Table Of Contenti
Political Agroecology
Advancing the Transition to Sustainable Food Systems
ii
Advances in Agroecology
Series Editors:
Clive A. Edwards, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Stephen R. Gliessman, University of California, Santa Cruz, California
Structure and Function in Agroecosystem Design and Management, edited by
Masae Shiyomi and Hiroshi Koizumi
Landscape Ecology in Agroecosystems Management, edited by Lech Ryszkowski
Tropical Agroecosystems, edited by John H. Vandermeer
Soil Tillage in Agroecosystems, edited by Adel El Titi
Multi- Scale Integrated Analysis of Agroecosystems, by Mario Giampietro
Soil Organic Matter in Sustainable Agriculture, edited by Fred Magdoff and Ray R. Weil
Agroecosystems in a Changing Climate, edited by Paul C.D. Newton, R. Andrew Carran,
Grant R. Edwards, and Pascal A. Niklaus
Integrated Assessment of Health and Sustainability of Agroecosystems, by
Thomas Gitau, Margaret W. Gitau, and David Waltner- Toews
Sustainable Agroecosystem Management: Integrating Ecology, Economics and Society,
edited by Patrick J. Bohlen and Gar House
The Conversion to Sustainable Agriculture: Principles, Processes, and Practices,
edited by Stephen R. Gliessman and Martha Rosemeyer
Sustainable Agriculture and New Biotechnologies, edited by Noureddine Benkeblia
Global Economic and Environmental Aspects of Biofuels, edited by David Pimentel
Microbial Ecology in Sustainable Agroecosystems, edited by Tanya Cheeke,
David C. Coleman, and Diana H. Wall
Land Use Intensification: Effects on Agriculture, Biodiversity, and Ecological Processes,
edited by David Lindenmayer, Saul Cunningham, and Andrew Young
Agroecology, Ecosystems, and Sustainability, edited by Noureddine Benkeblia
Agroecology: A Transdisciplinary, Participatory and Action- oriented Approach, edited by
V. Ernesto Méndez, Christopher M. Bacon, Roseann Cohen, Stephen R. Gliessman
Energy in Agroecosystems: A Tool for Assessing Sustainability, by
Gloria I. Guzmán Casado and Manuel González de Molina
Agroecology in China: Science, Practice, and Sustainable Management, edited by
Luo Shiming and Stephen R. Gliessman
Climate Change and Crop Production: Foundations for Agroecosystem Resilience,
edited by Noureddine Benkeblia
Environmental Resilience and Food Law: Agrobiodiversity and Agroecology,
edited by Gabriela Steier, Alberto Giulio Cianci
Political Agroecology: Advancing the Transition to Sustainable Food Systems, by
Manuel González de Molina, Paulo Frederico Petersen, Francisco Garrido Peña,
Francisco Roberto Caporal
For more information about this series, please visit: www.crcpress.com/ Advances- in-
Agroecology/ book- series/ CRCADVAGROECO
iii
Political Agroecology
Advancing the Transition to Sustainable Food Systems
Manuel González de Molina
Paulo Frederico Petersen
Francisco Garrido Peña
Francisco Roberto Caporal
iv
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v
Cover Art by Lucia Vignoli
The cover illustration, “Buen Vivir,” was created by Lucia Vignoli and Joana Lyra,
artist-faculty members of the ArteGestoAção Research Group (ArtGestureAction)
linked to the Instituto Nacional de Educación de Sordos [National Institute of Deaf
People], Brazil. Produced with manual paintings and stamps, the image is inspired by
a traditional West African communication system, the Adinkras stamps, vehicles of
information and values with aesthetic, ethical and political meanings. The compos-
ition reveals a system of interactions in which humans and non-humans are organic-
ally integrated into the reproduction of “Buen Vivir”.
