Agroecology Knowledge Hub

Culture and food traditions: by supporting healthy, diversified and culturally appropriate diets, agroecology contributes to food security and nutrition while maintaining the health of ecosystems

Agriculture and food are core components of human heritage. Hence, culture and food traditions play a central role in society and in shaping human behaviour. However, in many instances, our current food systems have created a disconnection between food habits and culture. This disconnection has contributed to a situation where hunger and obesity exist side by side, in a world that produces enough food to feed its entire population.

Almost 800 million people worldwide are chronically hungry and 2 billion suffer micronutrient deficiencies. Meanwhile, there has been a rampant rise in obesity and diet-related diseases; 1.9 billion people are overweight or obese and non-communicable diseases (cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes) are the number one cause of global mortality. To address the imbalances in our food systems and move towards a zero hunger world, increasing production alone is not sufficient.

Agroecology plays an important role in re-balancing tradition and modern food habits, bringing them together in a harmonious way that promotes healthy food production and consumption, supporting the right to adequate food. In this way, agroecology seeks to cultivate a healthy relationship between people and food.

Cultural identity and sense of place are often closely tied to landscapes and food systems. As people and ecosystems have evolved together, cultural practices and indigenous and traditional knowledge offer a wealth of experience that can inspire agroecological solutions. For example, India is home to an estimated 50,000 indigenous varieties of rice – bred over centuries for their specific taste, nutrition and pest-resistance properties, and their adaptability to a range of conditions. Culinary traditions are built around these different varieties, making use of their different properties. Taking this accumulated body of traditional knowledge as a guide, agroecology can help realise the potential of territories to sustain their peoples.

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We are Magdalene and Gillian, trainers working for Kulika Uganda. We are passionate about seeing that people engaged in agriculture adopt sustainable farming practices which are easy to implement and have benefits for the people and the planet.  Kulika is a non-government organization working with rural communities to empower people to...
Uganda
Article
2022
This course will explore what agroecology is, what the different approaches are and how they translate into agricultural practices. In a participatory training dynamic, based on the social and geographical diversity of the actors, the MOOC proposes to build an approach to agroecology from the perspective of agronomic sciences, ecology...
Argentina
Learning
2022
This article review peer-reviewed literature related to human and social values in agroecology. It identified a growing social science literature on agroecology and related social theory and organized and summarized the review around the following themes: social well-being, livelihoods, meaningful work, and gender and social equity.
United States of America
Article
2022
Capital Growth, a food growing network, presents people with the opportunity to grow food as part of a healthy, resilient food system. During the pandemic in 2019/2020, Capital Growth worked with over 50 gardens to grow food for the local community through their Community Harvest Initiative. This video tells their stories...
Video
2021
This video depicts the last session of the second day of the regional consultation on ‘’Engaging with Academia and Research Institutions (ARIs) to support Family Farmers and Food System Transformation during and post COVID-19 Pandemic in Asia’’ held on  8 and 9 December 2021.  The video presents topics relating to how misleading information can...
Video
2021