Quien alimenta al mundo?

Agroecology: a robust
path to feed a planet in
crisis
Miguel A. Altieri
UC Berkeley
[email protected]
www.agroeco.org
www.socla.co
CLASH OF PARADIGMS
Industrial agriculture (Green Revolution) VS.
Peasant agriculture (Agroecology)
80% of 1.5 billion hectares under high input
homogeneous monocultures
Monocultures
• Monocultures may have temporary economic
advantages for farmers, but in the long term
they do not represent an ecological optimum.
• The drastic narrowing of cultivated plant
diversity in dominant monocultures has put
the world’s food production in greater peril
• Most major crops are impressively uniform
genetically and impressively vulnerable to
epidemics and climatic variability
US CORN LEAF EPIDEMIC IN
USA, 1970
• Resulted in a decrease of the maize crop
from 119 million tonns in 1969 to 106
million tonns in 1970
• The loss was equivalent to 18.5 trillion
calories.
In 2007, the world used more than 5.2 billion
pounds of herbicides, insecticides, and
fungicides
Annual total external costs of UK agriculture in
1996 = £2343 million, equivalent to £208/ha of
arable land
California 2014: 400,000 acres left
fallow, $1.5 billion losses
More than 80 million hectares land grabbed, 75% in
Sub-Saharan Africa-2010
Land grabbing
• More than 464 land grabbing projects
worldwide led by Saudi Arabia, South Korea,
China, and India
• More than 80 million hectares: 21% slated to
produce biofuels and another 21% were for
industrial or cash crops, such as rubber and
timber. Only 37% of the projects involved food
crops.
Lands taken by Addax Bioenergy for its
biofuel sugar cane plantation in Sierra Leone
Industrial agriculture does not feed
the world
• The agroindustrial sector produces
enough food to feed only 30% global
population
• Uses 70-80 % of arable land
• 70% water
• 80% fossil fuels used in agriculture
Root Causes
Food system controlled by a group of
multinational corporations
– Grain Merchants and retailers (ADM, Cargill,
Bunge)
– Seed and biotechnology Companies (Monsanto,
Syngenta, Dupont)
– Supermarkets (Walmart, Carrefour)
– ADM, Cargill, Bunge- control 80% of grain;
Monsanto 1/5 seeds
Producers
Food
Empires
Consumers
The agricultural challenge for the next
decades
Food production must increase sustainably but
using the same arable land base, with less
petroleum, less water and nitrogen, within a
scenario of climate change, social unrest and
financial crisis.
This challenge cannot be met with the existing
industrial agricultural model and its
biotechnological derivations
Features of an agriculture for the
future
• De-coupled from fossil fuel dependence
• Agroecosystems of low environmental impact,
nature friendly
• Resilient to climate change and other shocks
• Multifunctional ( ecosystem, social, cultural and
economic services)
• Foundation of local food systems
Alta
Productivity
Low external inputs,
high recylcling rates,
crop –livestock
integration
High inputs, industrial
monocultures
Low
High
Baja
Eficiency
Low external inputs,
diversified with low
levels of integration
Specialized systems with
low external inputs
Medium-Low
Medium
Alta
Baja
Agroecosystem Diversity
How many peasant farmers? (ETC
2009)
• 1, 5 billion peasant farmers
• 380 million farms
• Globally: > 90% of the world’s farms are
small , < 2 ha.
• 1.9 million crop varieties
Peasants and world food
Produce 50-75% of food consumed by
world population, but use :
• 25- 30% of the agricultural land
• 30% water used in agriculture
• 20 % fossil fuels used in agriculture.
a
b
F
Rotacion en la chinampa : flor de muerto y milpa
LA MILPA:corn, beans, squash and chiles
Land Equivalent Ratio
0.5 + 0.5 is
expected just
based on land
area
1.5 ha of land needed
to produce same
amount through
monoculture
LER = 3000/4000 + 750/1000 = 0.75 + 0.75 = 1.50
Corn
Soybean
Verdolaga (Portulaca oleraceae)
Productivity of Chinampas
• Maize yields in 1950: 3,5-6,3 t/ha (
average US yields in 1955~2,3t/ha and
went up >4 t/ha after 1965).
