The Need for Sustainable Food Production Systems - Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems - page 19

Through the 1960s and 1970s, interest in applying ecology to agriculture gradually gained momentum with
intensification of community and population ecology research, the growing influence of systems-level approaches,
and the increase in environmental awareness among members of the public. An important sign of this interest at
the international level occurred in 1974 at the first International Congress of Ecology, when a working group
developed a report entitled “Analysis of Agroecosystems.”
As more ecologists in the 1970s began to see agricultural systems as legitimate areas of study, and more
agronomists saw the value of the ecological perspective, the foundations of agroecology grew more rapidly. By the
beginning of the 1980s, agroecology had emerged as a distinct methodology and conceptual framework for the
study of agroecosystems. An important influence during this period came from traditional farming systems in
developing countries, which began to be recognized by many researchers as important examples of ecologically
based agroecosystem management (e.g., Gliessman, 1978a; Gliessman et al., 1981).
As its influence grew, agroecology helped contribute to the development of the concept of sustainability in
agriculture. While sustainability provided a goal for focusing agroecological research, agroecology's whole-systems
approach and knowledge of dynamic equilibrium provided a sound theoretical and conceptual basis for sustainability.
In 1984, a variety of authors laid out the ecological basis of sustainability in the proceedings of a symposium
(Douglass, 1984); this publication played a major role in solidifying the connection between agroecological research
and the promotion of sustainable agriculture.
During the 1990s, agroecology matured into a well-recognized approach for the conversion to sustainable food
systems. Agroecological research approaches emerged (Gliessman, 1990), several textbooks were published (Altieri,
1995; Pretty, 1995; Gliessman, 1998), websites were developed (www.agroecology.org), and academic research and
education programs were put into motion. The establishment of an Agroecology Section for the Ecological Society
of America in 1998 signaled a major change in how ecologists thought about agriculture, and the regular presentation
of symposia, oral papers, and posters on agroecology at annual meetings of the American Society of Agronomy
showed the embracing of the ecological approach.
Today, agroecology continues to straddle established boundaries. On the one hand, agroecology is the study of
ecological processes in agroecosystems. On the other, it is a change agent for the complex social and ecological
shifts that may need to occur in the future to move agriculture to a truly sustainable basis. Together, these
complementary thrusts forge the way toward achieving sustainable food systems.

Important Works in the History of Agroecology

Year Author(s) Title

1928 K. Klages “Crop ecology and ecological crop geography in the agronomic curriculum”

1938 J. Papadakis Compendium of Crop Ecology

1939 H. Hanson “Ecology in agriculture”

1942 K. Klages Ecological Crop Geography

1956 G. Azzi Agricultural Ecology

1962 C.P. Wilsie Crop Adaptation and Distribution

1965 W. Ti s c h l e r Agrarökologie

1973 D.H. Janzen “Tropical agroecosystems”

1974 J. Harper “The need for a focus on agro-ecosystems”

1976 INTECOL Report on an International Programme for Analysis of Agro-Ecosystems

1977 O.L. Loucks “Emergence of research on agro-ecosystems”

1978b S. Gliessman Memorias del Seminario Regional sobre la Agricultura Agricola Tradicional

1979 R.D. Hart Agroecosistemas: Conceptos Basicos

l979 G. Cox and M. Atkins Agricultural Ecology: An Analysis of World Food Production Systems

1981 S. Gliessman, R. Garcia-Espinosa,

and M. Amador

“The ecological basis for the application of traditional agricultural technology in the
management of tropical agroecosystems”

1983 M. Altieri Agroecology

1984 R. Lowrance, B. Stinner,

and G. House

Agricultural Ecosystems: Unifying Concepts

1984 G. Douglass (ed.) Agricultural Sustainability in a Changing World Order

1990 S. Gliessman (ed.) Agroecology: Researching the Ecological Basis for Sustainable Agriculture

1995 M. Altieri Agroecology: The Science of Sustainable Agriculture (3rd edition)

1995 J. Pretty Regenerating Agriculture: Policies and Practice for Sustainability and Self-Reliance

1998 S. Gliessman Agroecology: Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agriculture

2004 D. Rickerl and C. Francis (eds.) Agroecosystem Analysis

2004 D. Clements and A. Shrestha (eds.) New Dimensions in Agroecology