Better and Different - Transforming Food Systems through Agroecology

“Besser anders, anders besser!” is an INKOTA-publication full of interesting texts about Agroecology. After publishing the original in German last year, we received several requests to release it in English as well. So here it is!

The brochure illustrates that food and agriculture could work better in a different way, and informs about best practices that bear great potential. The focus lies on examples of agroecological cultivation methods, innovative marketing channels, and initiatives which try to influence food policy.

The various contributions in the publication exemplify how farmers, by using agroecological approaches, enhance soil fertility, biodiversity and seed productivity and how people are supplied with fresh and healthy foods by new and innovative routes to market. The publication depicts how civil society initiatives play an increasing role in shaping local food systems and how they are drawing up food policy. Various cases from Kenya, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, Nepal, Germany, France, Switzerland, Columbia, and Brazil are presented.

Agroecology provides alternatives to the capital-intensive, industrial and export-oriented agriculture, which is guided by corporate interests. Farmers in the global South and North are recognized as central actors in the food system, local markets are strengthened and the independence from mineral oil, chemicals and genetic engineering is promoted.

The publication portrays alternatives that have already been successfully implemented and analyzes which political instruments are necessary to support and further spread Agroecology. The readers are invited to advocate for a socially just and environmentally sustainable reorientation in the agricultural sector.

“Besser anders, anders besser!” is a joint publication of a number of Germany-based NGOs and foundations: Brot für die Welt, FIAN, Forum Umwelt und Entwicklung, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, INKOTA, MISEREOR, Oxfam, and Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.

German publication “Besser anders, anders besser!”

Gefördert aus Mitteln der Europäischen Union, von Brot für die Welt – Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst, der Landesstelle für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit des Berliner Senats und des Katholischen Fonds sowie von Engagement Global im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung und der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung e.V. Für den Inhalt dieser Publikation sind die Herausgeber alleine verantwortlich; die hier dargestellten Positionen geben nicht den Standpunkt der Zuwendungsgeber wieder.