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vii
Contents
About the Authors .................................................................................................xi
Introduction .........................................................................................................xiii
Chapter 1 Theoretical Foundations of Political Agroecology ...........................1
1.1 Political Agroecology: A Tentative Definition ............................1
1.2 A Thermodynamic Approach to Society .....................................3
1.3 A Socioecological View of Society: Social Metabolism .............5
1.4 Social Entropy .............................................................................8
1.5 Institutions and Social Inequity .................................................11
1.6 Politics and Entropy...................................................................12
1.7 Political Institutions: The Trade- off Between Social and
Physical Entropy ........................................................................13
1.8 Conflict, Protest, and Metabolic Change ...................................16
1.9 Politics in Agroecosystems ........................................................18
1.10 Funds and Flows in Agrarian Metabolism .................................20
1.11 The Organization and Dynamics of Agrarian Metabolism ........23
1.12 Agroecological Transition and Food Regime Change ...............24
Chapter 2 The Industrialization of Agriculture and the Enlargement of
the Food Chain ...............................................................................27
2.1 The Origins of Industrial Agriculture ........................................28
2.2 The Institutional Framework: Private Property
and Market. ................................................................................31
2.3 The First Globalization: The Emergence of
Food Regimes ............................................................................33
2.4 Green Revolution and the Second Food Regime .......................34
2.5 The Main Drivers of Agricultural Industrialization ...................37
2.6 Beyond Agriculture: The Food System .....................................40
2.7 A Third Food Regime? ..............................................................44
Chapter 3 A Regime on the Road to Collapse ................................................47
3.1 The Physical Impossibility of Economic Growth ......................48
3.2 Metabolic Crisis and Capital Accumulation: A Marxist
Reading ......................................................................................51
3.3 Industrial Agriculture: An Inefficient and Harmful
Model That is Exhausted ...........................................................54
3.4 Evidences of an Announced Collapse .......................................60
3.5 “Business as Usual” Is Not an Option for The
Future: Looking for Alternatives ...............................................65
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viii Contents
Chapter 4 Cognitive Frameworks and Institutional Design for an
Agroecological Transition ..............................................................73
4.1 The Cognitive Frameworks of Political Agroecology ...............73
4.1.1 Cognitive Principles of Political Agroecology:
Ideology .........................................................................75
4.1.2 Eight Solid Principles of Cooperative
Management of Natural Resources: Institutional
Design ............................................................................78
4.1.3 Agroecological Effects of Cooperative
Institutional Design ........................................................79
4.2 An Institutional Design for Agroecological Resilience .............80
4.2.1 Origin and Negentropic Function of Institutions ...........81
4.2.2 Scales and the “Social Point” of Cooperative
Institutions......................................................................82
4.3 Diversity of Basic-Scale Agroecological Institutions
(The Firm) .................................................................................83
4.3.1 The Family Institution as a Preferential
Agroecological Firm ......................................................83
4.3.2 A Cooperative Institution as a Preferential
Model of Agroecological Firm .......................................84
4.3.3 Local Markets ................................................................85
4.3.4 Long Chains of Agroecological Trade ...........................86
4.3.5 Agroecological Districts ................................................88
4.3.6 Virtual Local Currencies ................................................88
4.4 Democratic Governance and Diffuse State for the
Agroecological Transition .........................................................89
4.4.1 Agroecology as Collective Multilevel Action ................90
4.4.2 Normative Action and Popular Sovereignty as a
Procedure .......................................................................92
4.4.3 Cooperative Democracy .................................................93
4.4.4 Deliberative Democracy .................................................95
Chapter 5 Scaling Agroecology ......................................................................97
5.1 The Nature of Change: The Metamorphosis of the Food
System .......................................................................................98
5.2 A Strategy for Change: Scaling Up Agroecology ...................100
5.3 Peasant Agriculture: The Cocoons of Agroecological
Metamorphosis ........................................................................102
5.4 Countermovements Favoring the De- commodification
of Food Systems ......................................................................106
5.5 Scaling Up Territories ..............................................................109
5.6 Lock-Ins and Systemic Rejection ............................................111
5.7 Patriarchy as a Political– Cultural Obstacle to
Agroecology ............................................................................113
5.8 Agroecological- oriented Local Food Systems ........................114
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Contents ix
Chapter 6 The Agents of the Agroecological Transition ...............................119
6.1 “Food Populism”: Building Social Majorities of Change .......119
6.2 Peasants: Central Actors in the Agroecological Transition .....123
6.3 Peasant Conditions under Capitalism and Agricultural
Industrialization .......................................................................128
6.4 The “New Peasants” ................................................................131
6.5 Agroecology and Feminism: The Central Role of Women .....133
6.6 Politicizing Food......................................................................135
6.7 Agroecological Movements as “New Green” Movements ......138
Chapter 7 The Role of the State and Public Policies ....................................143
7.1 Public Policies from a Political Agroecology Perspective ......144
7.2 Experiences in Public Policies Favoring Agroecology ............146
7.3 Main Conclusions of the Analysis of Public Policies ..............151
7.4 Public Policies to Scale Up Agroecology ................................153
7.5 An Agroecological Approach to the Design and
Implementation of Public Policies ...........................................154
7.6 Public Policies that Lead to Scaling Up ..................................157
7.6.1 Program for the Construction of Cisterns, Brazilian
Semiarid Region ...........................................................158
7.6.2 Organic Agriculture Program in Cuba .........................159
7.6.3 Organic Foods for Social Consumption in
Andalusia, Spain ..........................................................159
7.6.4 Biofertilization and Biological Control Input
Programs in Cuba .........................................................160
7.6.5 The National Policy of Technical Assistance and
Rural Extension, Brazil ................................................160
7.6.6 Institutional Purchasing, Brazil ....................................161
7.6.7 Olive “Residues” Composting Program in
Andalusia, Spain ..........................................................161
7.6.8 ProHuerta’s Program, Argentina ..................................162
7.6.9 The National Policy of Agroecology and Organic
Production, Brazil ........................................................162
7.6.10 State Policy on Organic Farming (2004) and
Organic Mission (2010), Sikkim, India .......................163
7.6.11 Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (2015) .........................164
7.6.12 Advances in Professional Training and Support for
the Organization of Agroecology Hubs in Brazilian
Educational Institutions ...............................................164
References .........................................................................................................167
Index ..................................................................................................................195
