The current agricultural and food system is increasingly demonstrating its inability to provide people with sufficient, high-quality food at local, national and international levels. Demographic expansion, climate change and the deterioration of the agricultural system’s productive resources (water, soil and vegetation) constitute a triple threat. As a result, the conventional production the system, while giving the impression of being more efficient in the short term, is in reality built on very fragile foundations: poor and degraded soils, heavy dependence on external inputs, lack of resistance to pests and climatic hazards, unstable yields, etc. The agro-industrial model is the one most commonly used in schools, universities and research centres, but conversely, the small-scale producers – men and women – who provide 70% of the world’s food are the first to experience poverty and hunger. We recognise their crucial contribution to the global food supply and it is essential to promote their rights to access resources and markets, to participate in the decision-making process and to be heard.
But to feed people sustainably, it is essential and vital to change the paradigm and focus our agricultural model on farmers and the environment. Agroecology, seen as a holistic and potential alternative to conventional agriculture, can meet this demand by reorienting agropastoral and fisheries systems towards people and the environment.