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9780935028270

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Eric's book is a model for how to build farmer capacity for using agroecology for solving problems and building alternatives in their farming systems. This book will prove to be a benchmark for farmer-based partnerships in sustainable development. It is a reflection of Eric's commitment to making a real difference for rural communities in Latin America. Eric's goal has always been to empower farmers to build local capacity, autonomy, and self-sufficiency. He shows us how the best agroecologists are often the farmers themselves. We have much to learn from them. Campesino a Campsino will stand for a long time as the example of how to de meaningful participatory action research. -Stephen R. Gliessman, Alfred Heller Chair in Agroecology, Program in Community and Agroecology, Department of Environmental Studies University of California Santa Cruz Engagingly written, this book tells the story of a powerful social movement that originated in Guatemala and spread through Mexico, Nicaragua and Cuba. Holt-Gimenez's highly knowledgeable account of the Campesino a Campesino movement offers us an alternative vision of sustainable development, one that is truly bottom-up rather than top-down. This book promises to be an excellent teaching tool for undergraduate and graduate students alike. -Rachel Schurman, Associate Professor Sociology and Global Studies University of Minnesota Campesino a Campesino is perhaps the world's foremost sustainable agriculture movement, and everyone concerned about the future of farming should study it. This book is the essential guide to the history and lessons of this crucial movement. -Peter Rosset, Land Research Action Network This innovative and engaging book is of immense significance for understanding development and environmental sustainability, both in Latin America and beyond. Drawing on extensive, long-term involvement in the Campesino a Campesino Movement, Holt-Gimenez describes how Mayan campesinos in Guatemala pioneered methods of soil and water conservation and farmer-to-farmer pedagogy that they first shared with each other and then with small agriculturalists in Mexico, producing effective practices of agroecosystem management, nonhierarchical communication and local social change that peasants themselves eventually spread throughout Central America and the Caribbean. This book tackles some of today's most complicated political, ecological and economic conundrums and, in the campesinos' compelling stories, we come to understand that viable alternatives exist in even the most impoverished zones of rural Latin America. -Marc Edelman, Professor of Anthropology, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, author of Peasants Against Globalization Grassroots development at its best! While many cross-border networks get called transnational social movements, this one's the real thing. Holt-Gimenez creatively chronicles the history and impact of twenty-five years of campesino innovation in sustainable agriculture in Mesoamerica. -Jonathan A. Fox, Professor, Latin American and Latino Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz

Author Information

Eric Holt-Giménez, PhD, spent over 25 years in Mexico and Central America as a community organizer and agricultural outreach worker. He is executive director of Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy.

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