# Insights on Transitions to Agroecological Farming from across Europe

Laure Latruffe, Gerald Schwarz

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## To cite this version:

Laure Latruffe, Gerald Schwarz. Insights on Transitions to Agroecological Farming from across Europe. EuroChoices, 2022, 21 (3), pp.3-4. 10.1111/1746-692X.12375. hal-04033499

HAL Id: hal-04033499

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Submitted on 17 Mar 2023

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Laure Latruffe, INRAE - National Institute for Research on Agriculture Food and the Environment, France</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>Dr Gerald Schwarz, Thünen-Institute of Farm Economics, Germany</figcaption></figure>

## Insights on Transitions to Agroecological Farming from across Europe

### Aperçu des transitions vers l'agriculture agroécologique à travers l'Europe

### Der Übergang zum agrarökologischen Landbau - Einblicke aus ganz Europa

Laure Latruffe and Gerald Schwarz

Farming systems in transitions towards agroecology, i.e. the application of ecological principles to agricultural systems and practices, have gained prominence in the scientific, agricultural

and political discourse in recent years. In particular, this corresponds to the ambition of the European Union's Green Deal and the Farm-to-Fork Strategy of 'designing a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system'. The current European Union (EU) regulation of organic production (EU, 2018) is an example of a formalised implementation of farming approaches based on agroecological practices that have had some success. But while there is some initial evidence of the economic impacts of agroecological practices (van der Ploeg et al., 2019), questions remain about the economic viability and trade-offs in the economic, environmental and social performance of farming systems that are in transition towards agroecology (Tittonell et al., 2020). In addition, risks of negative impacts on food security and displacing production to other world regions have been highlighted (Fuchs et al., 2020). Hence, the socio-economic dimensions of the sustainability of farming systems in transition to agroecology requires further attention (Bezner Kerr et al., 2021).

Enhanced evidence is needed to design appropriate policy programmes to support socio-economically viable farming systems in transitions to agroecology. Questions that are still unanswered include the following:

* What exactly are the barriers and drivers that hinder or foster the adoption of agroecological practices?

* How can these be addressed considering the different local contexts that European farming systems operate in?

* What are the options for upscaling the adoption of agroecological practices to territorial levels?

* What roles do different stakeholders have in achieving the wide-spread adoption of practices?

* What are the potential sustainability implications of large-scale diffusion of agroecological practices in the EU?

* How can policy effectively support such farming systems to contribute to the goals of the Green Deal?

This Special Issue of *EuroChoices* aims to provide some answers to these questions, highlighting and combining key findings from two related EU-funded research projects, the LIFT and UNISECO projects. Both projects have been running separately, with different methodologies and concepts, but provide complementary views on these questions. The articles in this Special Issue adopt a broad understanding of agroecological practices, i.e. those that aim to produce food, fibre and energy and contribute to improving the sustainability of farming systems. We expect the contributions to the sustainability of farming systems to be based on the optimisation of ecological processes contributing to environmental and public health and well-being; along with reductions in socio-ecological costs from agriculture such as soil degradation, water contamination, greenhouse gas emissions and inequitable social structures (Bezner Kerr et al., 2021; HLPE, 2019).

Agroecological practices include practices at field level such as the use of cover crops and reduced or no tillage; at farm level such as the creation of riparian buffers and the integration of crops and livestock; at regional and community levels, the management of landscape features and increasing local markets that connect consumers to producers (Prazan and Aalders, 2019; Wezel et al., 2014). In the LIFT and UNISECO projects, practices were implemented in different combinations in a range of farming approaches transitioning to agroecology, such as low-input farming, conservation agriculture, integrated farming and organic farming (Rega et al., 2018). Both projects analysed the implementation of agroecological practices in a variety of case studies across Europe reflecting different local and place-based contexts of transitions to agroecology (Latruffe et al., 2022; Vanni et al., 2019).

In this Special Issue, the first two articles (Barnes et al., this issue; and Gava et al., this issue) address barriers to transition to agroecology. Considering the attitudes and priorities of farmers and other local actors, the
articles explore how these barriers can
be overcome in different biophysical,
socio-economic and institutional
contexts and investigate the potential
of different sets of policy instruments
to support transitions to agroecology.
Farm-level sustainability of
agroecological practices is the focus of
the third article, with special attention
to labour (Davidova et al., this issue).
The fourth article provides a territorial
level perspective (Mayer et al., this
issue) with insights on the impacts of
scaling-up agroecology on the
sustainability of European agriculture.

