Agronomy and Ecology

• Early agriculture developments
  • Defined by fertilizer limitation
    • 1840; Sprengel and Leibig, Law of the minimum
    • 1924; Rudolf Steiner, Biodynamic
    • 1943; Sir Albert Howard, Soil fertility

Agronomy = The study of agriculture (applied science)

Ecology = The study of natural systems (pure science)

• Earliest combination
  • “Crop ecology” (1920s)
  • Where crops were grown and their optimal ecological conditions
    • 1928; K.Klages; “Crop ecology & geography”
    • 1930; Bensin: “Agroecology”
    • 1939; H.Hanson; “Ecology in agriculture’

Agriculture and Ecology Diverges

• WWII (1939) happens and a new process emerges for making explosives
• The Haber-Bosch process (1913) also happens to be good for fertilizer
• Ecology moved more into pure science direction
• Agronomy moved into mechanization and chemicals development
  • The “Green Revolution” (1968)

Recombination

• Late 1950s; Maturing of the ecosystem concept in ecology prompted renewed interest in crop ecology and a framework for examining agriculture
  • 1956; G.Azzi; “Agricultural ecology”
• 1960s and 1970s; environmental awareness
  • Population & community ecology -> systems research
    • 1962; R. Carson; Silent Spring
    • 1965; W. Tishcler; “Agrarokologie” (Agroecology)
    • 1973; D.H. Janzen; “Tropical agroecosystems”
    • 1977; O.L. Loucks; “Emergence of research on agroecosystems”
    • 1979; G.Cox & M.Atkins; “Agricultural ecology”

Agroecology as a Science, Movement, and Practice

• Agroecology simultaneously remerged as a:
  • Distinct methodology for the study of agroecosystems
    • 1983; M. Alteri; “Agroecology”
    • 1984; R. Lowrance, et.al.; “Agricultural ecosystems: unifying concepts”
    • 1990; S. Gliessman; “Agroecology: researching the ecological basis for sustainable agriculture”
    • 1992; J. Vandemeer; “The Ecology of Intercropping”
    • 1995; Edens et al.; “Sustainable agriculture and integrated farming systems”
    • 1998; S. Gliessman; Agroecology: Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agriculture
  • Social and political movement for food sovereighty
    • 2002; T. Dalgaard, et.al.; “Agroecology, scaling, and interdisciplinarity”
    • 2003; C. Francis, et.al.; “Agroecology: the ecology of food systems”
    • 2007; S. Gliessman; “Agroecology: the ecology of sustainable food systems

Unified Framework for Agroecology

• Agroecology expanded as a strategy for global agroecosystems sustainability
  • Food systems, rural development, and social responsibility
    • 2009; Wezel et al
    • 2016; Brym and Reeve

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