Agroecology
Agroecology is not an organic label. It is the science and practice by which local communities build healthy soils, diverse diets and fair markets – independent of external inputs and global supply chains.
Food systems around the world are out of balance. They depend on a few corporations, a few varieties and long supply chains. When something breaks – a pandemic, a war, a drought – the people with the fewest resources are affected first. At the same time, industrial agriculture makes a significant contribution to the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.
Agroecology is our answer: an integrated approach that combines ecological, social and political dimensions. It promotes locally adapted, diverse production, strengthens the self-determination of producers and makes food systems more resilient. For the Alliance Sufosec, agroecology is the central program approach – anchored in the outcomes “Inclusive local food systems” and “Climate-resilient ecosystems”.
Our understanding of agroecology
We follow internationally recognized frameworks and combine them with the experience of our partner organizations in the Global South.
13 Principles (HLPE 2019)
The UN High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition has defined 13 principles that encompass agroecological practice – from recycling logic on the farm to participatory policy-making.
10 elements (FAO 2018)
The FAO organizes these principles into ten interconnected elements: Diversity, co-creation and knowledge sharing, synergies, efficiency, recycling, resilience, human and social values, culture and food traditions, responsible governance, circular solidarity economy.
5 transition stages (Gliessman 2015)
Our program practice follows the five stages of agroecological transition according to Stephen Gliessman:
- Increase efficiency – reduce consumption of external inputs
- Substitution – replacing external inputs with agroecological alternatives
- Redesigning the agricultural ecosystem – instead of fixing individual problems
- Strengthening the circular economy between producers and consumers
- Transforming global food systems democratically
In our 2025-2028 program, we work on levels 1-4. Level 5 is our normative orientation – the direction in which we are pushing politically and socially.
As part of the 2021-2024 programme, the Agroecology Learning Group of the Sufosec Alliance is organizing an “agroecological learning journey”. This is not a physical trip around the world, but a joint, virtually organized learning process with Sufosec partners in the Global South with the aim of exchanging knowledge and experiences on agroecological transformation across countries and continents. The learning journey will take place in three phases with annual online workshops and learning products between 2021 – 2024.
Click here for the learning products of the first four years:
