Perspectives: Creating city region food systems

As cities continue to expand and ever more people migrate to urban areas, current unsustainable patterns of urbanisation and ineffective policies are no longer acceptable. The typical approaches that maintain the separation between rural and urban neglect all of the ways that connect both worlds. And nowhere else are rural and urban areas more linked … Read more

Globally connected: News from the AgriCultures Network

Members of the AgriCultures Network are working together to advance family farming and agroecology, drawing lessons from farmers’ fields, sharing knowledge, and working with social movements for policy change. Here are some of our latest updates. The Netherlands: building knowledge for healthy soils In March 2015, ILEIA and others in the Netherlands organised a two … Read more

Call for articles: Women and agroecology

Deadline: 1 September 2015. Women are strong drivers of agroecological change in farming and consumer communities. One example is the women’s movement for agrobiodiverse, pesticide-free crop production in India. In other places, women experiment with intercropping, vegetable box schemes and seed exchanges. What motivates them? And what role does agroecology play in improving the lives … Read more

Growing a sense of place and community in Cape Town

The Harvest of Hope initiative is a vegetable box scheme in Cape Town, South Africa, set up as a social enterprise by a local ‘social profit organisation’. By promoting ecological urban farming, Abalimi Bezekhaya (meaning ‘Farmers of Home’ in Xhosa) improves income and household food security, and empowers disadvantaged households by building their confidence and … Read more

Between city and country: domestic workers building food sovereignty

In Latin America and the Caribbean, domestic workers make up 18% of the female labour force. Migrating from rural areas to work in the city, many maintain both rural and urban identities. With strong connections to their family’s farm on one hand, and playing a key role in buying and preparing food in urban households … Read more

Urban agroecology – a tool for social transformation

Antonio Lattuca is the director of the urban agriculture programme in the city of Rosario, 300 km northwest of Buenos Aires. It began as a response to the 2002 economic crisis in Argentina, building upon existing initiatives that promoted vegetable gardening among families and with schools. It is now one of the most successful urban … Read more

Threatened landscapes unite rural and urban communities

In the past 50 years, about a quarter of Japan’s cultivated land has been lost, threatening food production, cultural landscapes and biodiversity. One of Japan’s most valued cultural landscapes includes rice terraces. In order to prevent them from abandonment, an innovative concept known as the Ownership System, was devised almost 25 years ago. This has … Read more

New peasants moving back to rural areas

‘New peasants’ – youth deciding to become farmers and choosing agroecological production methods – are a crucial response to the trend of rural outmigration. Sidney Ortun Flament and Bruno Macias see knowledge sharing and exchange as a means to support this movement. In the eyes of many, farming is not considered a desirable career. However, … Read more

Changing face of urban agriculture

Dominic Machingura is an urban farmer in Harare, Zimbabwe. He is determined to prove the potential of urban agriculture to produce organic food and generate an income. “Many believe growing food is for society’s ‘less privileged’. Starting in my community, I set out to change this false belief. I want to prove the potential to … Read more