January 4, 2022
A Landscape By Any Other Name
Sara Scherr
EcoAgriculture Partners
Our different words highlight the same concept, so how do we come together to make large-scale change in the world? I have a question for you, readers. What’s the name of your umbrella? Bear with me because it’s not as silly as it sounds at first blush. As professionals working to redefine society’s relationship with […] ...
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June 11, 2020
How to reimagine our food systems for a post-COVID world – taking a landscape perspective
The pandemic has laid bare the weaknesses in our global food system. We must take this opportunity to rethink the way we produce, distribute and eat food in order to help build a healthier and more sustainable world. ...
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March 15, 2019
Responding to EAT-Lancet: There’s no Great Food Transformation without farmers
Sara Scherr
EcoAgriculture Partners
Initial steps towards a Great Food Transformation are being driven by the creativity and ingenuity of farmers. Last week I raised three key issues with the EAT-Lancet Commission’s report calling for a “Great Food Transformation.” In today’s post, the last in the series, I address a glaring omission in the process and outcome of the EAT-Lancet Commission: […] ...
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March 12, 2019
Responding to EAT-Lancet: Local challenges and solutions need to be in the analysis too
Sara Scherr
EcoAgriculture Partners
Global perspective provides useful view of problematic trends, but understates local challenges and over-emphasizes top-down solutions. Last week I raised three key issues with the EAT-Lancet Commission’s report calling for a “Great Food Transformation.” In today’s post I tackle the issues that arise when a global perspective is applied to the local conu ...
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March 11, 2019
Responding to EAT-Lancet: Consider agroecological solutions
Sara Scherr
EcoAgriculture Partners
The EAT-Lancet Commission report never overcomes a reliance on 20th century industrial farming methods as a baseline, chronically underestimating the potential of agroecological systems to generate healthy diets within planetary bounds. In an introductory post last week, I shared the three main gaps I see with the EAT-Lancet Commission’s recommendations for a ‘Great Food Tr ...
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March 7, 2019
Responding to the EAT-Lancet Commission from the Integrated Landscape Perspective
Sara Scherr
EcoAgriculture Partners
Major new report provides the most ambitious synthesis and analysis yet on a critical issue facing humanity in the 21st century. As such it requires considered response. In January, The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical research journals, co-published a major report with the non-profit EAT Forum that “addresses the need to feed a […] ...
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October 15, 2018
Support Landscape Leaders at this Watershed Moment
Sara Scherr
EcoAgriculture Partners
How do we move forward now that there is general agreement on what to do, but not enough knowledge or support for how to do it? EcoAgriculture Partners is at a watershed moment. Since our founding in 2002, we have been at the cutting edge of new thinking, action and policy for agricultural landscapes to […] ...
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February 14, 2018
Landscapes, territories and the challenge of merging socio-ecological and socio-political strategies for sustainable development
Sara Scherr
EcoAgriculture Partners
Reflections from my trip to Montpellier, France, in late January for the ‘Living Territories’ conference. I joined more than 250 others at the event, organized by CIRAD, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, to debate and take stock of territorial approaches. Though my work at EcoAgriculture Partners in the past 15 years has […] ...
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January 11, 2018
Preparing the Next Generation of Landscape Professionals: Reflections on the CATIE Commencement
Sara Scherr
EcoAgriculture Partners
One of my most gratifying experiences last year was to be the commencement speaker for the Graduate School of CATIE, the Center for Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education, in Costa Rica, in December. Being there was nostalgic for me. My lifelong fascination with tropical agriculture began in Costa Rica in 1973, and I found […] ...
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September 12, 2017
Blue Waters and Green Mountains: Opening A New Era of Integrated Landscape Management in China
Sara Scherr
EcoAgriculture Partners
Three impressive landscapes demonstrate the triumphs, and challenges, of integrated landscape management in the world’s most populous country. In August I spent several energizing weeks in western China, visiting three landscapes with Professor Li Changxiao of China’s Southwest University, one of the country’s leading experts on landscape restoration and a Fellow of EcoAg ...
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