This update may be of interest to you and your networks.  Best wishes,  Colin

What’s up with AgroecologyNow!?

January 2019 Update with links to 8 recent free to download publications 

AgroecologyNow! is an initiative convened by the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience in the United Kingdom working with partners including in social movements, civil society, governments and research institutions to promote a transformative agroecology for food sovereignty and social justice: www.agroecologynow.com

See below for some highlights of the latest ideas and updates. Feel free to pass some or all of this on to your networks or to copy/adapt parts for use in newsletters, etc. There are also 8 recent and freely downloadable articles listed at the end of the email.

Agroecology as a Pathway Towards Food Sovereignty in Ethiopian Forest Communities

This guest article by Million Belay unpacks his reflections on a participatory mapping process that he facilitated for expanding agroecological practices in the forest community of Nono Sele. Million is network coordinator at the African Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA). Click here to read more: https://wp.me/p67WNH-l3.

The Dark Side of Innovation for Family Farmers: Reflections on an International Symposium on Innovation

Chris Maughan comments on the use of ‘Innovation’ as a framework for debates on agricultural sustainability and in relation to agroecology and presents five reasons why it is an inadequate framework to address the deep injustices in contemporary food systems. He describes Innovation as: 1) a Trojan Horse; 2) scattering debates; 3) a tool of capture; 4) a tool of containment; 5) a tool to ‘weaponise the youth’. Click here to read: https://wp.me/p67WNH-kJ

Food Justice Resource List

This resources list shares a selection of material related to food justice. It includes different topics (e.g. racism, feminism, decoloniality, poverty, and food sovereignty) presented through different mediums (writing, video, etc.). Click here to learn more: https://tinyurl.com/y8tms89p

“Statement of Equity” by the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association

This statement from SAEA expresses a commitment to confronting race, class, gender, ethnic, and other social inequalities in learning and education. This is a really useful and concise tool to think about learning, pedagogical practice, power and equity. Click here for more details: https://wp.me/p6tuKo-14n.

Bringing Agroecology into the UK Agriculture Bill

Policy support for agroecology in the UK has been piecemeal and many policies undermine the potential for developing agroecology in the UK. For agroecology to thrive in the UK, we need a concerted investment and an enabling policy and regulatory environment to begin to, over the long-term, transition to a more sustainable food system through agroecology. See the Agroecologynow! contribution to this debate here: https://wp.me/p67WNH-jM

Policy work at AgroecologyNow!

Researchers at CAWR have been involved in a range of collaborative policy work related to agroecology working with farmers and other food producers, social movements and other organisations and networks to advance agroecology at the national and international level. We have created a news section of the AgroecologyNow! webpage as a repository for the videos, pictures and texts from the different events and contributions which may be of interest/use. Click here for more information: https://tinyurl.com/ybm8o47l

One Year Anniversary of Book - Everyday Experts: How People’s Knowledge Can Transform the Food System

Produced by CAWR’s People’s Knowledge working group, this Open Access e-book includes 28 chapters written by researchers, activists, farmers, video-makers and share reflections, stories and analysis on struggles to mobilise knowledge for a more just and sustainable food system. Click here to download (at no cost) individual chapters or the entire book as a PDF: https://tinyurl.com/ycesslmu

Call for Papers - Is Food Sovereignty a Feminist Practice and Struggle? Interrogating the Gender Dimensions of Food Sovereignty

This conference session will address the following question: How does food sovereignty address deeply entrenched social relations and structural barriers to women’s equality and gender equity in the countryside in specific locales? Selected papers will be invited to present at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS-IBG) Conference in London, UK., August 27-30, 2019. Deadline for abstracts: February 5, 2019. A full call for proposals is available by contacting Annette Aurélie Desmarais (Annette.desmarais@umanitoba.ca), Rita Calvário, (ritamcalvario@gmail.com) and Priscilla Claeys, (Priscilla.claeys@coventry.ac.uk) for more information.

Recent AgroecologyNow! Publications and Resources

Full list of current and past publications available here (most freely available to download): http://www.agroecologynow.com/publications/

Duncan, J., & Claeys, P. (2018). Politicizing food security governance through participation: opportunities and opposition. Food Security, 10(6), 1411-1424.

Pimbert, M.P. (2018). Food Sovereignty and the regeneration of terraced landscapes. Annales. Series Historia and Sociologia, 28(4):779-794.

Pimbert, M.P. and C.R. Anderson. (2018). The battle for the future of farming: what you need to know. The Conversation. Nov. 21, 2018.

Mama D, and C.R. Anderson (eds.) (2018) Breadlines… Exploring food and social justice in the UK. 1(1). Available at:https://communityknowledgecentred.wordpress.com/food-justice/breadlines/

Singh, J. (2019). Research and Creativity: Making a Play about Food Poverty in the UK. Blog post.

Wakeford, T. and Sanchez Rodriquez, J. (2018). Participatory action research: towards a more fruitful knowledge in Connected Communities Foundation Series.

And, a publication to highlight from the AFSA: Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (Million Belay, our guest contributor is the coordinator of AFSA): AGROECOLOGY POLICY REPORT: A Study Of Policies, Frameworks And Mechanisms Related To Agroecology And Sustainable Food Systems In Africa