PROMOTING AGROECOLOGY

Biowatch challenges the industrialised food system and advocates agroecology as the ecologically sustainable alternative that protects and builds biodiversity, is empowering to farmers, and promotes food sovereignty – local community control over our food and the way it is produced.

We work with smallholder farmers (mainly women) in communities in KwaZulu-Natal towards developing a sustainable agroecological practice: household food security has increased; traditional seed varieties have been reintroduced and are increasingly being taken up by local communities; and land, water and other natural resources are cared for.

We see agroecology as a way to work towards food sovereignty where the control of seed and land remains in the hands of farmers, and the land is used in an ecologically sustainable way.

WHAT IS AGROECOLOGY?

Agroecology is a holistic science; a practice; and a movement with a bottom-up approach to creating just, ecologically sustainable and viable food systems.

Agroecology brings our food systems more into alignment with nature by fusing the increasing scientific understanding of how natural living systems work, together with the wisdom of traditional and indigenous food producing communities. The practical manifestations of agroecology around the world are as diverse as the landscapes, climates and cultures of each local place.

Agroecology:

• ensures food sovereignty and livelihoods for many;
• empowers smallholders to be more productive, helping to alleviate poverty;
• produces abundant, healthy and nutritious food;
• helps farmers mitigate and adapt to climate change;
• conserves water;
• builds healthy soils;
• is resilient in diversity;
• promotes zero waste; 
• is non toxic to people and the planet; and
• encourages relations of reciprocity and solidarity towards more just food systems.

Internationally, there is increasing acknowledgement that for life on Earth to continue, the global industrialised food system must change.

WHY WE FOCUS ON AGROECOLOGY

The key reasons for Biowatch’s focus on agroecology are the industrialised food system’s contribution to injustice, biodiversity collapse and the shockingly high contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions – approximately one third of all emissions (from the clearing of land, monocultures and intensive use of synthetic fertilisers, through to packaging, transportation and food waste).

Agroecology is the antithesis of this industrialised system, providing nutritious food, locally, with a low carbon footprint. We need a reconceptualisation of agriculture at a global level, with the emphasis on the local – and we need governments to put in place an enabling policy and legal framework that will support this.

Please see the PUBLICATIONS & DOCUMENTS section of our website for a wide range of agroecology resources, including these titles: