Papers by Omar Felipe Giraldo
The Journal of Peasant Studies
We examine how the policies of governments and the projects of international agencies and many NG... more We examine how the policies of governments and the projects of international agencies and many NGOs strip agroecology of its emancipatory potential. Adhering to the conventional logic of development, they reinforce or create dependencies, individualize communities, convert use values into exchange values, incorporate peoples into hierarchical structures of domination, promote the belief that peoples must be saved from poverty through the intervention of a benefactor, and teach to act based on capitalist economic rationality. Emancipatory agroecologies, on the other hand, are radically transformative processes which we summarize in seven principles.
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
Journal of Peasant Studies, 2022
We examine how the policies of governments and the projects of international agencies and many NG... more We examine how the policies of governments and the projects of international agencies and many NGOs strip agroecology of its emancipatory potential. Adhering to the conventional logic of development, they reinforce or create dependencies, individualize communities, convert use values into exchange values, incorporate peoples into hierarchical structures of domination, promote the belief that peoples must be saved from poverty through the intervention of a benefactor, and teach to act based on capitalist economic rationality. Emancipatory agroecologies, on the other hand, are radically transformative processes which we summarize in seven principles.
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2022
Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente, 2021
This research aimed to analyze the relationship of the defense, conservation, and recovery of see... more This research aimed to analyze the relationship of the defense, conservation, and recovery of seeds with the scaling of agroecology. Through a qualitative case study design, information was collected from two local organizations in Colombia: Custodios de Semillas de Riosucio (department of Caldas) and the Red Agroecológica del Caribe or RECAR (departments of Córdoba and Sucre), both belong to the Network of Free Seeds of Colombia (RSLC). The field work was carried out between 2016 and 2017, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were carried out with seed custodians, community leaders and specialists on the subject. Some
This article discusses how agro-extractivism brings various discursive and practical mechanisms i... more This article discusses how agro-extractivism brings various discursive and practical mechanisms into play to deterritorialize farmers, often without the need to expel them from their land. Political ecology tools are used to explain the different ways whereby modern capitalism is territorializing its dichotomous rationality through the emergence of a technological, cultural and representational regime of truth, and the imposition of a world transformed as regards its logic of homogeneity, linearity and disciplinarization of nature.
Práxis Educacional, 2020
Este articulo tiene como objetivo, analizar la importancia de la espiritualidad y la identidad co... more Este articulo tiene como objetivo, analizar la importancia de la espiritualidad y la identidad colectiva, en la propuesta de la (re)construcción comunitaria de la Escuela de Agricultura Ecológica U Yits Ka’an, localizada en el municipio de Maní, en el estado de Yucatán, México. Para esta investigación, se utilizó una metodología de corte cualitativo a través de trabajo etnográfico. Los resultados muestran que la estrategia que sigue la escuela U Yits Ka’an, para construir un ambiente donde se pueda vivir el Ma´alob Kuxtal (buen vivir maya), se basa en la inclusión de dimensiones espirituales y de identidad maya y campesina, para priorizar lo colectivo en la solución de problemas y re valorar el ser, antes del hacer en su cotidianidad. Estos procesos tienen como consecuencia la construcción humana y etnocentrada basada en una vida buena plena y digna o Ma´alob Kuxtal, que es un modo de vida, dentro de las comunidades mayas.
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2019
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2019
Agroecological transformation must often take place in degraded landscapes. Thus, ecological rest... more Agroecological transformation must often take place in degraded landscapes. Thus, ecological restoration and related fields may extend agroecology's reach. At the same time, agroecological practice may enhance ecological functions, contributing to ecosystem recovery in rural landscapes. The long-term impact of these initiatives will depend upon how they mesh with peasant territoriality; the relationship between land and people in its socioeconomic, political-institutional and symbolic-cultural dimensions. We analyzed agroecological and restoration/recuperation initiatives originating from government and nongovernmental organizations with direct government support, and from peasant protagonism. We examined official records of initiatives in both categories, conducted in-depth interviews with public officials, and surveyed 47 small peasants associated with organic and agroecological markets. Government and government-linked NGO initiatives operate according to a neoliberal vision of sustainable-development that privileges generation of financial capital, also they have decreased their support for agroecology, and have little or no engagement with restoration/recuperation in terms of ecological or social complexity. By contrast, we identify a strong tendency in peasant agroecology that incorporates restoration/recuperation to achieve greater ecological and cultural complexity. The synergies that arise between agroecology and ecological recovery contribute to the construction of peasant territoriality, and are particularly evident in initiatives driven by indigenous organizations.
