Agroecological Formación in Rural Social Movements

Abstract

Among the many sectors currently engaged in struggle against the corporate food system, small farmers play a particularly important role—not only do they constitute a legitimate alternative to global agribusiness, but also they are the heirs to long traditions of local knowledge and practice. In defending peasant agriculture, rural social movements defend popular control over seeds and genetic resources, water, land and territory against the onslaught of globalized financial capital. A framework called food sovereignty has been developed by the international peasant movement La Via Campesina (LVC), to encompass the various elements of a food system alternative based on reclaiming popular resource control, defending small-scale agriculture and traditional knowledge, rebuilding local circuits of food and labor, and recovering the ecological processes that can make farming sustainable. Recognizing the need to develop “movement people” capable of integrating many ecological, social, cultural and political criteria into their organizational activities, LVC increasingly has articulated processes of popular education and consciousness-raising as part of the global social movement for agroecology and food sovereignty. Given the enormous diversity of organizations and actors in LVC, an underlying feature known in Spanish as diálogo de saberes (roughly the equivalent of “dialogue between ways of knowing”) has characterized LVC processes of education, training, formation and exchange in agroecology. The diálogo de saberes takes place at the level of training centers and schools of the LVC organizations, as well as the larger scale of agricultural landscapes and peasant territories. The interactions between peasant, family or communal farmers, their organizations, their youth and their agroecology create social processes that assume the form and dynamic of a social movement in several countries of Latin America.

People, power, change: three pillars of a food sovereignty research praxis

“…Instead, they claim the collective experiences of food producers and harvesters as essential situated knowledges and part of the commons (Martinez-Torres and Rosset 2010; Levidow, Pimbert, and Vanloqueren 2014). The international network of peasant universities and agroecology schools established by LVC members is another example of a food sovereignty knowledge strategy to develop and spread agroecological knowledge 4 (McCune, Reardon, and Rosset 2014). Through these types of initiatives, social movements are building alternatives to mainstream educational institutions, which often reproduce dominant social structures and prioritize technical, expert knowledge.…”

Agroecología situada: contexto, proceso y masificación del Programa de Formación en Agroecología en Venezuela

“…• Las capacidades se desarrollan a partir de encuentros teóricos, de manera que se desenvuelven las dinámicas comunitarias vividas por los participantes. El proyecto permite un ciclo continuo de "desaprender para aprender" (McCune et al, 2014), dando una nueva lógica a los procesos. El estudiante está preparado para resolver problemas complejos, pensar críticamente, tomar decisiones e interactuar con diversas formas de conocimiento y sabiduría.…”

Educação Do Campo E Pedagogia Camponesa Agroecológica Na América Latina: Aportes Da La via Campesina E Da Cloc

“…Igualmente, todas têm aportado à concepção de um projeto educativo próprio, de caráter político e com abordagem pedagógica que pode ser denominada Pedagogia Camponesa Agroecológica emergente (HOLT GIMÉNEZ, 2008;MCCUNE, REARDON & ROSSET, 2014;MCCUNE et al, 2016;MUÑOZ PEREZ, 2014;ROSSET, 2015;MEEK, 2015;BARBOSA, 2016a).…”

“…Ao contrário, instiga-se a juventude à migração para os grandes centros urbanos, seja no mesmo país, seja em âmbito inter-regional 5 . Em contraposição, a Educação do Campo busca reverter essas tendências ao situar o campesinato e sua realidade sociocultural e política no centro do processo educativo, por meio da cogestão entre movimentos sociais e setor público, de escolas rurais com enfoque técnico-político e agroecológico que, ao final da sequência educativa, produzem "técnicos-militantes" da agroecologia (MCCUNE, REARDON & ROSSET, 2014;BARBOSA, 2016b).…”

“…Embora identifiquemos diferenças significativas entre as organizações pertencentes à LVC/CLOC, tanto as proletárias quanto as indígenas deram seus maiores aportes pedagógicos no contexto das escolas para a educação e formação das filhas e filhos das famílias camponesas, e, embora haja escolas e processos que se apeguem a um ou outro desses modelos, por meio do Diálogo de Saberes há a tendência de que os processos de formação agroecológica mais recentes recuperem elementos de cada um, de tal maneira que podemos enumerar alguns componentes comuns de uma pedagogia e formação emergentes (BATISTA, 2013;MCCUNE, REARDON & ROSSET, 2014;MUÑOZ PÉREZ, 2014;MARTÍNEZ-TORRES & ROSSET, 2014;ROSSET, 2015;BARBOSA, 2016b):…”