Land and Agroecology

Abstract Taking a long-term point of view, agricultural-like activities have long populated the earth, from traditional ecosystem management to today’s industrial agriculture. The most recent, industrial agriculture, represents a dramatic shift relative to the interactions between people and land, most recently, the exaggeration of the ideology of private property in land with massive appropriations, known today as “land grabbing.” Farmers went from acquiring inputs from within the farm and its resource base, mostly the land itself, to buying inputs and selling outputs in capitalist markets. This evolution led to a displacement of small-scale farmers from their land, dramatically changing the management and nurturing of the land, and ultimately leading to its degradation. The agroecology movement is an alternative that offers hope for restoring the land and the well-being of small-scale farmers. Agroecology rests on four pillars: the science of ecology, traditional knowledge, nature, and political action. Today, farmers, especially in the global South, are constructing “agroecological territories,” where these four pillars interpenetrate to enhance their livelihoods and contribute to the reformulation of the political and economic ideology of land and territory.