Agroecology

With graduate degrees in Botany and Ecology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Stephen (Steve) R. Gliessman has accumulated more than 50 years of teaching, research, and production experience in the field of agroecology. His international experiences in tropical and temperate agriculture, small-farm and large-farm systems, traditional and conventional farm management, hands-on and academic activities, non-profit and business employment, and organic farming have provided a unique combination of experiences and perspectives to incorporate into this book. He was the founding director of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Agroecology Program, one of the first formal agroecology programs in the world, and was the Alfred and Ruth Heller Professor of Agroecology in the Department of Environmental Studies at UCSC until his retirement in 2012. He is the co-founder of the non-profit Community Agroecology Network (CAN) and currently serves on its board of directors. He is the editor of the international journal Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems and dry farms organic wine grapes and olives with his wife Robbie in northern Santa Barbara County, California. V. Ernesto Méndez is Professor of Agroecology and Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont’s (UVM) Environmental Program and Department of Plant and Soil Science, where he also co-directs the Agroecology and Livelihoods Collaborative (ALC) with Martha Caswell. With degrees in Crop Science, Tropical Agroforestry, and Agroecology, he focuses his research and teaching on agroecology, agri-food systems, participatory action research (PAR), coffee agroecology, transdisciplinary research approaches, and social justice. At UVM he is also a faculty member of the Food Systems Graduate Program, fellow and steering committee member of the Gund Institute for Environment. He has more than 25 years of experience working with smallholder farmers and Indigenous communities in Latin America and collaborating in agroecology efforts across the world. He has authored or co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed articles and chapters and edited three books. Ernesto was born and raised in El Salvador and maintains deep connections, in life and work, with his Central American roots. Victor M. Izzo is an agricultural entomologist and Lecturer of Agroecology and Environmental Studies in the Plant and Soil Science Department and Environmental Program at the University of Vermont. He also serves as the Education Coordinator of the Agroecology and Livelihoods Collaborative (ALC) and is the co-founder of the Vermont Entomology and Participatory Action Research Team (VEPART), also housed within the Department of Plant and Soil Science. With degrees in Chemistry, Bioscience, and Plant and Soil Science, Vic brings a broad perspective to his work as an agroecologist and teacher. Whether it is a high school classroom in Mexico City, a Master Gardener workshop on a New England farm, or an agroecology course on a university campus, he is always looking to create innovative learning communities built on trust, empathy, and the co-production of knowledge. When he is not in a classroom or on a farm, Vic is with his partner Carolina and son Nico tending to their many gardens and indulging in their respective culinary traditions of Italy and Mexico. Eric W. Engles is a freelance editor, independent scholar, photographer, and naturalist. With experience in the natural sciences, a graduate degree in Sociology, and recognized achievement in the arts, he has developmentally edited more than two dozen books published by academic presses in fields ranging from environment and history to art and behavioral sciences. He has always tended a home garden, and the current two-decade gardening endeavor, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, supplies him and his wife Lisa with much of their food.

Foreword

Preface 1

Preface 2

Authors

Recommendations for Using this Textbook

Section I • Pathway to Agroecology

1 The Case for Fundamental Change in Agriculture

2 Alternatives to Industrial Agriculture

3 The Agroecosystem Concept

Section II • Agricultural Organisms and their Environment

4 The Plant: Nutrition, Growth, and Response to the Environment

5 Light

6 Climatic Factors Affecting Plants

7 Biotic Factors and Interactions among Organisms

8 The Soil Ecosystem

9 The Environmental Complex

Section III • System-Level Interactions

10 Population Ecology of Agroecosystems

11 Genetic Resources in Agroecosystems

12 Species Interactions in Crop Communities

13 Agroecosystem Diversity

14 Ecological Pest, Weed, and Disease Management

15 Successional Development and Agroforestry

16 Animals in Agroecosystems

17 Energetics of Agroecosystems

18 Landscape Diversity

Section IV • Agroecological Farms and Communities

19 Sustainability and Its Assessment

20 Converting Farms to Ecologically Based Management

21 Bringing Farmers and Consumers Closer Together

22 Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture

Section V • Transforming the Global Food System

23 Achieving a Just and Sustainable Food System

24 Economic Dynamics of the Food System

25 Agriculture and the Climate Crisis

26 Shaping the Future in the Present

Glossary

References

Index