The global agricultural system is undergoing, especially in recent years, an evolution of considerable dimensions and the repercussions of which will be much more evident in future years.
The change affects the entire vision which involves not only the way of producing food and other ecosystem services but the relationship with the consumption and use of these.
In fact, it is no longer possible to consider food, livelihoods, health and the management of natural resources separately.
This is a holistic approach, in which agriculture is placed at the center of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, where the urgent need to undertake concerted actions and pursue policies aimed at transformative change is underlined.
In this sense, agroecology becomes the holistic and integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agricultural and food systems. It seeks to optimize interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment, while also addressing the need for socially equitable food systems within which people can exercise choice over what they eat and how and where it is produced.
Agroecology therefore represents a global and complete system for guiding public policies towards sustainable agriculture and food system. It improves public efficiency by promoting the design and implementation of integrated and inter-ministerial policies, bringing together agricultural and food sectors that are often disaggregated.
Furthermore, agroecology is based on bottom-up and territorial processes, helping to provide contextualised solutions to local problems with people at the centre. There is no single way to apply agroecological approaches: it depends on local contexts, constraints and opportunities, but there are common principles that have been articulated in the framework of 10 elements.
FAO has, in fact, developed the 10 Elements of Agroecology framework to help countries promote transformative change. The 10 elements are interconnected and interdependent and represent a simplified, yet holistic, way of thinking about reality. They describe the essential components, key interactions, emergent properties and desired enabling conditions in agroecological transitions towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. The 10 elements are a useful analytical tool to facilitate decision-making by practitioners and other stakeholders when planning, implementing, managing and evaluating agroecological transitions.
In particular, objectives 2 (Zero hunger, food security, nutrition and health), 1 (Poverty reduction), 13 (Resilience to climate change), 15 (Biodiversity), 8 (Youth commitment), 5 (Self-determination of gender) and 10 (Human Rights) which, in synergy, determine the process of agroecological change.
Although Agenda 2030 appears to be an orientation framework that is still little understood at a global level, its enactment since 2015 has generated an unprecedented legislative impact.
In order to follow this evolution in real time, FAO has generated a database called AgroecologyLex, which is a web platform specialized on different legal frameworks, policies and programs regarding agroecology in different countries.
This database was created in collaboration with FAOLEX, which is the world’s largest database on policies and legislation related to agriculture and renewable natural resources.
It is a constantly updated database that allows users to have the full text of the document as well as a detailed extract of the contents, mainly focused on the specific aims and objectives, institutional frameworks and main forms of support, in order to support transitions from conventional agriculture to agroecological approaches.
AgroecologyLex can be reached via the link: https://www.fao.org/agroecology/policies-legislations/en/.
A first brief view of this database allows us to understand how from 2015 onwards the regulatory system on agroecological and/or resource sustainability matters has increased significantly.
Among these regulations we will obviously find the L.R. 21 of 29 July 2021 of the Sicilian Region, which can be viewed at the link: https://www.fao.org/faolex/results/details/en/c/LEX-FAOC212703/.
In the entire framework of the database, it immediately stands out that the Sicilian regulation represents the first integrated approach that connects the aforementioned objectives of Agenda 2030 in a single regulation.
This is a great result resulting above all from the Legislative Decree no. 533, first signed by the Honorable Valentina Palmeri, and by the fruitful collaboration of the Agroecology Coordination of Sicily.
Now further cultural, political, scientific, technical and social steps must be taken to allow the norm to be that track on which the train of ecological transition travels.