15 - Measuring Agroecology

This month’s conversation: Measuring Agroecology Topic 1: 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗼𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 (Speaker: Nina Moeller from the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark) Agroecology is increasingly invoked as a pathway for food-system change, yet “transformation” can mean very different things in practice. In this presentation, Nina Moeller argues that weak conceptual clarity becomes a barrier to agroecology in itself, enabling cherry-picking, rebranding, and misplaced investment. Developing strong assessment frameworks, on the other hand, can create opportunities for shared learning as well as credible evidence, and make space for what standard metrics routinely miss. Drawing on the Agroecology Assessment Framework (used in financial tracking by the Agroecology Coalition), the presentation outlines practical “non-negotiables” for transformative agroecology and reflects on how to take into account the difficult-to-measure dimensions of change. Topic 2: 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗼𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 (Speaker: Mathias Geck from CIFOR-ICRA, Kenya) The limited evidence on the performance of agroecology and the lack of holistic approaches for assessing the performance of agrifood systems are commonly cited as critical barriers for mainstreaming agroecological approaches. Local to global coalitions and recent policy changes are a pivotal factor for accelerating agroecological food system transformations. While a number of agroecology assessment frameworks and tools exist, the context-specificity of agroecology and complexity of agri-food systems implies the need to avoid silver bullet solutions. Matthias Geck of CIFOR-ICRAF will present how the Agroecology Tansformative Partnership Platform (TPP) provides support to a broad range of actors on assessing what matters to them while aiming to strike the balance between context-specificity and the need for globally harmonized indicators and evidence. The presentation will provide an overview of commonly used agroecology assessment frameworks and tools across scales and for diverse purposes. It will also feature results of the to-date largest coherent agroecology performance assessments. Finally, Matthias Geck will give an overview of guidance and decisions support tools for holistic assessments provided by the TRANSITIONS Metrics project.