-Food Systems" Sustainability 9, no. 3: 330. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030330
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
