Abstract
Food systems require reorientation to take greater account of interactions with the environment, economy, health and society. Transitions to agroecological farming practices and systems can connect policy areas and realise environmental, economic and social aims. These transitions provide a lens for reviewing policy, practice and behaviours of actors in farming systems and value chains, identification of barriers to uptake, and policy areas to which they contribute or where there are gaps. Developing social and human capital, and governance structures that enable transitions to agroecology are key to their prospects of success. Education and life-long learning are key to developing the knowledge and skills of younger generations of land managers and other actors in value chains, throughout their careers. The outcome sought is for a shared understanding of the benefits of agroecological practices and systems, creating opportunities to rebalance policies towards delivering climate neutrality, reversing biodiversity loss, and enhancing rights of citizens. To realise those opportunities policies and strategies should be coherent across territorial and systems levels, and tailored to place, system, people, and stages of transitions. Overall, they should be designed to ensure all citizens are beneficiaries of transitions to agroecological farming systems, over the long term, and that no-one or place is disadvantaged by the processes of change or the outcome intended.
Translated title of the contribution | Creating Conditions for Harnessing the Potential of Transitions to Agroecology in Europe and Requirements for Policy |
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Original language | German |
Pages (from-to) | 72-79 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | EuroChoices |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 24 Dec 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 24 Dec 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Open Access funding was provided by the James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, through the JISC agreement with Wiley.Funding Information:
LIFT (‘Low‐Input Farming and Territories – Integrating knowledge for improving ecosystem based farming’) received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 770747 ( https://www.lift‐h2020.eu/ ), and UNISECO (‘Understanding & improving the sustainability of agroecological farming systems in the EU’) under grant agreement No 773901 ( https://uniseco‐project.eu/ ).