I am a professor and endowed chair of agroecology at the U. of California, Santa Cruz. I have been working in the field of agroecology for 20+ years in the United States, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Most of my research focuses on intersections between agroecology, conservation biology, and food sovereignty/farmer livlihoods. In the text that follows, I provide some comments on the scope, project team, evidence, transparency and principles and procedures of the proposed report focsed on Agroecology and "other innovations".
Agroecology as a discipline greatly contributes to sustainable food production, increased food sovereignty and food justice. Agroecology is a field that blends cutting edge scientific research with deep social movements worldwide. Agroecology is interdisciplinary, and seeks to use ecological and traditional knowledge to support food production, biodiversity, and human communities.
a) the scope of the report should be inclusive and multi-disciplinary. The report should include a full range of agroecological research including from the natural sciences (ecology, chemistry, soil science, nutrition, public health) and social sciences (anthropology, sociology, economics, political ecology). The report should include diverse perspectives including from academic research, on-farm research, as well as those from social actors in the field and civil society.
b) the Project Team should include scientists with experience and exposure to interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research, leaders from non-profit organizations, and farmers and gardeners.
c) The report should be mindful of souces of evidence used. The participants and report should carefully utilize information provided from peer-reviewed academic journals, social movements, and civil society. The report should not use information (such as that provided by corporation 'science') that may be heavily biased by conflict of interest in promoting sales of products or technologies.
d) transparency at all stages of this process is critical, and the FAO should provide regular feedback to all interested stakeholders.
e) this process should move forward with agreed upon principles & procedures determining governance and transparency over the project team's work, including total transparency of review process, "conflict resolution" processes, how differing conclusions and assessments of the evidence by authors will be presented, etc. These are critical and have to be established at the outset.
Stacy Philpott