Agroecology and Conscious Food Systems for Flourishing of People, Places, and Planet
This special issue belongs to the section "Food Solutions for Health and Sustainability".
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce this Challenges Special Issue: “Agroecology and Conscious Food Systems for Flourishing of People, Places, and Planet”.
Our global food system is in crisis. Industrial agriculture is one of the leading causes of climate change and health inequity around the world. Urgent efforts are required to regenerate environments, cool the planet, and provide good, healthy food for all. This requires understanding and designing food systems using social, ecological, and political principles to regenerate nature and create a more just society. It also depends on cultural and spiritual transformation, recognizing the need to address outmoded mindsets and destructive, self-serving human behavior driving these global predicaments.
Inspired by the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) initiative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), this Special Issue addresses the call for deep structural change and transformative approaches to shifting dominant values and narratives within existing systems. This includes ecological and regenerative approaches such as agroecology, which are not limited to changing farming techniques but also extend to transforming policy, science, culture, and economies for more just food systems. It also encompasses efforts to combine Indigenous practices and ancestral knowledge with scientific knowledge to address the current food crisis.
We invite contributions that explore more holistic approaches to systemic change within food and agriculture—including the conscious inner capacities required to foster meaningful connections with the land, each other, and ourselves. This can include strategies to build new regenerative systems and/or to address or overcome current unhealthy food systems. Contributions may be original research, community initiatives, new models, proposals, case studies, and other examples that demonstrate theory and research in practice. We also welcome philosophical explorations, creative contributions, and associated reflections on these issues, including a wide variety of cultural perspectives.
The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is free of charge.
Prof. Dr. Victor Ernesto Méndez
Prof. Dr. Karen Spiller
Prof. Dr. Molly D. Anderson
Prof. Dr. Hannah Gosnell
Dr. Xiaoan Li
Dr. Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrío
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Challenges is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is free of Charge. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- agroecology, agrifood systems, agricultural resilience, climate change
- regenerative agriculture, regeneration
- participatory action research (PAR), agricultural livelihoods
- indigenous knowledges and ancestral food knowledge and practices, traditional cultures
- local food initiatives, community programs
- food justice and equity (anti-racism and diversity belonging)
- influence of value systems, worldviews, attitudes, mindsets, on food and food systems
- connections between food and individual and collective well-being, planetary health, connectivity of systems on all scales, ecology, interdependence Inner Development Goals
- belief systems, cultural change, co-creation, social change, behavioral changes, tipping points, collaborative emergence, spirituality, mindfulness and compassion, connection to nature, nature-relatedness
- mutualism, connectedness, appreciation, humility, empathy
- strategies to promote community awareness, art, creativity, community initiatives, community circles, reciprocity, mutualism, storytelling
- food literacy, early-life and adult education
- evaluating strategies for potential benefits for individuals, communities, and environments
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Published Papers
Challenges - ISSN 2078-1547