• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA June 4, 2023
Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest June 4, 2023
Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing June 4, 2023
2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season June 4, 2023
Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion? June 1, 2023
Next
Prev

Put Agroecology Ahead of ‘Green Grabs’, Think Tank Urges

October 30, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: Christopher Bonasia @CBonasia_

David Silver/wikimedia commons

David Silver/wikimedia commons

8
SHARES
 

In the lead-up to the COP 27 climate summit, a food systems think tank is calling for more discussion of “agroecology” and warning that corporations can exploit less well-defined terms to greenwash, while maintaining business-as-usual operations.

“Very loose terms like ‘nature-based solutions’ are being bandied about in international summits without clear definitions, and they’re open to being mobilized in the interests of all kinds of agendas. At worst, they are a cover for green grabs that undermine people’s rights and threaten the land and resources they depend on,” warned Melissa Leach, a food expert with the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) director of the Institute of Development Studies.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

“COP 27 must be really careful about the use of these ambiguous terms and reject solutions that are not clearly defined,” she added.

In a new report, IPES analyzes three concepts for food systems change—agroecology, regenerative agriculture, and nature-based solutions—that are often grouped together but imply different things. Because the three concepts have been researched and spelled out to differing degrees, those that are less comprehensively defined can be exploited by stakeholders trying to suppress transformative food system changes, IPES says.

With this year’s climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, promising to be the first COP climate summit to prominently feature food systems, IPES is urging policy-makers to “reject solutions that lack definitions, exploit ambiguity, and mask agribusiness as usual” by adopting agroecology as an approach and as a term. It’s “the only concept among the three that has attained clarity and conceptual maturity through a long process of inclusive and international deliberation,” the group says.

“Getting food systems on the global agenda isn’t enough,” IPES stresses. “we must ensure inclusive global processes based on a shared understanding of food system transformation and a comprehensive (socially and environmentally) sustainable food system vision.”

The report casts agroecology as a comprehensive pathway towards food system sustainability that, despite being clearly defined, has been sidelined in food systems, climate, and biodiversity summits. The concept has its origins in Indigenous peoples’ approach to food systems—an approach that preserves and enriches ecosystems that “are interconnected with language, traditional knowledge, governance, and cultural heritage.”

A bibliometric analysis that IPES conducted for the report highlights the strength of the concept—it found 2,921 studies that mention agroecology, compared to only 212 mentioning nature-based solutions and 143 for regenerative agriculture.

Regenerative agriculture, which is closely linked with the organic farming movement of the 1980s and 90s, has become more widely-known of late. But although regenerative practices often reflect agroecological principles—and sometimes include social justice considerations—the term’s comparatively sparse background allows leading food manufacturers and retailers to now redefine It. That has them touting “regenerative agriculture through proliferating corporate sustainability schemes—sometimes using the term interchangeably with ‘carbon farming’ and ‘no-till’ agriculture, often watering it down in the process,” writes IPES.

Nature-based solutions is the newest concept of the three. It is most often used to describe climate change mitigation and carbon offset schemes and emphasizes environmental benefits while largely ignoring social and human rights issues, IPES says. The limited scope and sparse literature backing nature-based solutions leaves the concept vulnerable to being exploited and misappropriated to protect corporate interests.

“Nature-based solutions is increasing in currency across governance spaces, despite growing concerns over its lack of commonly agreed definition and principles (or perhaps because of this fluidity),” says IPES.

“Civil society groups have already warned that fossil fuel majors and agribusinesses are using nature-based solutions to greenwash their activities and continue expanding core developments (and net emissions) while engaging in carbon offsetting.”



in Climate Denial & Greenwashing, COP Conferences, Environmental Justice, Food Security & Agriculture, International Agencies & Studies, Legal & Regulatory, Soil & Natural Sequestration

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

sunrise windmill
International Agencies & Studies

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 5, 2023
147
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr
Cities & Communities

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 5, 2023
86
nicolasdebraypointcom/pixabay
Transit

Factor Gender into Transportation Planning, IISD Analyst Urges Policy-Makers

June 4, 2023
39

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

/MaxPixels

‘Substantial Damage’, No Injuries as Freight Train Hits Wind Turbine Blade

May 25, 2022
14.6k
sunrise windmill

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 5, 2023
147
Natural Resources Canada

2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season

June 4, 2023
170
Pixabay

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
130
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 5, 2023
86
debannja/Pixabay

Austin, Texas Council Committee Backs Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 4, 2023
92

Recent Posts

Clairewych/Pixabay

Demand Surges for Giant Heat Pumps as Europe Turns to District Heating

June 4, 2023
87
nicolasdebraypointcom/pixabay

Factor Gender into Transportation Planning, IISD Analyst Urges Policy-Makers

June 4, 2023
39
moerschy / Pixabay

Federal Climate Plans Must Embrace Community-Driven Resilience

June 4, 2023
55
Equinor

Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion?

June 1, 2023
879
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
79
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Notley

Notley Would Have Backed Carbon Capture Subsidies, Smith Less Certain: Ex-Pipeline Exec

June 1, 2023
100
Next Post
Visitor7/wikimedia commons

6 Key Actions Can Boost Cities’ EV Uptake, Green Municipal Fund Says

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}