current RESEARCH INTERESTS

The agricultural system with its linkages to environmental ecology, land-use, economic productivity, cultural identity, as well as nutrition and health is an important axis with which we can address sustainable development. At the heart of the global agriculture supply chain is the agri-food industry and the conglomerate of multinational retailers, which promise to increase quantity and access thanks to technological efficiency and the economy of scale. Commercial food production is necessary to feed the demands of 7.5 billion and to sustain an essential economic sector that employs ~65% of low-income working adults across the world. However, the economic efficiency of the agro-industry often comes at the expense of the natural environment, workers along the supply chain, independent farmers, and even the consumers. On the other end of the spectrum is the agroecology movement with its operational model of applying ecological and social concepts to the design of agricultural systems and the management of food distribution. Agroecological farming promises an alternative, more sustainable paradigm based on shared values regarding the natural environment, cultural heritage of food, and equitable cooperation amongst a network of producers, distributors, and consumers.

But is an alignment of values that simple? Common sense and numerous studies on the execution of sustainable development policies suggest otherwise. The majority of green development framework and roadmaps focus on the economic values of resources, job creation, and ecological services because they are straightforward to compute and communicate; communities and nations can be rallied behind the auspicious numbers of green economic growth. Yet the reality remains that there exists a wide “value-action” gap between being told the value of pro-environmental actions and behavior change, a phenomenon well-documented by social psychologists and policy analysts. Different cultures hold different views about the environment and natural resources. Different actors, say farmers versus distributors, assign different values to eco-friendly farming practices. Insights from behavioural sciences and anthropology tell us that human actions are influenced by internal values, some of which might be esoteric and invisible, as well as contextual matters that impact both the motivating values and the set of actions that are possible. Furthermore, understanding values is only half the battle without also recognizing the existence of conflicting self-interest.  

If we accept the premise that agroecological farming is a positive step towards global sustainable development, then the question is how to scale up the adoption such socially and environmentally conscious practices to achieve an impactful paradigm shift on national, regional, and global scale? Once a critical mass of support is achieved, what sorts of policies can lubricate a formal transition? These questions are most pertinent for developing countries where environmental protection is regulated by communities, not the law, and countries in which agriculture has significant impacts on the economic base yet low-income consumers still lack food sovereignty and security. Scaling up the adoption of pro-environmental behaviour within the value chain of agricultural projects all the way to the consumers require an alignment of values that support agroecological practices, so:

1. What are the intangible values pertaining to the environment that are held by the current producers, distributors, and consumers already participating in the same agroecological network? Are they all similar, or different with just enough of an overlap?

2. What about the difference between actors within the formal, almost ‘elitist’, sustainable food movement and those in the informal ‘peasantry’ who have integrated agroecological principles into their cultural and economic practices long before it was popularized in response to the current global ecological crisis? Indigenous communities, smallholder farmers in developing countries, local cooperatives, informal wholesalers, and street vendors are all actors who have all displayed modes of food production and distribution on a commercial scale that leave little negative impact on the environment. Statistically, the majority of farming operations are SMEs and informal, so how to create policies that celebrate their contributions as opposed to forcing them into the rigid language of sustainable development goals?

3. How can we tease out the differences in the perception of values to inform ways in which the right policy could help align those who have not adopted pro-environmental behaviour to the values within the sustainable agriculture movement?

The nuances required to answer these questions necessitate an ethnographic approach to derive insights through an anthropological lens, which is hyper sensitive to the tension and relationships between knowledge (both indigenous and external), meaning, and value. Then a comparative policy analysis and/or human-centric policy analysis would provide the basis to apply those findings into the practical discussion. I am interested in conducting this research in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, or South East Asia, but I believe that these questions are relevant to every country that produces and consume food, which in effect is every country in the world.