What’s up with AgroecologyNow!? June 2026 Update

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Colin Anderson

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Jun 5, 2026, 8:24:15 AM (7 days ago) Jun 5
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What’s up with AgroecologyNow!?

June 2026 Update

AgroecologyNow! works with partners in social movements, civil society, governments and research institutions to promote a transformative agroecology for food sovereignty and social justice: www.agroecologynow.net. 

 

See below for some highlights of our latest work and highlights from our networks, including free-to-download articles, videos and other resources. 

AgroecologyNow! Features

Transforming Food Systems Through Agroecology Education: Head, Hands, and Heart

In this blog, the authors reflect on agroecology education as a tool for social transformation and its central role in agroecological transitions. In the context of growing interest in higher education, they argue for a deeper commitment to transformative learning and for more intentional connections between undergraduate and graduate education and territorial and global agroecology processes. Such connections, they suggest, are essential for influencing practices and policies and for strengthening social organizing for transformation. Drawing on emerging insights from the Let’s E.A.T. (Educate for Agroecological Transformations) Community of Practice, the authors explore the potential of weaving together three pedagogical traditions to foster deep learning that bridges higher education and agroecological transitions: 1) Transdisciplinary Learning; 2) Experiential Learning; 3) Critical Pedagogy.

Read here: https://agroecologynow.net/tocy 


What does data justice mean for African small-holder farmers? Towards envisioning a human rights-based approach in Africa

In this post, the authors Matthew Canfield, Sabrina Masinjila, Barbara Ntambirweki offer a critical analysis of biodigital technologies and their expanding role in food and agriculture. Central to their argument is the question of who ultimately stands to benefit from this so-called “fourth agricultural revolution.” They contend, first and foremost, that data justice must be grounded in the lived experiences and livelihoods of food producers. They also emphasize that data justice for African farmers cannot be confined to the individual-rights frameworks that dominate Eurocentric privacy debates. Instead, they call for regenerative, non-extractive technological approaches and for collective sovereignty over both data and mineral resources. Ultimately, the authors argue for a human-rights-based framework for digital food and agricultural systems—one capable of challenging extractive colonial logics and ensuring that emerging technologies do not undermine efforts to build agroecological futures.

Read here: https://agroecologynow.net/0lly 


Voices of transformation: the peasant university of Colombia

In this blog, the authors reflect on agroecology education by social movements, as called for by the Nyéleni process. Existing independent of (but in relation with) public schools and academic spaces, the autonomous agroecology schools of agrarian movements create complex dialogues among knowledge systems, by combining hands-on farming with technical training on ecology, the study of history and the commons, and organizing forms in the 21st century. The social movement agroecology school in Colombia, IALA María Cano, sets into motion the Freirian concept of praxis through an ongoing action research process that the authors are privileged to participate in as the VOCES Collective, where they accompany the research-teaching-organizing processes and pedagogy of alternation of IALA María Cano and its student participants. This transformational form of education, the authors argue, is acutely tuned in with the contexts and conditions of amplifying agroecology in Peasant, Afrodescendent and Indigenous territories.

Read here: https://agroecologynow.net/mpgp 


Agricultural research in times of the EU race to arms and technology-friendly regulations

In this blog, Barbara Van Dyck and Danya Nadar show the link between agricultural research and the defense industry and invite us to object and be vocal about the university’s roles in militarisation and militarism. This is the second in a series of posts on agroecology and militarism. The first is here.
Read here: https://agroecologynow.net/4luq 


What is care in Agroecology? 

So much talk about the importance of ‘care’ in agroecology, but what does it mean? This blog presents a ‘Matrix of Care’, a heuristic tool that helps us make sense of what care actually means in practice. Developed by Anouk Dijkman, the matrix seeks to recognise the vast richness in diverse care dimensions and conceptualisation of care work – and the complex care relations that are cultivated by agroecological land-workers. It also seeks to be a new tool to practically explore and critically reflect on these varying dimensions, towards supporting a stronger care-awareness within the agroecological movement. To do so, the matrix suggests that notions of care are pluriversal and that its various conceptualisations sit along a spectrum varying from anthropocentric (centers humans) to biocentric (centres ‘life’), and from lineal to interlinked (web).  

Read here: https://agroecologynow.net/4ra6 


Agrarian Reform, Agroecology and Food Sovereignty: ICARRD+20

This springtime is witness to an ancient idea returning to center stage across the Bay Area, the nation and the globe: redistributive agrarian reform. But what does agrarian reform mean, and why is it so important at this historical crossroads? In this blog, Nils McCune reflects on the experience of the UN’s 2nd International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20), reminding us that agrarian reform is the heart of the civilizational pathway that exists in diametrical opposition to oil wars and imperialism. After situating ICAARD +20 in its historical context, Nils lifts up the urgent need for People Led Comprehensive Land reform, ending by discussing the 4Rs of agrarian reform: recognition, redistribution, restitution, and regulation.

