Agroecology, Small Farms, and Food Sovereignty

By M. Altieri. 2009

542 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Global forces are challenging the ability of developing countries to feed themselves. A number of countries have organized their economies around a competitive export-oriented agricultural sector, based mainly on monocultures. It may be argued that agricultural exports of crops such as soybeans from Brazil make significant contributions to the national economies by bringing in hard currency that can be used to purchase other goods from abroad. However, this type of industrial agriculture also brings a variety of economic, environmental, and social problems, including negative impacts on public health, ecosystem integrity, food quality, and in many cases disruption of traditional rural livelihoods, while accelerating indebtedness among thousands of farmers.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Subfields: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/59087850db0687f8a9e3ab61b736015c1225ad7c

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Citations in the corpus

The agroecological revolution in Latin America: rescuing nature, ensuring food sovereignty and empowering peasants (2011, background): “…problems of any agro-export scheme that does not prioritize food sovereignty (defined here as the right of people to produce, distribute and consume healthy food in and near their territory in an ecologically sustainable manner), often perpetuating dependence and at times hunger (Altieri 2009).”
Agroecology and Politics. How To Get Sustainability? About the Necessity for a Political Agroecology (2012, unknown): “Many essays have been published on peasant movements and food sovereignty (among the latter, see Holt-Giménez 2006, 2011; M. A. Altieri 2009; Holt-Giménez and Patel 2009; Perfecto et al. 2009; Petersen 2009; Martínez Torres and Rosset 2010), but there has not been a systematic and articulated…”
Organic Farming and Small-Scale Farmers: Main Opportunities and Challenges (2017, background): “34 From a historical point of view, the Green Revolution has truly increased agricultural 35 production on a global level, but it has done so at the cost of the degradation of the 36 environment and natural resources (Altieri, 2009; Rundgren and Parrott, 2006; Bazuin et al., 37 2011).”
The politics of seed in Africa's green revolution: Alternative narratives and competing pathways (2011, background): “Still others focus on the importance of locale, and the value of locally-based economies and ‘food sovereignty’ (Altieri 2009; Mulvany and Arce Moreira 2009; Pimbert 2009).”
The Brazilian Atlantic Forest: A Shrinking Biodiversity Hotspot (2011, background): “However, in flat areas where mechanization is possible, sugarcane plantations have taken over the land for biofuel (Lapola et al. 2010), which should actually be termed agrofuel (Altieri 2009a, b), also accompanied by soybeans and other large scale crops, including outsized pasture lands.”
Competitiveness of Small Farms and Innovative Food Supply Chains: The Role of Food Hubs in Creating Sustainable Regional and Local Food Systems (2016, background): “This also implies a reconfiguration of the farm business model and operations in the direction of multifunctional diversification [11,26,27] and agroecology [28].”
A Sustainable Agricultural Future Relies on the Transition to Organic Agroecological Pest Management (2018, background): “This, however, cannot be separated from the global imperative to move towards a more sustainable agriculture, especially regarding methods of pest management [2].”
Trade-offs between environment and livelihoods: Bridging the global land use and food security discussions (2017, unknown): “…food production with preservation of natural habitats (Nordhaus et al. 2015), to the most extreme agroecological propositions of small-scale, labor-intensive farming that support autonomous peasant communities fully independent of external inputs and of commercial relations (Altieri 2009).”
Chemical Pesticides and Human Health: The Urgent Need for a New Concept in Agriculture (2016, background): “Moreover, international agrochemical companies absorb traditional agricultural companies, leading to an industrialized agriculture model and leaving the local farmers and small producers to face the consequences (138, 143).”
Agri-Food Markets towards Sustainable Patterns (2020, background): “In general, the supporters of ‘food sovereignty’ [40,41] have a critical opinion towards markets and call for having more rights and power to control their own food systems—including their agri-food markets, production modes—in line with their food cultures.”
The contribution of small-scale food production in urban areas to the sustainable development goals: a review and case study (2020, background): “The largest farms, averaging 15,581 hectares, yielded $249 per hectare and netted about $52 per hectare (Altieri 2009).”