Between April 3 and 5, the second International Agroecology Symposium was held in Rome. “Scaling Up agroecology to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” was the theme of the meeting. Various members of Agroecology Europe were among the 800 people present at the symposium.
This second International Symposium on Agroecology marked a milestone in the evolution of agriculture and agronomy. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva called for ‘transformative change’ for healthier and more sustainable food systems, and said agroecology can contribute to such a transformation. He also emphasized the need to “strengthen the central role of family farmers and their organizations in safeguarding, utilizing, and accessing natural resources and uphold the human rights of family farmers, agricultural workers, indigenous peoples, and consumers, in particular women and youth.”
The symposium made clear that agroecology has emerged as a solution if not the solution for addressing land degradation, and for maintaining forests, water, air quality and biodiversity, to eradicate hunger and reduce the global obesity epidemic. This recognition is the result of many efforts by a large number of actors, including movements of food producers, scientists and FAO’s Agroecology Group. At the event, FAO launched a Scaling Up Agroecology Initiative.
Listen here to what some of the participants have to say: