Campesino a Campesino tells the inspiring story of a true grassroots movement: poor peasant farmers teaching one another how to protect their environment while still earning a living. The first book in English about the farmer-led sustainable agriculture movement in Latin America, Campesino a Campesino includes lots of first-person stories and commentary from the farmer-teachers, mixing personal accounts with detailed analysis of the political, socioeconomic, and ecological factors that galvanized the movement. Campesino farmer leading a farmer to farmer training session in Mexico by Eric Holt-GimenezMany years ago, author Eric Holt-Gim�nez was a volunteer trying to teach sustainable agriculture techniques in the dusty highlands of central Mexico, with little success. Near the end of his tenure, he invited a group of visiting Guatemalan farmers to teach a course in his village. What he saw was like nothing he had known. The Guatemalans used parables, stories, and humor to present agricultural improvement to their Mexican compadres as a logical outcome of clear thinking and compassion; love of farming, of family, of nature, and of community. Rather than try to convince the Mexicans of their innovations, they insisted they experiment new things on a small scale first to see how well they worked. And they saw themselves as students, respecting the Mexicans' deep, lifelong knowledge of their own particular land and climate. All they asked in return was that the Mexicans turn around and share their new knowledge with others--which they did. CAC campo3_photo by Food FirstThis exchange was typical of a grassroots movement called Campesino a Campesino, or Farmer to Farmer, which has grown up in southern Mexico and war-torn Central America over the last three decades. In the book Campesino a Campesino, Holt-Gim�nez writes the first history of the movement, describing the social, political, economic, and environmental circumstances that shape it. The voices and stories of dozens of farmers in the movement are captured, bringing to vivid life this hopeful story of peasant farmers helping one another to farm sustainably, protecting their land, their environment, and their families' future.

Agroecology is at the forefront of transforming our food systems. This bestselling textbook provides the essential foundation for understanding this transformation in all its components: agricultural, ecological, economic, social, cultural, and political. It presents a case for food system change, explains the principles and practices underlying the ecological approach to food production, and lays out a vision for a food system based on equity and greater compatibility with the planet’s life support systems. New to the fourth edition: A chapter on Alternatives to Industrial Agriculture, covering the similarities and distinctions among different approaches to sustainable agriculture A chapter on Ecological Pest, Weed, and Disease Management A chapter on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture A chapter on Agriculture and the Climate Crisis A revised analysis and critique of the food system’s embeddedness in the extractive capitalist world economy that reflects ideas in the emerging field of political agroecology. Streamlined treatment of agroecology’s foundations in ecological science, making the text more compatible with typical course curricula. A Companion Website at https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781032187105/ incorporates the entire contents of the updated practical manual Field and Laboratory Investigations in Agroecology, split into student and lecturer resources. These 24 sample investigations facilitate hands-on learning that involves close observation, creative interpretation, and constant questioning of findings. Groundbreaking in its first edition and established as the definitive text in its second and third, the fourth edition of Agroecology captures recent developments in the field and forcefully applies the idea that agroecology is a science, a movement, and a practice. Written by a team of experts, this book will encourage students and practitioners to consider the critical importance of transitioning to a new paradigm for food and agriculture.

The ways we farm and the ways we eat will determine the destiny of life on earth. Farms and food are foundational for civilization. Right now our civilization is undergoing massive upheaval. We must build a new foundation, and that imperative task is going to take all of us. Deep Agroecology shows the way. The union of native wisdom ways with sophisticated, sustainable tools and practices can lead to the renewal and the elevation of all forms of life on Earth. Our next, necessary evolutionary step depends on spiritual intelligent, regenerative agriculture: deep agroecology. Agroecology is an ecological approach to growing food and fiber that appreciates farms and orchards as ecosystems. Internationally, agroecology is increasingly recognized as an approach capable of meeting productivity goals while replenishing the soil, sequestering climate destabilizing CO2, and striving toward justice for all the human beings and animals in the food system. Deep agroecology arises from recognition that the way we farm will determine the destiny of life on the earth. This inescapable reality necessarily involves every human being. "The future of humanity depends on our heeding the wisdom of deep agroecology." - John Ikerd, author of Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in American Agriculture. While deep agroecology is new territory, it's natural territory, not just for farmers, but for all people.

The new edition of this annual publication (previously published solely by IFOAM and FiBL) documents recent developments in global organic agriculture. It includes contributions from representatives of the organic sector from throughout the world and provides comprehensive organic farming statistics that cover surface area under organic management, numbers of farms and specific information about commodities and land use in organic systems. The book also contains information on the global market of the burgeoning organic sector, the latest developments in organic certification, standards and regulations, and insights into current status and emerging trends for organic agriculture by continent from the worlds foremost experts. For this edition, all statistical data and regional review chapters have been thoroughly updated. Completely new chapters on organic agriculture in the Pacific, on the International Task Force on Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture and on organic aquaculture have been added. Published with IFOAM and FiBL

Today, 20 percent of the global food supply relies on urban agriculture: social-ecological systems shaped by both human and non-human interactions. This book shows how urban agroecologists measure flora and fauna that underpin the ecological dynamics of these systems, and how people manage and benefit from these systems. It explains how the sociopolitical landscape in which these systems are embedded can in turn shape the social, ecological, political, and economic dynamics within them. Synthesizing interdisciplinary approaches in urban agroecology in the natural and social sciences, the book explores methodologies and new directions in research that can be adopted by scholars and practitioners alike. With contributions from researchers utilizing both social and natural science approaches, Urban Agroecology describes the current social-environmental understandings of the science, the movement and the practices in urban agroecology. By investigating the role of agroecology in cities, the book calls for the creation of spaces for food to be sustainably grown in urban spaces: an Urban Agriculture (UA) movement. Essential reading for graduate students, practitioners, policy makers and researchers, this book charts the course for accelerating this movement.