It has been a remarkably informative and wide-ranging discussion addressing the three key questions – with many additional elements reinforcing the larger challenges and diversity of contexts from where the 36 contributors and 15 countries have responded. Despite the busy holiday season many found the time to thoughtfully contribute and interact with other submissions, building layers to the debates.
Insights gathered here are useful for practitioners, researchers and policymakers – as they seek to address root causes, and to craft policy responses that reflect the coupled social and ecological dimensions of ecological intensification. Discussion around which technical field- and farm-level measures are effective was also linked to what incentives and other market mechanisms might be developed to reward farmers’ production of positive externalities (PES), among other policy entry points raised; around awareness raising and capacity-building, taxation, subsidies, certification, and spatial planning.
So too were thorny questions aired around the quality and complexity of relationships between producers and consumers, and the societal challenges of defining value systems and other dimensions essential to envisioning and implementing transitions toward greater sustainability in global (and local) food systems. The case studies and other research referenced will provide participants and others reading the archive ample opportunity to further explore the arguments and weigh for themselves the evidence needed to change practice and policy, and to build a base for further research needs. Thanks to all who joined us!
Arthur Getz Escudero
co-facilitator of the online discussion
Arthur Getz Escudero