Brazil’s under-the-radar sustainable farming initiative

By Ciara Long

In November 2017, an expert panel for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) put out a call for innovator insights. The deadline was later extended until early December, as the panel tried to gather more experts in a globally little-discussed field: agroecology.

A blend of the terms ‘agriculture’ and ‘ecology’, agroecology also turns out to be a blend of the two spheres in practice. The theory involves applying ecological processes to agricultural systems, thereby avoiding the need for pesticides and ensuring land resources and biodiversity are better preserved.

Its sustainability makes it increasingly important to the UN’s 2030...