How does a consumer know if their food is agroecological? How can food producers be recognized and fairly compensated for their agroecological produce? Answering these questions lies at the heart of Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS). Shared knowledge and social control are critical principles of PGS and differentiate it from conventional third-party audit...

Au Bénin, nombreux sont les acteurs d'horizons divers, qu'ils soient producteurs, membres d'ONG, chercheurs, ou bien dans les sphères institutionnelles ou politiques, qui parient et s'engagent sur le déploiement de l'agroécologie, sa mise en pratique, s'appuyant sur les réalités locales et les savoirs endogènes, dans un dialogue entre pairs mais...

In Ecuador’s Intag Valley, the women’s artisan collective Mujer y Medio Ambiente (Women and the Environment) has developed an innovative way to dye and stitch fibers from the cabuya plant, an agave-like shrub. The women use environmentally friendly techniques, such as natural dyes from native plants and insects, and agroecological farming...

Since the earliest origins of agriculture, farmers and cultivated plants (or crops) have rightly been credited with securing copious food supplies and enabling the rise of complex societies. From Mesopotamia over the High Andes to the Yellow River Basin, crop domestication and farmers’ immense creativity enabled a lasting shift away...

This document begins with a description of how farmers’ seed systems and formal systems interact, then discusses some of the challenges facing farmers’ seed systems including climate change, the private ownership of seeds, the difficulty of registration and certification for farmers’ seeds, and the role of international treaties on national...

This book is based on an 8-part webinar series conducted by AFSA through the Healthy Soil Healthy Food Initiative. This series covered a range of agroecological methods that foster healthy soils and ecosystems. The series, conducted from October 2023 to February 2024, was co-developed by the organising committee and the expert...