Episode summary
Can we have more honest conversations about the future of food and agriculture? That’s the plea from Ken Giller, recently retired professor at Wageningen University, after four decades of witnessing both progress and setbacks in supporting farmers worldwide. We discuss the dangers of populist narratives that oversimplify agricultural challenges, how to reshape research incentives to embrace complexity and nuance, why he opposes carbon credit schemes for farmers, and more.
About the guests
Ken Giller
Ken is a retired professor of Plant Production Systems at WUR within the Centre for Agroecology and Systems Analysis for over 20 years. He is a former professor of soil science at University of Zimbabwe, with extensive experience in tropical farming systems in Africa, S and SE Asia, and Latin America. Over the 25 years, Ken has been focusing on smallholder farming in sub-Saharan Africa.
References and recommended resources
Outlook on Agriculture. Evolving meanings of ‘principles’ in agronomic discourse. (James Sumberg, Ken Giller, and Domnic Glover, 2023).
Global Food Security. What is ‘conventional’ agriculture? (James Sumberg and Ken Giller, 2022)
San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment
Moffits Farm Blog: Is regenerative agriculture a leap of faith? (Patrick Francis, 2023)
Moffits Farm Blog. Regenerative agriculture’s version of science creates division between farmers (Patrick Francis, 2020)
Recorded event. A dialogue on Regenerative Agriculture (TABLE, 2021)
Podcast. Ken Giller on the Food Security Conundrum (TABLE, 2021)
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