Over the past decades, increasing scientific evidences have proven that the costs of the capitalist agri-food system in terms of ecological and social deterioration are by far exceeding its claimed benefits. A paradigm shift toward a more sustainable and just agriculture is today both necessary and desirable. This proposal aims to shed light on the emergence of a new paradigm and to support its adoption by policy-makers.

Concerned citizens, farmers and organizations around the world are already promoting, from the bottom, a new agriculture, based on agroecology, short supply chains, reciprocity and solidarity in the relationships. Nevertheless, despite few attempts, governance failed to provide this movement with adequate policy responses because of three main reasons: first, the assumption that neoclassical economics is predominant over other disciplines; second, the difficulty to integrate different scales in defining policy goals; third, the inability to manage goals and means with pluralist methodologies.

In order to face those issues, the policy-making process should embrace a systemic approach able to deal with the complexity of the real world. For this purpose, the proposal aims to: (1) deconstruct the agro-capitalist approach founded on utilitarian ethics, liberal politics and neoclassical economics. (2) Introduce a new theoretical framework based on land ethics, earth jurisprudence and ecological economics. (3) Develop a research agenda, which, in opposition to the neoclassical model, should include, as methodological bases, a transdisciplinary approach, a principle of integrated multiscalarity and multi-criteria, decision-supporting tools.

This media entry was a contribution to the special session „Food Policies for the Anthropocene“ at the 5th International Degrowth Conference in Budapest in 2016.