Geograficidade, 2016
El presente texto hace parte del proyecto colectivo de investigación "Masificación de la agroecol... more El presente texto hace parte del proyecto colectivo de investigación "Masificación de la agroecología para los sistemas alimentarios sustentables".
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2022
Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente, 2021
This research aimed to analyze the relationship of the defense, conservation, and recovery of see... more This research aimed to analyze the relationship of the defense, conservation, and recovery of seeds with the scaling of agroecology. Through a qualitative case study design, information was collected from two local organizations in Colombia: Custodios de Semillas de Riosucio (department of Caldas) and the Red Agroecológica del Caribe or RECAR (departments of Córdoba and Sucre), both belong to the Network of Free Seeds of Colombia (RSLC). The field work was carried out between 2016 and 2017, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were carried out with seed custodians, community leaders and specialists on the subject. Some
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2019
Práxis Educacional, 2020
Este articulo tiene como objetivo, analizar la importancia de la espiritualidad y la identidad co... more Este articulo tiene como objetivo, analizar la importancia de la espiritualidad y la identidad colectiva, en la propuesta de la (re)construcción comunitaria de la Escuela de Agricultura Ecológica U Yits Ka’an, localizada en el municipio de Maní, en el estado de Yucatán, México. Para esta investigación, se utilizó una metodología de corte cualitativo a través de trabajo etnográfico. Los resultados muestran que la estrategia que sigue la escuela U Yits Ka’an, para construir un ambiente donde se pueda vivir el Ma´alob Kuxtal (buen vivir maya), se basa en la inclusión de dimensiones espirituales y de identidad maya y campesina, para priorizar lo colectivo en la solución de problemas y re valorar el ser, antes del hacer en su cotidianidad. Estos procesos tienen como consecuencia la construcción humana y etnocentrada basada en una vida buena plena y digna o Ma´alob Kuxtal, que es un modo de vida, dentro de las comunidades mayas.
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2019
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2019
Agroecological transformation must often take place in degraded landscapes. Thus, ecological rest... more Agroecological transformation must often take place in degraded landscapes. Thus, ecological restoration and related fields may extend agroecology's reach. At the same time, agroecological practice may enhance ecological functions, contributing to ecosystem recovery in rural landscapes. The long-term impact of these initiatives will depend upon how they mesh with peasant territoriality; the relationship between land and people in its socioeconomic, political-institutional and symbolic-cultural dimensions. We analyzed agroecological and restoration/recuperation initiatives originating from government and nongovernmental organizations with direct government support, and from peasant protagonism. We examined official records of initiatives in both categories, conducted in-depth interviews with public officials, and surveyed 47 small peasants associated with organic and agroecological markets. Government and government-linked NGO initiatives operate according to a neoliberal vision of sustainable-development that privileges generation of financial capital, also they have decreased their support for agroecology, and have little or no engagement with restoration/recuperation in terms of ecological or social complexity. By contrast, we identify a strong tendency in peasant agroecology that incorporates restoration/recuperation to achieve greater ecological and cultural complexity. The synergies that arise between agroecology and ecological recovery contribute to the construction of peasant territoriality, and are particularly evident in initiatives driven by indigenous organizations.
The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2017
Agroecology is in fashion, and now constitutes a territory in dispute between social movements an... more Agroecology is in fashion, and now constitutes a territory in dispute between social movements and institutionality. This new conjuncture offers a constellation of opportunities that social movements can avail themselves of to promote changes in the food system. Yet there is an enormous risk that agroecology will be co-opted, institutionalized, colonized and stripped of its political content. In this paper, we analyze this quandary in terms of political ecology: will agroecology end up as merely offering a few more tools for the toolbox of industrial agriculture, to fine tune an agribusiness system that is being restructured in the midst of a civilizational crisis or, alternatively, will it be strengthened as a politically mobilizing option for building alternatives to development? We interpret the contemporary dispute over agroecology through the lenses of contested material and immaterial territories, political ecology, and the first and second contradictions of capital.
