We build open tools and participatory processes to support agroecological transitions.
The SAGE Community Coordinator: A Demonstration
Sustainable polyculture gardens thrive more effectively when they are designed with an awareness of other gardens in the community, as opposed to as individual gardens. However, the complex characteristics of plants, and their relations to other plant species in terms of needs and capacities, require a complex knowledge base not easily acquired by novice gardeners. We contribute a demonstration of our project, called the Software for Agricultural Ecosystems (SAGE) Community Coordinator, that helps manage the complexities of plant relationships and provides planting suggestions based on existing plants in adjacent garden sites. The research team collected the requirements and developed a preliminary demonstration of this system. This demonstration shows the feasibility of the idea and lays the foundation for a more comprehensive implementation of the SAGE Community Coordinator. By doing so, this paper explores the use of technology to foster the establishment of complex plant assemblages in urban and suburban areas to address the current and future limits of material resources derived from plants.
A social-ecological framework for analyzing and designing integrated crop–livestock systems from farm to territory levels
Integrated crop–livestock systems are often considered a promising way to address agricultural sustainability issues. Many authors claim that complementarities and synergies between crops and livestock can improve nutrient cycling and delivery of ecosystem services (ES) in agricultural systems. They have analyzed effects of interactions at the farm level and affirmed the potential advantage of developing crop–livestock interactions at the territory level. However, potential benefits of developing synergies beyond the farm level have not been clearly identified. Thus, we developed a conceptual framework that can be used to analyze, design and perform integrated assessment of crop–livestock systems at the territory level. To address crop–livestock interaction issues, we define it as a social-ecological system called the territorial crop–livestock system (TCLS). The ecological system is represented as three interacting components, crops, grasslands and animals, allowing description of various land uses and their potential effects on nutrient cycling and ES. The social system, represented as farmers interacting with natural-resource managers and agro-food chain actors, determines land use and the nature and intensity of ES delivered. We highlight the importance of coordination and learning among actors to support implementation of complex adaptive systems such as TCLSs. We illustrate the expressive power of our conceptual framework through development of a generic typology of crop–livestock systems. Then we show how our conceptual framework can be used as an intermediary object with stakeholders in participatory design approaches. We illustrate this process by representing four archetypal TCLSs. We provide an example of the design approach implemented in Southwestern France to address severe recurrent water shortages, which includes analysis of land use in the current crop–livestock system and the associated key metabolic and ES issues, identification of options for change and multi-criteria analysis of these options. We conclude that this framework shows great potential to support development of sustainable farming systems at the territory level.
Faire bloc : la contre-mobilisation agricole face à la critique environnementale dans l’espace public numérique
Au cours des dernières années, l’agriculture est devenue un point de plus en plus « chaud » dans les controverses environnementales. Avec une visibilité nouvelle dans les médias traditionnels comme sur les réseaux sociaux, nombre de militants et organisations dénoncent les effets destructeurs de l’intensification des modes de production agricole sur la santé humaine, les conditions de vie des animaux d’élevage, la biodiversité et le climat. Dans cet article, nous étudions le déploiement, dans l’espace public numérique, d’une forme de contre-mobilisation en réponse à ces dénonciations. Cette contre-mobilisation repose sur l’activation de solidarités entre agriculteurs et professionnels para-agricoles, mus par une expérience partagée de la critique et le projet commun d’y répliquer. L’analyse de la transformation des mécanismes de représentation des mondes agricoles permet ainsi de relativiser l’opposition classique entre l’action stratégique et discrète de lobbying, coordonnée et orchestrée par les acteurs économiques dominants, et l’action décentralisée et spontanée des mouvements sociaux en ligne, qui évoluent de façon fluide, sans structure ni dirigeant.
Open Sustainable Technology
Open technology projects sustaining stable climate, energy supply, biodiversity and vital natural resources
GainForest — Biodiversity Observations & Nature Projects
Explore field observations, biodiversity records, and nature projects from communities and organizations using GainForest.
GainForest — Biodiversity Observations & Nature Projects
Explore field observations, biodiversity records, and nature projects from communities and organizations using GainForest.
GainForest — Biodiversity Observations & Nature Projects
Explore field observations, biodiversity records, and nature projects from communities and organizations using GainForest.
Soil Assembly
Soil Assembly brings together diverse communities working across ecology, culture, agriculture, research, and collective practice. We invite practitioners, learners, and communities to contribute to a growing network rooted in living soil, regenerative thinking, and shared ecological futures.
Economic Policy for AGI
Society has the capacity and tools to shape our economic trajectory in the AGI era. Here is a roadmap for managing the transition.
Crop–livestock integration beyond the farm level: a review
AbstractParadoxically, the number of crop–livestock farms is declining across Europe, despite the fact that crop-livestock farms are theoretically optimal to improve the sustainability of agriculture. To solve this issue, crop–livestock integration may be organized beyond the farm level. For instance, local groups of farmers can negotiate land-use allocation patterns and exchange materials such as manure, grain, and straw. Development of such a collective agricultural system raises questions, rarely documented in the literature, about how to integrate crops and livestock among farms, and the consequences, impacts, and conditions of integrating them. Here, we review the different forms of crop–livestock integration beyond the farm level, their potential benefits, and the features of decision support systems (DSS) needed for the integration process. We identify three forms of crop–livestock integration beyond the farm level: local coexistence, complementarity, and synergy, each with increasingly stronger temporal, spatial, and organizational coordination among farms. We claim that the forms of integration implemented define the nature, area, and spatial configuration of crops, grasslands, and animals in farms and landscapes. In turn, these configurations influence the provision of ecosystem services. For instance, we show that the synergy form of integration promotes soil fertility, erosion control, and field-level biological regulation services through organizational coordination among farmers and spatiotemporal integration between crops, grasslands, and animals. We found that social benefits of the synergy form of integration include collective empowerment of farmers. We claim that design of the complementarity and synergy forms of crop–livestock integration can best be supported by collective participatory workshops involving farmers, agricultural consultants, and researchers. In these workshops, spatialized simulation modeling of crop–livestock integration among farms is the basis for achieving the upscaling process involved in integrating beyond the farm level. Facilitators of these workshops have to pay attention to the consequences on governance and equity issues within farmers groups.
A Research Lab for Open Source ✸ Software Stewardship Lab
Today, we're launching a world-class research lab dedicated to Open Source sustainability with a team of some of the most experienced people in the world.
Home - Urban Harvest
URBAN HARVEST FARMERS MARKET EVERY SATURDAY 8AM-12PMInterested in Community Gardens, learn more about our growing community.Want to learn more about Permaculture Program? We Teach Classes! Interested in Community Gardens, learn more about our growing communityStart the New Year Fresh at the Farmers Market!Want to learn more about Permaculture Program? We Teach Classes! JOIN US SATURDAY […]
About | Open Source Ecology
The mission of Open Source Ecology (OSE) is to create the open source economy. An open source, libre economy is an efficient economy which increases innovation by open collaboration. To get there, OSE is currently developing a set of open source blueprints for the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) – a set of the 50 most important machines that it takes for modern life to exist – everything from a tractor, to an oven, to a circuit maker.
We started a farming club. Why you should start one too
We are long overdue for a return to growing our own food, and the farming club offers a promising way to reconnect with that tradition.
