Earth Day Manifesto – Mother Earth gives to us but can take away: agroecology and sustainable development in a world in crisis

Manifesto prepared by the members of the Research and Training Program in Andean Agroecological Systems – McKnight Foundation/CLACSO

Humanity is in crisis, and the entire planet is suffering. On Earth Day, a significant part of the world continues its downward spiral, disregarding the brutal costs this lifestyle has exacted. The global pandemic cannot be tackled by addressing its consequences but rather its causes. And these causes are primarily driven by the global model of consumption, which degrades both life and nature. If we don't pause to reflect and transform ourselves toward a sustainable path, each passing day will inevitably lead us toward an abyss. “Thinking about how to change. Changing the way we think” can help us halt this destructive trajectory. But the global situation, which challenges us, cannot ignore the transformations we are currently undertaking to foster this civilizational shift from the local level. And here, in the Andes, perhaps the most challenging places for food production, we have a long tradition, supported by science and technology committed to the people, of producing food and strengthening community fabric from the ground up. 

The COVID-19 crisis has brought humanity to its knees. Scientific reductionism, which sometimes stifles other lines of critical thought, sometimes only sheds light on a supposed short-term solution. We must open our minds, broaden our perspectives, and listen to one another. Postnormal science can and should be heard when we talk about a political epistemology and a science that engages with the people, in the face of the complex problems we confront. 

In the work that we, the participants of the Program and our regional Community of practice, have developed, we have learned to listen to each other and enrich ourselves, standing in our perspective that not only proclaims or studies, but also provides results. We also learn the different worldviews and our own cosmovision, about how important it is to strengthen our local capacities, especially those linked to the exchange with the Pacha, with our land. 

At this moment, on Earth Day and in the Year of the World Food Systems Summit, our working group of researchers (tutors, directors, and students) considers it relevant to draw attention to the importance of local systems and their resilience in the face of global environmental change and climate change, which, moreover, the current pandemic threatens and challenges us. Local resources will be what feeds us and provides food security and sovereignty in the face of the current climate, environmental, political, and even military crises we are facing or will face. It would be highly advisable for our policymakers, at the national and subnational levels, and the United Nations, to anticipate these crises and see agroecology as the path to food security and the guarantee of a comprehensive eco-agrifood system, starting locally and extending globally. And not the other way around. 

Together, researchers and farmers, both young and old, have worked tirelessly despite the critical situation we face and the deepening social, economic, cultural, and digital inequalities brought about by the global health crisis. The research conducted in local communities with Indigenous peoples in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, in harsh and complex ecosystems at altitudes exceeding 2000 meters, has yielded important findings for global and national plans to support agroecology, food sovereignty, land and territorial rights, and water as a common good, as well as ways to mitigate climate change through ancestral wisdom embodied in Buen Vivir (Good Living).

We have learned, and scientifically demonstrated, that agroecology, as a science, integrates seamlessly with fieldwork and social movements fighting against extractivism, ecocide, and the appropriation of natural resources by corporations. Content creators, strengthened by a Buen Vivir (Good Living) perspective, reflect and act to place Pachamama (Mother Earth) at their center. This contributes to a meaningful integration and the possibility of embracing an inherent spirituality derived from the very mountains that surround us, that envelop us, or in which we live. This natural, social, and spiritual balance has taught us the importance of examining and transforming a food system from the ground up. 

The earth beats. It pulses every 26 seconds. “Earth,” our “Pacha,” “Mother Earth,” implores us for change. And we, humbly, have learned that from the earth and our territory, we find the most viable path to guarantee our food, the food of our children, our elders, and future generations in a communion between society and nature that, in this crisis, we know has been a real and virtuous path to nourish not only the body but also the soul…

April 22th 2021
Research and Training Program in Andean Agroecological Systems – McKnight Foundation/CLACSO

Watch the video of the virtual discussion: International Earth Day. The Earth beats: agroecology, good living and climate change, organized within the framework of the CLACSO-McKnight Foundation Research and Training Program in Andean Agroecological Systems