ABSTRACT
Farmers-the hands-on managers of agroecosystems-have enormous stores of knowledge about what works and what does not and why. They understand the locality in which they farm, the variations and extremes in its weather, the pests that must be contended with, the crops that respond best, the soil and what it needs to remain productive. Regardless of how sustainable an individual farmer’s practices are, his or her knowledge is an important resource, and his or her concerns and point of view are something the agroecologist must take into account. For these reasons, a central tenet of agroecology is that local, farmer-based knowledge is a key starting point in the movement toward sustainability (Chapter 25 of Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems).