The fifth article (Schwarz et al., this issue) highlights the need for a food systems perspective in research and policy to accomplish sustainability benefits of transitions to agroecology.
The sixth article is a *Parlons Graphiques* showcasing approaches to assessing sustainability trade-offs and synergies (Niedermayr et al., this issue).
The seventh article (Zawalińska et al., this issue) discusses how stakeholders' involvement can contribute to achieving transition to agroecology in farming.
The eighth article (Rega et al., this

issue) identifies knowledge gaps and
suggests new indicators for moving
towards the Farm Sustainability Data
Network (FSDN), providing an
improved database for evidence-based
policy recommendations. Finally, the
concluding article (Miller et al., this
issue) brings together the key lessons
learnt in our research and provides
recommendations for policies that
effectively contribute to achieving the
objectives of the Green Deal. The final
Point de Vue article reflects on the
prospects of increased implementation
of agroecological practices from an
economic perspective (Matthews, this
issue).

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all
stakeholders in the EU and case study
level activities of the LIFT and
UNISECO projects for their
contributions. The authors also
acknowledge the contribution of all
partners in the LIFT and UNISECO
projects to the research this Special
Issue is based on. The authors are also

grateful to the Editor and referees for
their valuable comments and
suggestions that improved the quality of
the articles in this Special Issue.

Funding information

LIFT ('Low-Input Farming and Territories - Integrating knowledge for improving ecosystem based farming') received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 770747. UNISECO ('Understanding & improving the sustainability of agroecological farming systems in the EU') received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901.

Open Access funding was provided by
INRAE (French National Institute for
Research on Agriculture Food and the
Environment).

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https://www.lift-h2020.eu/

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https://uniseco-project.eu/

Further reading

- Bezner Kerr, R., Madsen, S., Stuber, M. et al. (2021). Can agroecology improve food security and nutrition? A review. *Global Food Security, 29*: 100540. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2021.100540

- EU (2018). Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007. Available online at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A32018R0848

- Fuchs, R., Brown, C. and Rounsevell, M. (2020). Europe's Green Deal offshores environmental damage to other nations. *Nature, 586*. Available online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02991-1

- HLPE (2019). *Agroecological and other innovative approaches for sustainable agriculture and food systems that enhance food security and nutrition*. United Nations Committee for World Food Security, High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE), Rome, Italy, pp. 1-162.

- Latruffe, L., Legras, S., Barnes, A. et al. (2022). How to improve the adoption, performance and sustainability of ecological farming. Low-Input farming and territories - Integrating knowledge for improving ecosystem based farming (LIFT) project, Deliverable 7.6. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6462474

- Prazan, J. and Aalders, I. (2019). Typology of agro-ecological farming systems and practices in the EU and the selection of case studies. *EU H2020 UNISECO (Understanding and Improving the Sustainability of Agro-ecological Farming Systems in the EU)*, Deliverable D2.2. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4116344

- Rega, C., Paracchini, M.L., McCraken, D. et al. (2018). Review of the definitions of the existing ecological approaches. Low-Input farming and territories - Integrating knowledge for improving ecosystem based farming (LIFT) project, Deliverable 1.1. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5075626

- Tittonell, P., Pineiro, G., Garibaldi, L.A., Dogliotti, S., Olff, H. and Jobbagy, E.G. (2020). Agroecology in large scale farming—A research agenda. *Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 4*, art. no. 584605. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.584605

- van der Ploeg, J.D., Barjolle, D., Bruil, J. et al. (2019). The economic potential of agroecology: Empirical evidence from Europe. *Journal of Rural Studies, 71*: 46-61. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.09.003

- Vanni, F., Gava, O., Povellato, A. et al. (2019). Governance networks supporting AEFS. EU H2020 UNISECO (Understanding and Improving the Sustainability of Agro-ecological Farming Systems in the EU), Deliverable D5.2. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4568422

- Wezel, A., Casagrande, M., Celette, F., Vian, J.F., Ferrer, A. and Peigne, J. (2014). Agroecological practices for sustainable agriculture. A review. *Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 34* (1): 1-20. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-013-0180-7