Agroecology has many faces and in order to scale up and remain a legitimate approach in bio-culturally diverse contexts such as Latin America, it has to keep the balance between science, practice, and social movements.

The power of local networks, including children; the deconstruction of colonial perceptions toward native foods and rural livelihoods; and the dissolution of hierarchies between the different ways of knowing and learning — these are some of the key lessons of agroecology in practice within the Latin American context. These insights are crucial to scaling up agroecology not only in scientific terms but in practice and social movements as well.

This piece focuses on three people bringing agroecological principles to life. Through their tireless contributions, they help local food systems and agrobiodiversity thrive during a critical time for humanity. They do so in a bio-culturally diverse region in the southern Andes region of Chile: at school; taking care of the pollinators that make agrobiodiversity possible; and recovering native foods and educating taste.

 Children harvesting cucumber in Mongelechi Mapu. Image courtesy of Lilian Barrientos