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The planet’s reliance on industrial agriculture has resulted in serious environmental and social costs, including high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, biodiversity loss and widening gaps in food security across the world. Transitioning to agroecological practices is recognised as one solution to reversing the unsustainable trajectory of energy-intensive food systems.
The science and practice of agroecology: Pathway to sustainable food systems reviews where we are in terms of the ecological theory underpinning agroecosystem function, the synergies, yield and other tradeoffs involved in practical agroecosystems as well as their social dimensions.
Dr Laurie Drinkwater is a Professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University, USA. Professor Drinkwater is internationally renowned for her research on soil nutrient cycling processes in agroecosystems. In 2018 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Organic Agriculture from the Agronomy Society of America. Professor Drinkwater is co-Editor of the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.
Part 1 Agroecological design: why agroecology?
- 1.Agroecology and the transformation of food systems: past, present and future: Laurie E. Drinkwater, Cornell University, USA;
- 2.Green revolution agriculture: the treadmill of industrial agriculture: Matthew Houser, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, USA;
- 3.Indigenous knowledge, cultural landscapes and agroecological food systems: Nancy Turner, University of Victoria, Canada;
- 4.Agriculture and societal expectations: transforming agriculture and food systems: Jennifer Blesh, University of Michigan, USA;
Part 2 Ecological knowledge and its application to agroecosystems
- 5.The biodiversity-ecosystem function conceptual framework: a core hypothesis of agroecology: Rob Brooker, James Hutton Institute, UK;
- 6.What is meant by the ecological resilience of agroecosystems?: Meagan Schipanski, Colorado State University, USA;
- 7.Cross-scale effects on arthropod diversity, community composition, and ecosystem services: the intermediate diversity hypothesis in agroecology: Marcos Ezequiel Nacif, National University of Río Negro, Argentina;
- 8.The stress gradient hypothesis in agroecology and positive plant-plant interactions: Li Long, Chinese Agricultural University, China;
- 9.Ecosystem science as a basis for agroecological nutrient management: Gabriel Maltais-Landry, University of Florida, USA;
- 10.Rhizosphere ecology: an agroecological frontier: Bryan D. Emmett, USDA-ARS, USA;
- 11.The extended phenotype in agroecology: how do plants shape communities of related organisms?: Matthew G. Bakker, University of Manitoba, Canada;
Part 3 Synergies and tradeoffs under agroecological management regimes
- 12.Crop diversity impacts on yield and yield stability: Tim Bowles, University of California-Berkeley, USA;
- 13.What is the potential for managed biodiversity to reduce inputs whilst maintaining yields?: Anna Norberg, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany;
- 14.What is the potential for expanding the role of plant-microbial symbioses in agroecosystems?: James Bever, University of Kansas, USA;
- 15.Integrated crop-livestock systems: productive potential and ecosystem services: Tommy Fenster, University of California-Davis, USA;
- 16.The role of agroecological management systems in climate change adaptation: Sieglinde Snapp, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico;
- 17.Perennial grains: From moonshot to farmers' fields: Timothy E. Crews, Aubrey Streit Krug, Evan B. Craine, Lee R. DeHaan, Tessa E. Peters and M. Kathryn Turner, The Land Institute, USA; Alexandra Griffin, University of Minnesota, USA, Ebony G. Murrell, The Land Institute, USA; and Lennart Olsson, Lund University, Sweden;
- 18.Push-pull polyculture cropping systems: using functional diversity to provide ecosystem services: Daniel Mutyambai, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Kenya;
Part 4 Agroecosystems as coupled socio-ecological systems
- 19.Balancing top-down and bottom-up approaches to transforming food systems toward agroecology: Tiffanie Stone, Aarhus University, Denmark;
- 20.Collective natural resource management: David E. Ervin, Portland State University, USA;
- 21.Can ecological economics promote agroecological management?: Joshua Farley, University of Vermont, USA;
- 22.Land Sharing versus Land Sparing: a flawed dichotomy for assessing agroecological transformation for biodiversity conservation: Ivette Perfecto, University of Michigan, USA;
Part 5 Agroecology and pathways to sustainable food systems
- 23.Participatory action research and co-creation of knowledge in agroecosystem management: Sieglinde Snapp, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico;
- 24.The role of farmers in promoting agroecological transitions: farmers as innovators and agents of change: Daniel Lopez-Garcia, Spanish National Research Council, Spain;
- 25.Agroecology and food sovereignty: Hannah Wittman, University of British Columbia, Canada;
- 26.Open-source technology and knowledge systems to support agroecological production: Ankita Raturi, Purdue University, USA;
- 27.Breeding crops for ecologically-based agriculture: Virginia Moore, Cornell University, USA;