Agroecology as an ontology to guide agricultural and food systems?

Current agriculture and food systems worldwide are facing major sustainability challenges, which jeopardize the ability of future generations to live a good life: soil fertility and biodiversity loss, climate change, malnutrition and inequalities. These problems are, in part, related to how agricultural and food systems have developed. The IPES 2016 report on food systems calls for a shift from low input traditional and industrial agricultural systems to diversified agroecological systems. We claim that this shift requires more than a change in practice. Rather it implies a redefinition of the conception of agricultural and food systems and their evaluation. The talk discusses those facets of agricultural and food systems which can gain visibility though a reading of agroecology from the ecological and feminist economics perspective. For instance, the analysis of the worldview of agroecological farmers in Germany reveals the role of reproductive and egalitarian principles and values in designing the farming systems and of community-supported agricultural schemes. Politically, these principles can be interpreted a struggle to maintain sovereignty and act upon own values. We finally reflect on what it implies for food security that agroecological systems nurture their reproductive capacity. The rise of agroecology raises questions about the values that shape agricultural and food systems and engenders a “new” target: the reproduction capacity of our societies.