[PeDAGoG] Transforming food and agriculture: Competing visions and major controversies

[Michel Pimbert]

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This just published paper may be of interest to you and your networks - please share if appropriate:

Transforming food and agriculture: Competing visions and major controversies

Many citizens, scientists, and businesses believe that decisive actions are urgently needed to transform agri-food systems to limit runaway climate change, massive biodiversity loss, hunger and growing malnutrition. Bold new developments for sustainable agri-food transitions are being proposed in the North and global South. However, these developments are often rooted in different economic models, technological paradigms, cosmovisions, and actor networks.

This paper starts by briefly describing two contrasting visions or models of development that seek to radically transform food, farming, and land use today. The first focuses on modernising and sustaining capitalism through the promotion of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) in food and agriculture. The second emphasises systemic change through food sovereignty and agroecology. The paper highlights some of the controversies and challenges associated with each of these two contrasting approaches to agri-food system transformation. Some of the most contested issues and battlegrounds that are shaping the development of food and agriculture today are discussed, - including discourses on modernity and the future of food & farming, the politics of knowledge and control over research, transformation for ecological sustainability, economics, and governance. The structure of the paper is shown here: https://www.cairn.info/revue-mondes-en-developpement-2022-3-page-361.htm?contenu=plan<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cairn.info%2Frevue-mondes-en-developpement-2022-3-page-361.htm%3Fcontenu%3Dplan&data=05%7C01%7Cab4781%40coventry.ac.uk%7C21334602f98d4252f32808db18127d43%7C4b18ab9a37654abeac7c0e0d398afd4f%7C0%7C0%7C638130240065762680%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=wr1ROPuoY9r1B9Ds5Z36sJMZqZKFYWqaRO7E3TvYlK4%3D&reserved=0>

Each contrasting vision of radical transformation is deeply contested and promises sweeping changes. For example, massive corporate use of new ‘green funds’ for climate change mitigation and net zero plans will significantly expand land grabbing and undermine implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas.

Solutions envisaged by different actors have the power to either regenerate or further destroy nature and society. Given these highly contested visions of the future, it is vital that all people—men and women—democratically decide which vision of food and farming is suited to their circumstances and wishes. A practical first step would be to facilitate many decentralised deliberative democratic processes similar to the large-scale citizens’ assemblies held in Ireland, France, Australia, Mali, and Switzerland in which citizens could debate and decide on major societal questions.

See: Pimbert, M.P. 2022. Mondes en Développement Vol.50-2022/3-4 n°199-200: 361-384. https://doi.org/10.3917/med.199.0365<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.3917%2Fmed.199.0365&data=05%7C01%7Cab4781%40coventry.ac.uk%7C21334602f98d4252f32808db18127d43%7C4b18ab9a37654abeac7c0e0d398afd4f%7C0%7C0%7C638130240065762680%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dLc7N3F9dchBYxa%2Fm6R5gqesdo59J4UzrtKhB77lb%2Fk%3D&reserved=0>



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