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2019
By evaluating two grassroots organizations that belong to the Red de Semillas Libres de Colombia ... more By evaluating two grassroots organizations that belong to the Red de Semillas Libres de Colombia (RSLC; Free Seed Network of Colombia), we show how the recovery, conservation, and defense of native and creole seeds have two types of effects on agroecological scaling. The first is a horizontal or scaling out effect, given that these activities involve the adoption of agroecological practices which allow for spreading knowledge, principles, and practices among seed custodians, their local communities and organizations, and the networks of these organizations. The second is a deepening effect, given that: 1) seed custodianship reaffirms and/or generates new peasant and indigenous identities and ways of life; 2) seed recovery, conservation, and defense conform a multi-dimensional process that is material, political, and symbolic, which provides cultural and territorial rootedness, and 3) strengthening of the social-organizational fabric through collective actions and strategies by seed custodians in their territories in defense of native and creole seeds. These processes propitiate fertile conditions for scaling peasant agroecology and contribute to the construction of seed sovereignty, which is an essential aspect of struggles to preserve and reproduce and native and creole seeds.
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Papers by Omar Felipe Giraldo
Millones de personas organizadas alrededor del mundo, en el campo y la ciudad, están, de manera intuitiva y creativa, desmontando paulatinamente el sistema que nos oprime, mientras traen al mundo de la vida muchos otros sistemas sustitutivos. Esas experiencias están dando las nuevas pistas de la revolución, y enseñando que es posible un cambio cualitativo en el que los antiguos fines de crecimiento, urbanización, modernización, industrialización, se reemplacen por otros distintos, como la compatibilización con los ciclos de la vida, la creación de lo común, la autonomía territorial, la relocalización, la artesanalización y el florecimiento de la potencia de los pueblos.
La afectividad ambiental propuesta por los autores, es una invitación a cultivar la sensibilidad en forma común, a enseñarnos a ser tocados por la emoción de otros cuerpos, a recobrar la confianza en nuestros sentidos a través del contacto con los diversos modos de vida, a llenar el lenguaje de tierra, y a despertar nuestra percepción sensible anestesiada por los reduccionismos ontológicos, las ecologías de la crueldad y el régimen afectivo del mercado.
Este ensayo es un manifiesto sobre el lugar político de la producción del sentir, una consigna ética acerca de la urgencia de recuperar los saberes ambientales de los pueblos, y un faro epistémico que nos estimula a comprender de otro modo nuestro estar en el cosmos en medio de esta guerra civilizatoria contra la vida.
el cual aún subsiste en más de la mitad de la tierra cultivada en el mundo, ha determinado diversas maneras de ser de sus agricultores, quienes se han creado a sí mismos por obra de la actividad agrícola. La agricultura no es, por tanto, un tema que deba reducirse a la productividad global, sino un asunto profundamente ontológico, que ha conformado por milenios las formas del ser, el habitar y el permanecer de la humanidad entera en el planeta
El libro también muestra la otra cara de la moneda, describiendo cómo, y bajo qué condiciones, los movimientos sociales están respondiendo ante las calamidades generadas por este modelo. La tesis central consiste en que muchos procesos agroecológicos en curso, están dando una de las pautas más interesantes en la actualidad para visualizar las transiciones hacia el posdesarrollo, el posextractivismo, y la construcción de múltiples mundos más allá de la esfera del capital.
Ecología política de la agricultura se suma a los llamados que cuestionan el proyecto cultural de la modernidad y el sentido depredador impuesto por el imperio alimentario globalizado, e invita a reconocer la importancia de la agroecología en el contexto del final de la era de los combustibles fósiles, y el probable colapso de la civilización basada en la industria.
Omar Felipe Giraldo toma el Buen Vivir como ejemplo para ilustrar la manera en que las utopías latinoamericanas del siglo XXI –inspiradas en algunas sociedades rurales–, están tratando de superar las tradicionales fragmentaciones entre naturaleza y cultura, individuo y comunidad, y los conceptos ligados al progreso y el desarrollo. Asimismo, muestra la forma en que los contenidos discursivos asociados a revalorización del “lugar”, la relacionalidad de todas las cosas, la empatía en las relaciones sociales, la ciclicidad de la temporalidad, y la creciente atención de las experiencias, revelan el talante de una época, en la que, poco a poco, se empieza a reconocer la necesidad de transformaciones estructurales de hondo calado, para sortear una crisis de cuyas soluciones dependerá la supervivencia de la humanidad en el planeta.