Agroecology, Sustainable Food Production and Satoyama: Contributions of Japanese Case Studies to the Discussion of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Environmental Conservation
The goals of this interdisciplinary symposium are: 1) to understand the historic importance of food and subsistence diversity, social practice, and food sovereignty for the resilience of ecosystems and food production systems, 2) to examine the validity of traditional, local and indigenous ecological knowledge for contemporary agroecological practice, and 3) to evaluate the contribution of Japanese case studies to the current discussion of sustainable food production, circulation and consumption. Agroecology initially started during the 1980s as a discipline of natural science, specifically as the study of ecological phenomena in crop fields. Today, agroecology is defined as an interdisciplinary research field, with an emphasis on establishing both scientific and social foundations for alternative agricultural practice. In the latter context, agroecology critically examines whether conventional agricultural practice with large amounts of external inputs, including chemical fertilizer and pesticide, is sustainable in the long run. Agroecological studies in Japan have led several scholars to reevaluate the importance of traditional and local ecological knowledge (TEK and LEK) in mountainous regions of the Japanese archipelago. Scholars in Japanese studies have also emphasized the critical importance of the conservation of regional landscapes, including satoyama (human-impacted rural landscapes that have been heavily utilized for agriculture and everyday living), and traditional social practice, such as iriaiken (collective use and ownership of non-arable areas near villages), for long-term sustainability of human-environmental interaction. In this conference, scholars from North America and Japan will present contemporary and historical case studies on agroecology, TEK and regional landscapes in Japan and other parts of the Pacific region. Particular emphasis will be on the contribution of Japanese data to the current discussion of food safety, environmental conservation, and resilience of agricultural practice at the times of disasters, social catastrophes, and climate change.
March 19 (Fri) - March 20 (Sat), 2021 5:00-7:30 PM PST
This symposium will take place online via Zoom. Registration is required: https://berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_laqkVydXQp275A8A4w4xfg. For more information about the symposium, please refer to the following link: https://ieas.berkeley.edu/satoyama?fbclid=IwAR2bjfD0tA1SjvMoK7y7P-BHHkKRDcHs8yWQkFJyccIwCn80JMLAYlCR8uY