Read here: https://agroecologynow.net/yzz6 


Youth leading the way in agroecology” - Latest Issue of Rooted Magazine 

“Across continents, languages and landscapes, from Ivory Coast to Spain to Nepal, young people are not waiting to be invited to transform food systems, they are already doing it through agroecology. “This Rooted Magazine issue is an invitation to listen to youth, not as a token gesture, but as a necessary step towards building just and dignified futures for all.” Read here: https://rooted-magazine.org/magazine-issues/rooted-issue-4/

New Fully Online Master's in Agroecology at the UVM Institute for Agroecology

The Master of Science in Agroecology, is designed for professionals already working in food systems who want to deepen their practice while staying rooted in their work, organization, and community. The faculty bring extensive experience in community-engaged research, policy, facilitation, social transformation, and global movement work. The program is closely connected to the Institute’s broader global research and engagement program, providing unique learning opportunities for our students. A fully online, 30-credit program for farmers, educators, organizers, extension professionals, applied researchers, and more. Applications for fall intake are due July 15th.

AgroecologyNow! Publications (click through to access)

Bourke-Martignoni, Joanna; Voigt, Charlotte; Hegger, Els; Lemke, Stefanie (2026) Rooted agroecology networks. Growing care through feminist agroecology. In “Caring Food Systems: For Humans, the Environment and the Climate.” Verein Feministische Wissenschaft Schweiz. 

Pimbert, M.P. (2026) Agroecología: Imitando la naturaleza con justicia cognitiva. Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas (CBC) in Peru and Coventry University (UK).


Pimbert, M.P. (2026) ¿Cómo pueden los defensores de la agroecología y la soberanía alimentaria ayudar a construir culturas de paz? Revista Soberania Alimentaria, Biodiversidad y Culturas.


Anderson, C.R. and L. Makombore. Policy Brief on Agroecology and Public Development Banks.


Tornaghi Chiara, Dehaene Michiel, Cadieux Kirsten Valentine, Nicklay Jennifer, Lopez-García Daniel, Fried Jana, Rayns Francis, Winter Kevin (2026), Healing people, soils and science through ‘urban soil remediation’ research? A conversation in transdisciplinary agroecology research, in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, vol. 50, Issue 6, pp. 1313-1347, gold open access, published online first, 13th November 2025

 

Tornaghi C., Laughton R., Longhurst M., Goldring A. (2026), Agroecological food production: benefits, needs and institutional barriers. A guide for institutional change built with actors in Leeds and Bristol, Coventry: Coventry University. DOI: 10.18552/CAWR/2026/0001 

 

Laughton, R., Longhurst, M., Goldring, A. and Tornaghi, C. (2026). Agroecology as a Tool to Cool the Planet: Early results of Farm Carbon Calculator measurements on Peri-Urban Farms. Infographic booklet. Agrifood 4 Net Zero and Landworkers’ Alliance. 

 

Tornaghi C (2025), Å øke ambisjonene for urbant landbruk i det offentlige rom: å fremme urban agroøkologi og planetær helse, 5 Feb 2025, in Sirowy, B. & Ruggeri, D. (eds.). Urbant landbruk i det offentlige rom: Livskvalitet, planlegging og design,  Cappelen Damm Forskning, p. 353-382 

 

Anderson, M. and C.R. Anderson (2026). Agroecology and Food Sovereignty Policy Briefing (2026). In DeSchutter, O.  A Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth. U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.


Van Dyck, B., Prévost, C, Nadar, D., Bombardi, L. - www.friction.st 

 

Carrasco-Torrontegui, A., Gallegos-Riofrío, C. A., Méndez, E., Quispe, M., Pintag, M., Valenzuela, R. P., ... & Anderson, C.R. (2026). Looking back to move forward: historical Agroecology and reciprocity in Ecuador and Bolivia. Agriculture and Human Values, 43(2), 68.


Kelinsky-Jones, L. & C.R. Anderson (2026). Analyzing Policy Discourse for Agroecological Possibilities: A Theoretical and Methodological Contribution. Agriculture and Human Values.


Anderson, C.R., Ferrando, T., Blay-Palmer, A., Espinosa-García, F. J., Cabral, L., Termine, P., … Zurek, M. (2025). Time for a vision exam: diagnosing problems in the pursuit of equitably transformative resilience in food systems. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 50(3), 457–476.



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