Increasing the scope and scale of agroecology in the Northern Great Plains
First paragraph: Large Scale Agroecology Agroecology is a science, practice, and movement that is gaining momentum worldwide. It aims to provide local, stable, and diverse diets through diversified, resilient, and sustainable agricultural practices (Ewert et al. 2023). However, agroecology seek...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
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| Online Access: | https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/1246 |
| _version_ | 1827278513487478784 |
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| author | Bruce Maxwell Hannah Duff |
| author_facet | Bruce Maxwell Hannah Duff |
| author_sort | Bruce Maxwell |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
First paragraph:
Large Scale Agroecology
Agroecology is a science, practice, and movement that is gaining momentum worldwide. It aims to provide local, stable, and diverse diets through diversified, resilient, and sustainable agricultural practices (Ewert et al. 2023). However, agroecology seeks to address food systems issues by replacing large-scale commodity-based agriculture with something very different. Agroecology is typically discussed within the scope and scale of smallholder farming while failing to address the issues embedded in large-scale commodity-based agriculture. While we do not take issue with an ideal system where food is produced on small farms, it does not need to exclude agroecology applied to current scales of agriculture in regions like the Northern Great Plains (NGP), where agriculture consists of spatially extensive crop and livestock farms. NGP farms have internal sustainability problems and harmful social, racial, and environmental externalities that can be addressed with agroecological principles. Despite the problems, the large scale of NGP agriculture is not likely to change much in coming decades, and so there is an imperative to apply agroecological principles at larger scales to address immediate issues. We emphasize that applying agroecological principles to large-scale farming could increase crop and forage diversity, conserve biodiversity, strengthen cross-boundary and multi-objective ecosystem management, address regional food security, and encourage co-innovation with crop and livestock producers in the NGP (Tittonell, 2020). If agroecologists don’t address the immediate issues of NGP such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, livestock-based protein production, unequal access to nutritious food, agriautomation, and pandemic food system disruption, then we may only expect industrialized agriculture to provide short-sited profit-motivated solutions repeating a pattern of the past.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T07:59:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-48d15398a5144f7eafdef9d65c77ea68 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2152-0801 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T07:59:11Z |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
| spelling | doaj.art-48d15398a5144f7eafdef9d65c77ea682024-04-17T19:37:04ZengLyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food SystemsJournal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development2152-08012024-04-0113310.5304/jafscd.2024.133.005Increasing the scope and scale of agroecology in the Northern Great PlainsBruce Maxwell0Hannah Duff1Montana State UniversityMontana State University First paragraph: Large Scale Agroecology Agroecology is a science, practice, and movement that is gaining momentum worldwide. It aims to provide local, stable, and diverse diets through diversified, resilient, and sustainable agricultural practices (Ewert et al. 2023). However, agroecology seeks to address food systems issues by replacing large-scale commodity-based agriculture with something very different. Agroecology is typically discussed within the scope and scale of smallholder farming while failing to address the issues embedded in large-scale commodity-based agriculture. While we do not take issue with an ideal system where food is produced on small farms, it does not need to exclude agroecology applied to current scales of agriculture in regions like the Northern Great Plains (NGP), where agriculture consists of spatially extensive crop and livestock farms. NGP farms have internal sustainability problems and harmful social, racial, and environmental externalities that can be addressed with agroecological principles. Despite the problems, the large scale of NGP agriculture is not likely to change much in coming decades, and so there is an imperative to apply agroecological principles at larger scales to address immediate issues. We emphasize that applying agroecological principles to large-scale farming could increase crop and forage diversity, conserve biodiversity, strengthen cross-boundary and multi-objective ecosystem management, address regional food security, and encourage co-innovation with crop and livestock producers in the NGP (Tittonell, 2020). If agroecologists don’t address the immediate issues of NGP such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, livestock-based protein production, unequal access to nutritious food, agriautomation, and pandemic food system disruption, then we may only expect industrialized agriculture to provide short-sited profit-motivated solutions repeating a pattern of the past. https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/1246agroecology scaleclimate adaptationfood sovereigntybison livestockU.S. Agroecology Summit 2023 |
| spellingShingle | Bruce Maxwell Hannah Duff Increasing the scope and scale of agroecology in the Northern Great Plains Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development agroecology scale climate adaptation food sovereignty bison livestock U.S. Agroecology Summit 2023 |
| title | Increasing the scope and scale of agroecology in the Northern Great Plains |
| title_full | Increasing the scope and scale of agroecology in the Northern Great Plains |
| title_fullStr | Increasing the scope and scale of agroecology in the Northern Great Plains |
| title_full_unstemmed | Increasing the scope and scale of agroecology in the Northern Great Plains |
| title_short | Increasing the scope and scale of agroecology in the Northern Great Plains |
| title_sort | increasing the scope and scale of agroecology in the northern great plains |
| topic | agroecology scale climate adaptation food sovereignty bison livestock U.S. Agroecology Summit 2023 |
| url | https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/1246 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT brucemaxwell increasingthescopeandscaleofagroecologyinthenortherngreatplains AT hannahduff increasingthescopeandscaleofagroecologyinthenortherngreatplains |