Agroecology (US: a-grō-ē-ˈkä-lə-jē) is an

academic discipline An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

that studies

ecological processes Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of living ( biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of ecosystems and their interactions within an ecosystem framework. This science examines how ecosystems work and relates this to their components s ...

applied to

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

production systems. Bringing ecological principles to bear can suggest new management approaches in

agroecosystem Agroecosystems are the ecosystems supporting the food production systems in our farms and gardens. As the name implies, at the core of an agroecosystem lies the human activity of agriculture. As such they are the basic unit of study in Agroecology, ...

s. The term is often used imprecisely, as the term can be used as a science, a movement, or an agricultural practice.Wezel, A., Bellon, S., Doré, T., Francis, C., Vallod, D., David, C. (2009)
Agroecology as a science, a movement or a practice
. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development Agroecologists study a variety of agroecosystems. The field of agroecology is not associated with any one particular method of

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

, whether it be

organic Organic may refer to: * Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity * Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ Chemistry * Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...

, regenerative, integrated, or

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

intensive In grammar, an intensive word form is one which denotes stronger, more forceful, or more concentrated action relative to the root on which the intensive is built. Intensives are usually lexical formations, but there may be a regular process for for ...

or extensive, although some use the name specifically for alternative agriculture.

Definition

Agroecology is defined by the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

as "the study of the relation of agricultural crops and environment." Dalgaard ''et al''. refer to agroecology as the study of the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment within agricultural systems.Dalgaard, Tommy, and Nicholas Hutchings, John Porter.
Agroecology, Scaling and Interdisciplinarity
" Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 100(2003): 39-51. Francis ''et al''. also use the definition in the same way, but thought it should be restricted to growing food. Agroecology is a holistic approach that seeks to reconcile agriculture and local communities with natural processes for the common benefit of nature and livelihoods. Agroecology is inherently multidisciplinary, including sciences such as

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

environmental science Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and others. Agroecology uses different sciences to understand elements of ecosystems such as soil properties and plant-insect interactions, as well as using social sciences to understand the effects of farming practices on rural communities, economic constraints to developing new production methods, or cultural factors determining farming practices. The system properties of agroecosystems studied may include:

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

stability Stability may refer to: Mathematics *Stability theory, the study of the stability of solutions to differential equations and dynamical systems **Asymptotic stability **Linear stability **Lyapunov stability **Orbital stability **Structural stabilit ...

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

and

equitability Equitability is a criterion for fair division. A division is called equitable if the subjective value of all partners is the same, i.e., each partner is equally happy with his/her share. Mathematically, that means that for all partners and : : V_i ...

. Agroecology is not limited to any one scale; it can range from an individual gene to an entire population, or from a single field in a given farm to global systems. Wojtkowski differentiates the ecology of natural ecosystems from agroecology inasmuch as in natural ecosystems there is no role for economics, whereas in agroecology, focusing as it does on organisms within planned and managed environments, it is human activities, and hence economics, that are the primary governing forces that ultimately control the field.Wojtkowski, Paul A. (2002) Agroecological Perspectives in Agronomy, Forestry and Agroforestry. Science Publishers Inc., Enfield, New Hampshire, 356p. Wojtkowski discusses the application of agroecology in

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

and

agroforestry Agroforestry is a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland. Trees produce a wide range of useful and marketable products from fruits/nuts, medicines, wood products, etc. This intentional ...

in his 2002 book.

Varieties

Buttel identifies four varieties of agroecology in a 2003 conference paper. The main varieties he calls ''ecosystem agroecology'' which he claims derives from the

ecosystem ecology Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of living ( biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of ecosystems and their interactions within an ecosystem framework. This science examines how ecosystems work and relates this to their components s ...

