Family Farming Knowledge Platform

Interview: “Agroecology is an epistemological revolution”

Victor M. Toledo is a Mexican ethnoecologist and social activist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His work focuses primarily on the study of agroecological and knowledge systems. In this interview, Victor M. Toledo explains why co-creation of knowledge is an integral part of agroecology and discusses the changes that are needed for this form of agriculture to gain ground in the global arena. He argues that agroecology is in itself a major shift in our relationship with knowledge.

To answer this question, I would like to recall Alexander Wezel’s definition of agroecology. Our French colleague defined it, first, as a science. This is obvious, since agroecology generates scientific knowledge in the strictest sense. However, agroecology, like many other hybrid disciplines (for example, political ecology, environmental history, and ecological economics) is an epistemological and methodological leap that generates new ways of doing science. That is, agroecology is already a new scientific paradigm. It is a politically and socially committed science.

Second, agroecology is also a practice. That is, it involves practical and technological innovation. But this is not technological innovation that arises in research centres, and then is passed on to farmers. No. Here, technological innovation results from both traditional peasant local knowledge and the knowledge of agroecologists, who are usually educated in the academic tradition.
Finally, agroecology is also a social movement. This is seen, for example, in the Latin American agroecology congresses, which are basically encounters between academia, producers, farmers’ organisations, and social movements.

 

Title of publication: Farming Matters: Interview: “Agroecology is an epistemological revolution”
Volume: 32
Issue: 1
:
Page range: 18-21
:
:
:
:
:
Author: Diana Quiroz
:
Organization: ILEIA, Center for Learning on Sustainable Agriculture
Other organizations: University of Cordoba
Year: 2016
:
Country/ies: Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Russian Federation, Spain
Geographical coverage: Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC), Europe and Central Asia, European Union (European Union), Latin America and the Caribbean, Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR)
Type: Magazine article
Content language: English
:

Share this page