As such, this form of cooperative enquiry is a significant reversal from dominant roles, locations, and ways of knowing. I offer some examples and reflections on how to give 'non-researchers' (e.g. people from indigenous and local communities) more significant roles than before in the production and validation of knowledge. These reflections are based on past and ongoing participatory action-research with indigenous and local communities in the Andean Altiplano (Bolivia and Peru), Asia (India, Indonesia, Nepal and Iran), Europe (France, Italy, UK) and West Africa (Mali) where research/knowledge creation is done as much as possible with, for and by people – rather than on people – to understand how diverse local food systems can be sustained within territories.