Growing and Eating Sustainably: Agroecology in Action

Product Description
The industrial food system, from production to consumption and waste, is a major contributor to environmental, social, and economic problems. A few powerful multinational corporations have consolidated control of agricultural markets and wealth while many farmers struggle to make a living and millions of people go hungry every day. Consumer access to healthy and culturally appropriate food remains largely an option for only those who can afford it.\nResponding to these destructive practices, global agrarian movements are calling for a transition to agroecology. Agroecological farming follows ecological principles for growing food in a way that respects diverse sociocultural contexts, connects urban eaters and rural growers, and attends to power dynamics.\nGrowing and Eating Sustainably shines light on the process of agroecological transition by showcasing the experiences of growers and eaters in southern Brazil, a country where agrarian movements have long been at the forefront of pushing for more sustainable and just food systems. Through stories and photographs of people, landscapes, farms and farming practices, and urban spaces, this book communicates how to advance systems-level agroecological transitions by linking rural and urban areas and connecting diverse agroecological experiences, with insights that have relevance for supporting similar transitions around the world.
About the Author
Dana James is a PhD candidate, Vanier Scholar, and Public Scholar in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. Her doctoral research explores agroecological farming and participation in agrarian social movements in Brazil.\nEvan Bowness is an environmental sociologist and urban political ecologist, UBC Public Scholar and PhD candidate at the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia.\nHannah Wittman is an assistant professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Simon Fraser Univeristy. She conducts collaborative research on local food systems, farmer networks and agrarian citizenship in British Columbia, and in Latin America with Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and La Via Campesina. Her research interests are in environmental sociology, agrarian citizenship and agrarian social movements.