• One hectare could produce enough food
for 15-20 persons
China Rice Fish
4. Rice-duke Co-culture System
Ecology
Anthropology
Sociology
Etnoecology
AGROECOLOGY
Biological Control
Ecological
economics
Basic
agricultural
sciences
Principles
Specific technological
forms
Traditional
Farmers’
knowledge
Participatory
research in
farmers’ fields
Losses of major agricultural inputs after
the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Contribución porcentual de la agricultura campesina a
la producción nacional total en diversos rubros
Agroecological strategies
Organic
amendments
Polycultures
Animal
integration
Green
manures
Rotations
Area (ha)
Energy (GJ/ha/año)
Proteín (kg/ha)/año
People fed by produced energy
(Pers/ha/año)
People fed by produced protein
10
50.6
867
11
34
(Pers/ha/año)
Energy efficiency
30
Diseño de recursos y procesos. Integración
75% ganado : 25% cultivos
Resultados de la Media Ha chilena
• PRODUCCIONES
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Rotación...... 3,16 t
Huerto Int.... 1,12 t
Frutos.......... 0,83 t
Leche......... 3.200 l
Carnes (PV). 730 Kg.
Huevos....... 2.531 u
Miel .......... 57 Kg.
•
•
•
•
Valor comercial.. 2.435 USD
Gasto Producción . 780 USD
Ingreso.....1.600 USD (1,6 SM)
APORTE NUTRICONAL
–
–
–
–
–
–
Proteína.......310 %
Calorías....... 120%
Vit. A .......... 150 %
Vit. C........... 630 %
Ca ............... 400 %
P ................. 140 %
% de dano incial a fincas por el Huracan Ike (2008) la coopertaiva Rafael Zaroza’ en
Sancti Spıritus,Cuba, escala 1¼ bajo, 3¼ alto, ) segun grado de integracion
agroecologica ( 1 baja, 3 alta).
% estimado de recuperacion de fincas a los 60, 120 y 180
dias despues de Huracan Ike (2008) en CCS ‘Rafael
Zaroza’ Sancti Spı´ritus segun nivel de integracion
agroecologica ( 1 bajo, 3 alto) comparada con el promedio
de la cooperativa entera.
Campesino a Campesino movement
Growth in Cuba
Number of Families
The Campesino a Campesino Movement
• The Campesino a Campesino movement
is an extensive grassroots movement in
Central America and Mexico.
• It is a cultural phenomenon, a broadbased movement with campesinos as
the main actors"
• The Campesino a Campesino movement
is an excellent example of how
alternative technologies and practices
can be disseminated bypassing "official
channels".
Changes in the landscape at the Comunidad Bellavista El
Dovio, Colombia
1992
2001
2013
PEASANT TERRITORIES
REGIONES
CAMPESINAS e INDÍGENAS
LATIFUNDIOS
AGROEXPORTACIONES
RESERVAS DE BIODIVERSIDAD
ALIMENTOS
TRANSGÉNICOS
MONOCULTIVOS
(PLANTACIONES)
“FÁBRICAS” DE AGUA
ZONAS FORESTALES
RECURSOS FITO-GENÉTICOS
MOSAICOS DE PAISAJES
PEQUEÑA ESCALA
USO MÚLTIPLE DE RECURSOS
AUTOSUFICIENCIA ALIMENTARIA
GANADERÍA
EXTENSIVA
MONOCULTIVOS
AGROCOMBUSTIBLES
Response of peasant movements to agressions by corporate
interests, aided by neoliberal economic policies
• Social movements of rural peoples, i.e., peasants,
family farmers, indigenous people,, rural women and
the landless, are increasingly using agroecological
diversification of their farming systems, as a tool in
the contestation, defense, (re)configuration, and
transformation of contested rural spaces into
peasant territories in a process that has been termed
re-peasantization
Agroecology and social movements
• Social movements are key to achieving supportive policy
environment (movements of farmers, workers, indigenous
people, urban poor, consumers, environmentalists, human
rights, etc.)
