Transformative agroecology in Europe? Learning from environmental justice movements

Coolsaet, Brendan
(2015) ESRC STEPS Centre conference ‘Resource Politics: transforming pathways to sustainability’ — Location: Institute for Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, UK (7.September.2015)

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Since the turn of the century, a growing number of European farmers have shown interest for a transformative approach to agroecology. Moving beyond the sole inclusion of ecological concerns in food production, both practitioners and researchers have increasingly considered agroecology a multi-dimensional approach to rural development, offering a potential alternative to conventional agriculture. However, agroecology is not only a social movement anymore. It is becoming a policy principle guiding public and private initiatives. While this could be a major opportunity to challenge agro-industrial methods, it also is at risk of cooption by both the market and the state. This paper analyses a series of agroecological initiatives in Europe through an environmental justice lens. It argues that notions commonly employed by environmental justice movement around the world (economic redistribution, socio-cultural recognition, political representation), can provide the building blocks for an agroecological movement with a genuine transformational potential. Organized collectively, farmer’s communities increasingly reclaim control over the production-chain, regain autonomy from externally produced inputs, grow their socio-cultural status, reacquire local and traditional knowledge systems, and rebuild bargaining power and political influence.
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Coolsaet, B. (2015). Transformative agroecology in Europe? Learning from environmental justice movements. ESRC STEPS Centre conference ‘Resource Politics: transforming pathways to sustainability’, Institute for Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, UK. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/179488