Law and Agroecology

Annual Review of Law and Social Science, vol. 21, pp. 125–147

Abstract

Agroecology is emerging as a transformative alternative to industrial food systems, combining research and practice to strengthen agroecosystem resilience and support the well-being of small-scale food producers. Using a systems-based approach, it integrates the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of food systems. Advocacy by researchers and social movements has brought agroecology to the mainstream agenda, prompting scholars to explore the regulatory reforms necessary to enable it. However, agroecology requires more than new legal frameworks. Existing laws and regulatory approaches often conflict with agroecology's holistic, transdisciplinary principles. This review outlines an emerging agroecological approach to law, focusing on property regimes and the interplay between institutionalization and bottom-up governance. It describes how socio-legal analysis can help address the structural and scalar challenges of aligning legal systems with agroecology, while also illustrating how integrating agroecology's transdisciplinary framework into socio-legal analysis can serve to reconceptualize the relationship between legal and ecological systems.

Authors 1

1. Matthew C. Canfield corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance, and Society, Leiden Law School, Leiden, The Netherlands; email: m.c.canfield@law.leidenuniv.nl

   Law and Society & Law and Development, Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance, and Society, Leiden Law School, Leiden, The Netherlands; email: m.c.canfield@law.leidenuniv.nl