Howard T. Odum Howard Thomas Odum (September 1, 1924 – September 11, 2002), usually cited as H. T. Odum, was an American ecologist. He is known for his pioneering work on ecosystem ecology, and for his provocative proposals for additional laws of thermod ...

and focuses less on the rural sociology, and ''agronomic agroecology'' which he identifies as being oriented towards developing knowledge and practices to agriculture more sustainable. The third long-standing variety Buttel calls ''ecological political economy'' which he defines as critiquing the politics and economy of agriculture and weighted to radical politics. The smallest and newest variety Buttel coins ''agro-population ecology'', which he says is very similar to the first, but is derived from the science of ecology primarily based on the more modern theories of

population ecology Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment, such as birth and death rates, and by immigration and emigration. The discipline is importa ...

such as

population dynamics Population dynamics is the type of mathematics used to model and study the size and age composition of populations as dynamical systems. History Population dynamics has traditionally been the dominant branch of mathematical biology, which has ...

of constituent species, and their relationships to

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

and

biogeochemistry Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment (including the biosphere, the cryosphere, t ...

, and the role of

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

. Dalgaard ''et al''. identify different points of view: what they call early "integrative" agroecology, such as the investigations of

Henry Gleason Henry Allan Gleason (1882–1975) was an American ecologist, botanist, and taxonomist. He was known for his endorsement of the individualistic or open community concept of ecological succession, and his opposition to Frederic Clements's concept ...

or Frederic Clements. The second version they cite Hecht (1995) as coining "hard" agroecology which they identify as more reactive to environmental politics but rooted in measurable units and technology. They themselves name "soft" agroecology which they define as trying to measure agroecology in terms of "soft capital" such as culture or experience. The term agroecology may used by people for a science, movement or practice.Wezel, A., Soldat, V. (2009)
A quantitative and qualitative historical analysis of the scientific discipline agroecology
International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 7 (1): 3-18. , doi=10.3763/ijas.2009.040 Using the name as a movement became more common in the 1990s, especially in the Americas.

Miguel Altieri Miguel Altieri is a Chilean born agronomist and entomologist. He is a Professor of Agroecology at the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. Career Miguel Altieri studied agronomy at ...

, whom Buttel groups with the "political" agroecologists, has published prolifically in this sense. He has applied agroecology to sustainable agriculture, alternative agriculture and traditional knowledge.

History

Overview

The history of agroecology depends on whether you are referring to it as a body of thought or a method of practice, as many indigenous cultures around the world historically used and currently use practices we would now consider utilizing knowledge of agroecology. Examples include Maori,

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

, and many other indigenous peoples. The

Mexica The Mexica (Nahuatl: , ;''Nahuatl Dictionary.'' (1990). Wired Humanities Project. University of Oregon. Retrieved August 29, 2012, frolink/ref> singular ) were a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of ...

people that inhabited Tenochtitlan pre-colonization of the Americas used a process called chinampas that in many ways mirrors the use of composting in sustainable agriculture today. The use of agroecological practices such as nutrient cycling and intercropping occurs across hundreds of years and many different cultures. Indigenous peoples also currently make up a large proportion of people using agroecological practices, and those involved in the movement to move more farming into an agroecological paradigm.

Pre-WWII academic thought

According to Gliessman and Francis ''et al''., agronomy and ecology were first linked with the study of crop ecology by Klages in 1928. This work is a study of where crops can best be grown.Gliessman, Stephen. R Agroecology: Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agriculture. Ann Arbor: Sleeping Bear Press, 1998. Wezel ''et al''. say the first mention of the term agroecology was in 1928, with the publication of the term by Basil Bensin. Dalgaard ''et al''. claim the German zoologist Friederichs was the first to use the name in 1930 in his book on the zoology of agriculture and forestry, followed by American crop physiologist Hansen in 1939, both using the word for the application of ecology within agriculture.

