Towards stronger agroecology in Europe: Exploring areas of consensus and friction around its defining principles, and call for action
This study uses Q-methodology to map consensus and friction on agroecology principles among 207 European stakeholders, finding strong agreement on biodiversity, resilience, and agrotoxics ban, while new technologies and power structures remain contested.
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Detail description
The study surveyed 207 scientists, practitioners, and social movement activists from 21 European countries using Q-methodology to rank agreement on 41 statements reflecting diverse agroecology principles. Cluster analysis revealed three distinct profiles: a political agroecology group advocating radical food system transformation (53%), a techno-optimist minority (15%) supportive of new innovations, and a third profile endorsing animal farming’s role. Participants showed strong consensus on agro-biodiversity, farm socio-economic resilience, spiritual connections to land, and banning agrotoxics and GMOs. However, they diverged on adopting new technologies for climate resilience and on challenging global power structures. These insights inform a more unified and systemic approach to advance agroecology in Europe.
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Contribution detail info
- Project
Agroecology-TRANSECT
Trans-disciplinary approaches for systemic economic, ecological and climate change transitions
- Location
- Europe
- Authors
- Yanka Kazakova, Marta G. Rivera Ferre, Bertrand Dumond, Vyara Stefanova, Stephen Leitheiser
- Purpose
- Build professional and collaborative networks, Manage risks and enhance resilience, Monitor (metrics, conditions, progress, performance)
- File type
- document
- Created on
- Jul 31, 2026
- Origin language
- English
- Official project website
- –
- License
- CC BY-SA