Event Details
“Decolonizing African Agriculture: Food Security, Agroecology, and the Need for Radical Transformation”
The basic argument of this talk is that failed agricultural development efforts on the African continent are the result of intellectual colonization in the agricultural sciences, that we must reimagine the way forward, and that this effort will require new institutions. Following a broad conceptual introduction emphasizing political agronomy, political ecology and agroecology, Moseley reviews past food security and agricultural development experiences in four countries where he has undertaken extensive field research: Mali , Burkina Faso, South Africa and Botswana. He then examines successful efforts in each of the aforementioned countries and outlines future directions that emphasize agroecology, the application of ecological principles to agricultural systems. He concludes with ideas about institutions and political economy at the national, regional, and international levels. To build more resilient food systems and a different kind of development, new institutions will need to emerge that support agroecology, vibrant rurality, and networks of smaller cities.
William G. Moseley is DeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography, and director of the Food, Agriculture & Society Program at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. His research interests include tropical agriculture, food and nutrition security, and development policy. He is the author of more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, as well as eight books, including: Africa’s Green Revolution: Critical Perspectives on New Agricultural Technologies and Systems (2016); Land Reform in South Africa: An Uneven Transformation (2015); and Hanging by a Thread: Cotton, Globalization and Poverty in Africa (2008). He currently serves as president-elect of the Mande Studies Association (a group of West Africa scholars) and sits on the scientific advisory panel (High Level Panel of Experts) to the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security. He is a 2022–23 Phi Beta Kappa speaker. In 2013, he won the Media Achievement Award, and, in 2016, the Kwadwo Konadu-Agyemang Distinguished Africa Scholar Award, both from the American Association of Geographers. Earlier this year, he received Macalester's Thomas Jefferson Award. His essays for the popular press have appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, Washington Post, and Al Jazeera English.
A reception with Professor Moseley will follow the lecture in the AGH Ballroom.
If you wish to join the lecture in person or remotely via Zoom, please respond to [email protected] by September 10.
