This paper briefly discusses the progress and challenges brought by the integration of agroecological approaches into Brazilian institutions. It covers the struggles of rural social movements that work on the ‘agroecological fields’ of the country. The processes leading to the creation of the National Agroecology Articulation (ANA) and the Brazilian Agroecology Association (ABA-Agroecología) are presented as a fundamental in building agroecology in Brazil. By taking the internalization of agroecology into official curricula, research and extension services as examples, the paper identifies some of the most relevant practical, theoretical and political hurdles that holds the current modernization paradigm of state’s institutions.