TY - JOUR

T1 - Against the odds

T2 - Network and institutional pathways enabling agricultural diversification

AU - Blesh, Jennifer

AU - Mehrabi, Zia

AU - Wittman, Hannah

AU - Kerr, Rachel Bezner

AU - James, Dana

AU - Madsen, Sidney

AU - Smith, Olivia M.

AU - Snapp, Sieglinde

AU - Stratton, Anne Elise

AU - Bakarr, Mohamed

AU - Bicksler, Abram J.

AU - Galt, Ryan

AU - Garibaldi, Lucas A.

AU - Gemmill-Herren, Barbara

AU - Grass, Ingo

AU - Isaac, Marney E.

AU - John, Innocensia

AU - Jones, Sarah K.

AU - Kennedy, Christina M.

AU - Klassen, Susanna

AU - Levers, Christian

AU - Rasmussen, Laura Vang

AU - Kremen, Claire

N1 - Funding Information: We thank the Stakeholder Advisory Committee helping to guide the research project titled “Can enhancing diversity scale up agriculture’s benefits to people and the environment?”—Chuck Anderas, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Sasha Gennet, Steve Gliessman, Tadesse Gole, Sarah Hargreaves, Ferd Hoefner, Amy Ickowitz, Sean Kearny, Sophia Murphy, Rebecca Nelson, Roseline Remans, Coral Sproule, Mardy Townsend, Jordan Treakle, and Julian Ramirez Villegas—especially for their input to co-design and develop the conceptual framework used in this paper. We also thank three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that improved the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding received from the National Science Foundation DBI-1639145 awarded to Z.M. and C.K. L.V.R. was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement 853222 FORESTDIET ). Funding Information: We thank the Stakeholder Advisory Committee helping to guide the research project titled “Can enhancing diversity scale up agriculture's benefits to people and the environment?”—Chuck Anderas, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Sasha Gennet, Steve Gliessman, Tadesse Gole, Sarah Hargreaves, Ferd Hoefner, Amy Ickowitz, Sean Kearny, Sophia Murphy, Rebecca Nelson, Roseline Remans, Coral Sproule, Mardy Townsend, Jordan Treakle, and Julian Ramirez Villegas—especially for their input to co-design and develop the conceptual framework used in this paper. We also thank three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that improved the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding received from the National Science Foundation DBI-1639145 awarded to Z.M. and C.K. L.V.R. was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement 853222 FORESTDIET). Conceptualization, all authors; methodology, Z.M. and C.K.; visualization, S.M. O.M.S. and J.B. with input from all authors; writing – original draft, J.B. with contributions from H.W. D.J. A.E.S. R.B.K. S.M. S.S. Z.M. C.K. and R.G.; writing – review & editing, all authors. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Farming systems that support locally diverse agricultural production and high levels of biodiversity are in rapid decline, despite evidence of their benefits for climate, environmental health, and food security. Yet, agricultural policies, financial incentives, and market concentration increasingly constrain the viability of diversified farming systems. Here, we present a conceptual framework to identify novel processes that promote the emergence and sustainability of diversified farming systems, using three real-world examples where farming communities have found pathways to diversification despite major structural constraints. By applying our framework to analyze these bright spots in the United States, Brazil, and Malawi, we identify two distinct pathways—network and institutional—to diversification. These pathways emerge through alignment of factors related to social and ecological structure (policies, institutions, and environmental conditions) and agency (values, collective action, and management decisions). We find that, when network and institutional pathways operate in tandem, the potential to scale up diversification across farms and landscapes increases substantially.

AB - Farming systems that support locally diverse agricultural production and high levels of biodiversity are in rapid decline, despite evidence of their benefits for climate, environmental health, and food security. Yet, agricultural policies, financial incentives, and market concentration increasingly constrain the viability of diversified farming systems. Here, we present a conceptual framework to identify novel processes that promote the emergence and sustainability of diversified farming systems, using three real-world examples where farming communities have found pathways to diversification despite major structural constraints. By applying our framework to analyze these bright spots in the United States, Brazil, and Malawi, we identify two distinct pathways—network and institutional—to diversification. These pathways emerge through alignment of factors related to social and ecological structure (policies, institutions, and environmental conditions) and agency (values, collective action, and management decisions). We find that, when network and institutional pathways operate in tandem, the potential to scale up diversification across farms and landscapes increases substantially.

KW - biodiversity

KW - conceptual framework

KW - diversified farming system

KW - food security

KW - policy

KW - social-ecological systems

KW - transitions

U2 - 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.03.004

DO - 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.03.004

M3 - Review

AN - SCOPUS:85159167609

VL - 6

SP - 479

EP - 491

JO - One Earth

JF - One Earth

SN - 2590-3322

IS - 5

ER -