Agroecological Polycultures: Field, Farm and Food System Transformations

Ryan HayhurstNEO Regenerative Agroecological Systems Consulting

Est. 2004

What is Agroecology?

• “ecology of sustainable food systems" (Gliessman)

• “it has already begun to change the way agriculture is perceived and practiced from scales ranging from the soil food web, to polycultural cropping regimes and the political economy of local food systems”(Toensmeier).

• “at minimum, agroecological production attempts to bypass the damage done by corporate-led agro-industrial food regimes that control the majority of the agro-food infrastructure” (Altieri)

Soil Ecology http://www.sccdistrict.com/soileco.htm

Field Ecology: interactions between farmscapes and nature

Food System https://www.coursera.org/course/globalfoodsystems

Food Sovereigntyhttp://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/17/2787921/african-countries-join-anti-monsanto-protests/

What is a Polyculture? An integrative crop system designed to take advantage of multiple plant-plant and plant-animal synergies to create a resilient, sustainable and abundant socio-ecological system

Natural Farming (Japan)Holistic Management (Zimbabwe)

Permaculture/Carbon Farming (Australia)

Restoration Agriculture & Edible Forest Gardens (Americas, Europe, Asia…)

What theoretical frameworks can we use to help us name and understand how agroecology is dispersing in into the agricultural mainstream?

Coevolution and Feedback loops Norgaard, 1994

Panarchy, Adaptive Cycle Gunderson and Holling, 2002

Socio-technical Transitions, Geels, 2007

Diffusion of Innovation, Rogers, 1962

What tools and leverage points are available to us to operationalize agroecology in complex multi-stakeholder systems?

Strategies and Leverage Points?

Personal Practice• Esbjörn-Hargens & Zimmerman: Perspective & Depth• Bland & Bell: Holonic "Flickering”Complex System Process Facilitation• Participatory epistemology, interdisciplinary research

and transdisciplinary practiceContext specific design, scaled application• Gliessman: 4 Levels of Conversion to agroecologyAn Evolving Critically (Kincheloe, 2008)• How has agroecology manifest in Ontario within and

aside from industrial agriculture? In what ways has it been co-opted? How should it be contested? Or celebrated?

Integral Ecology, Esbjorn-Hargens & Zimmerman 2009

Holon agroecology, Bland & Bell 2007

http://welovebold.com/stories/entry/social-innovation-camp

Can we use process facilitation and innovation labs to redesign agroecological systems?

1. Efficiency improvements 2. Substitute Alternatives3. Redesign Agroecosystem 4. Redesign Socio-Economics

4 Levels of Conversion, Gliessman, 2007

An evolving criticality of our agricultural pedagogy, markets and policy both locally and globally

An Evolving Criticality: Future Research on Agroecology in Ontario

Is it happening?What is being done?

What? On what level(s) is the intervention

How? Theory of change

Impacts/outcomes, shortcomings & synergies

Behavior: Education & Training Initiatives

Systems: Production & Consumption Networks

Culture:Research, Policy and Politics

Questions, comments… (rhayhurst18@gmail.com)