Dear friends and colleagues,

We are pleased to bring to your attention a call for contributions on agroecological transitions, on behalf of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food).

IPES-Food is a new independent panel bringing together different disciplines and different types of knowledge to support the transition to sustainable food systems. The panel looks holistically at the problems in food systems, and is focused in particular on power relations, with a view to identifying leverage points for sparking a transition to sustainable food systems.

IPES-Food is now seeking contributions from a range of food systems actors for two of its upcoming reports: 1) a review of the challenges and opportunities for diversifying agriculture and food systems; 2) a set of case studies on transitions to agroecology.

You are kindly invited to contribute to the online consultation, to answer five short questions about agroecology and diversification:

English: http://goo.gl/forms/mcu1QdCojO
French: http://goo.gl/forms/oFgPPD6Y63
Spanish: http://goo.gl/forms/kWHpgJFhSs

Responses should be sent by 11th December 2015. Thanks in advance for taking the time to reply.

If you are interested in receiving updates on IPES-Food's work, you are welcome to sign up to the IPES-Food newsletter at: www.ipes-food.org/newsletter

With best wishes,

Third World Network
131 Jalan Macalister
10400 Penang
Malaysia
Email:twn@twnetwork.org
Websites: http://www.biosafety-info.net/ and http://www.twn.my/
To subscribe to other TWN information services: www.twnnews.net

Call for contributions: Launch of IPES-Food e-consultation on agroecological transitions

The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) today opened a call for contributions on the topic of agroecological transitions.

IPES-Food is seeking inputs from a wide range of food systems actors to help inform two of its upcoming reports: 1) a review of the challenges and opportunities for diversifying agriculture and food systems; 2) a set of case studies on transitions to agroecology.

The e-consultation takes the form of a short questionnaire, in which respondents are asked to give their insights on the key challenges in shifting towards diversified and agroecological food and farming systems.

The e-consultation is now open to all those wishing to participate, and can be accessed here:

in English

in French

in Spanish

Responses should be sent by 11th December 2015. 

IPES-Food thanks respondents in advance for taking the time to participate. These responses will help to ensure from the outset that we are asking the relevant questions and reflecting the breadth of challenges faced by food systems actors, in line with IPES-Food's founding principles, and in particular its commitment to transdisciplinary knowledge processes.

Today’s e-consultation was launched as the FAO’s Regional Meeting on Agroecology in Sub-Saharan Africa took place in Dakar. The meeting, taking place on 5-6 November, aims to assess the progress of agroecology in Africa to date, and to identify opportunities for its development in the future.

The meeting reflects the growing importance of agroecology in discussions on the future of food systems. It follows on from the International Symposium on Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition held in September 2014 in Rome, bringing together 400 scientists, producers, policy makers and representatives from the private and public sectors and NGOs.