Post-WWII academic thought

Tischler's 1965 book ''Agrarökologie'' may be the first to be titled 'agroecology'. He analyzed the different components (plants, animals, soils and climate) and their interactions within an agroecosystem as well as the impact of human

agricultural management Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Profession ...

on these components. Gliessman describes that post-WWII ecologists gave more focus to experiments in the natural environment, while agronomists dedicated their attention to the cultivated systems in agriculture, but in the 1970s agronomists saw the value of ecology, and ecologists began to use the agricultural systems as study plots, studies in agroecology grew more rapidly. More books and articles using the concept of agroecosystems and the word agroecology started to appear in 1970s. According to Dalgaard ''et al''., it probably was the concept of "process ecology" such as studied by

Arthur Tansley Sir Arthur George Tansley FLS, FRS (15 August 1871 – 25 November 1955) was an English botanist and a pioneer in the science of ecology. Educated at Highgate School, University College London and Trinity College, Cambridge, Tansley taught a ...

in the 1930s which inspired Harper's 1974 concept of

s, which they consider the foundation of modern agroecology. Dalgaard ''et al''. claim Frederic Clements's investigations on ecology using social sciences, community ecology and a "landscape perspective" is agroecology, as well as

's investigations of the

of plants using different scientific disciplines. Ethnobotanist Efraim Hernandez X.'s work on traditional knowledge in Mexico in the 1970s led to new education programs in agroecology. Works such as '' Silent Spring'' and '' The Limits to Growth'' caused the public to be aware of the environmental costs of agricultural production, which caused more research in sustainability starting in the 1980s. The view that the socio-economic context are fundamental was used in the 1982 article ''Agroecologia del Tropico Americano'' by Montaldo, who argues that this context cannot be separated from agriculture when designing agricultural practices. In 1985

studied how the consolidation of the farms and cropping systems impact pest populations, and Gliessman how socio-economic, technological, and ecological components gave rise to producer choices of food production systems. In 1995, Edens ''et al''. in ''Sustainable Agriculture and Integrated Farming Systems'' considered the economics of systems, ecological impacts, and ethics and values in agriculture.

Social movements

Several social movements have adopted agroecology as part of their larger organizing strategy. Groups like

La Via Campesina La Vía Campesina (from es, la vía campesina, ) is an international farmers organization founded in 1993 in Mons, Belgium, formed by 182 organisations in 81 countries, and describing itself as "an international movement which coordinates peasan ...

have used agroecology as a method for achieving

food sovereignty Food sovereignty is a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution. This stands in contrast to the present corporate food regime, in which ...

. Agroecology has also been utilized by farmers to resist global agricultural development patterns associated with the green revolution.

By region

Latin America

Africa

Garí wrote two papers for the FAO in the early 2000s about using an agroecological approach which he called "agrobiodiversity" to empower farmers to cope with the impacts of the AIDS on rural areas in Africa. In 2011, the first encounter of agroecology trainers took place in Zimbabwe and issued the Shashe Declaration.

Europe

The European Commission supports the use of sustainable practices, such as precision agriculture, organic farming, agroecology,

and stricter

animal welfare Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevity ...

standards through the

Green Deal Green Deal may refer to: * Balkan Green Deal BW, is a project within the framework of the Danube Strategy of the European Union under the leadership of the University of Hohenheim * European Green Deal, set of policy initiatives brought forward b ...

and the Farm to Fork Strategy.

Debate

Within those academic research areas that focus on topics related to agriculture or ecology such as agronomy, veterinarian science, environmental science, and others, there is much debate regarding what model of agriculture or agroecology should be supported through policy. Agricultural departments of different countries support agroecology to varying degrees with the UN being perhaps its biggest proponent.

References

External links

Topic

Agroecology

Agroecology by Project Regeneration

International Agroecology Action Network

SpainThe 10 elements of Agroecology

Organisations

Agroecology Europe - A European association for Agroecology

Agroecology Map

Courses

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Montpellier, France

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

European Master Agroecology

Norwegian University of Life Sciences

{{Authority control Sustainable agriculture Agronomy Agriculture Agricultural soil science Environmental social science Organic farming Habitat management equipment and methods Sustainable food system Environmental conservation