Routledge Food Sovereignty, Agroecology and Biocultural Diversity: Constructing and contesting knowledge (Routledge Studies in Food, Society and the Environment)

Contestations over knowledge – and who controls its production – are a key focus of social movements and other actors that promote food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity. This book critically examines the kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing needed for food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity. ‘Food sovereignty’ is understood here as a transformative process that seeks to recreate the democratic realm and regenerate a diversity of autonomous food systems based on agroecology, biocultural diversity, equity, social justice and ecological sustainability. It is shown that alternatives to the current model of development require radically different knowledges and epistemologies from those on offer today in mainstream institutions (including universities, policy think tanks and donor organizations). To achieve food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity, there is a need to re-imagine and construct knowledge for diversity, decentralisation, dynamic adaptation and democracy. The authors critically explore the changes in organizations, research paradigms and professional practice that could help transform and co-create knowledge for a new modernity based on plural definitions of wellbeing. Particular attention is given to institutional, pedagogical and methodological innovations that can enhance cognitive justice by giving hitherto excluded citizens more power and agency in the construction of knowledge. The book thus contributes to the democratization of knowledge and power in the domain of food, environment and society. Chapters 1 and 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license and can be accessed here https://tandfbis.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138955356_oachapter1.pdf and here https://tandfbis.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138955356_oachapter8.pdf Review "This important book shows both how agroecology can democratize knowledge, and how democratizing knowledge in turn is a condition for agroecology to develop. We tend to reduce agroecology to a set of agronomic techniques that reduce the need for external inputs, that de-link food production from energy consumption, and that restore soil health. But it is, more fundamentally, about the direction of knowledge: agroecology operates the shift from top-down ‘extension’ of knowledge by experts delegated by ministries, to a bottom-up approach prioritizing the local knowledge developed by farmers. It is empowering, horizontal, based on trial and error ― but it is also, as this volume shows, another way of conceiving science."- Olivier De Schutter, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food (2008-2014), Co-Chair, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), Belgium "The surge of industrial farming, mega use of pesticides and chronic commercialisation which appeared to ‘grow’ the world also created a cascade of painful issues relating to poisoning ‘Mother Earth’, generating inequities, destroying biodiversity and cultural heritage. This book provides not just insights into those issues but, more importantly, it explores the knowledge and transformative ways of knowing we now need to re-enchant the world. Deepening knowledge democracy is key for reclaiming food sovereignty, rooting agroecology, and promoting biocultural diversity. This book shows another world is indeed possible. All it needs is action."- Anwar Fazal, Recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, popularly called the "Alternative Nobel Prize", Malaysia "Michel Pimbert is a rare combination of syncretic visionary and on-the-ground change maker. He’s put together a unique volume showing that healthy farming systems and life-serving human communities emerge together. They are inseparable and they require diverse ways of knowing to free themselves from