• The combination of peasant and family farm agriculture with
agroecology can feed families, cities, countries and the world,
with higher productivity, efficiency, and autonomy, lower costs,
be more environmentally sound, produce healthier food, reduce
migration, and be more resilient to climate change.
• Up-scaling really requires social movements at the center, who
can build alliances with government institutions, NGOs,
researchers, students, etc., but on new terms.
Why is agroecology compatible with
social movements?
• Socially activating (participatory)
• Economically viable ( uses local resources)
• Culturally appropiate ( respects and mobilizes
traditional knowledge)
• Ecologically sound ( optimizes-revitalizes
peasant systems)
• Agroecology provides the principles to reach
food sovergnity
The pillars of food sovereignity
Agroecological strategies
Social
movements
Land reform
Access to land, water
seeds
State support
Markets. Credit, extension
Research, etc.
Agroecology and FS
• The significance of the adoption of agro-ecology by FSMs is that the
possibility of solving problems via agro-ecological, instead of
technological, solutions constitutes a radical reconfiguration of the
investment needs with which common benefits can be achieved.
• Agro-ecology makes FS ‘cheaper’ to get, by shifting importance towards
low-cost, knowledge-based and farmer-manageable investments that
curtail debts (monetary as well as environmental).
• Agroecology focuses on one-time costs (dissemination and adaptation of
self-renewing knowledge and species, as well as labour investments to set
up contour swales, nurseries, terraces etc), while the conventional
approach primarily features recurring, annual costs
(inputs).
• The integrated application of such investments thus becomes possible
even in the absence of large-scale public funding.
Declaration of LVC Mali 2015
• We see agroecology as a key form of
resistance to an economic system that puts
profit before life.
• Agroecology within a food sovereignty
framework offers us a collective path forward
from the multiple crises of climate, food,
environmental, public health promoted by the
industrial food system
Cont. LVC Mali 2015
• The real solutions to the crises of the climate,
malnutrition, etc., will not come from conforming
to the industrial model.
• We must transform it and build our own local
food systems that create new rural-urban links,
based on truly agroecological food production by
peasants, indigenous peoples, urban farmers,
etc.
• We cannot allow agroecology to be a tool of the
industrial food production model: we see it as the
essential alternative to that model
Legal initiatives fostering agroecology
in Latin America
• Ecuador: Ley organica de Agrobiodiversidad,
Semillas y Agroecologia
• Bolivia: Revolución Productiva Comunitaria
Agropecuaria para la soberanía alimentaria
• Guatemala (2005)-Ley de Seguridad alimentaria
y nutricion
• Brazil-Plan Nacional de Agroecologia y
Agricultura Organica (2013)
• Venezuela (2008)-Articulo 8 soberania
alimentaria
• Nicaragua : Ley de Fomento de la Produccion
Agroecologica y Organica
The Programa de Aquisição de
Alimento (PAA) in Brazil
• Program directly financed by large-scale
government institutions have a localising,
democritizng effect.
• In 2012 the program included 185,000 family
farms who each sold an average of R$4554
(US$2058) worth of crops to 17,988 registered
public and non-governmental agencies.
• Family farms, whose main buyer was public or
cooperative, had an average income of R$1361 in
2011, while those who sold to intermediaries
earned R$493.
Organized small farmers
By-pass
Food
Autonomous territories,
local
markets
Empires
Consumers
AGROECOLOGY
AGROECOLOGICAL TERRITORIES
FOOD SOVEREIGNITY
ENERGY
SOVEREIGNITY
TECHNOLOGICAL
SOVEREIGNITY
RESILIENCE
Thank you!!

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