Bisan Center for Research and Development and Scientists for Palestine announce their next lecture titled: "Sowing Diversity: Peasant Paths to Biodiversity and Food Sovereignty", which will be presented by Prof. "Ivette Perfecto", on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 7 pm Palestine time, via Zoom.

Abstract: The world stands at the brink of a biodiversity crisis, unlike anything we’ve seen before, with industrial agriculture and its sprawling monocultures and agrochemical reliance emerging as leading culprits. This rampant loss of biodiversity not only undermines agricultural production but is also exacerbated by the growing challenges of climate change. A radical overhaul of our agricultural and food systems is imperative to sustain food production and meet the escalating global demand. In this talk, we will explore the biodiversity crisis and how millions of small-scale farmers worldwide are turning to agroecology—a holistic approach that blends ecological farming with socio-political and cultural considerations. By championing biodiversity, social equity, and environmental justice, the agroecology movement is redefining food systems and reinforcing vital links to food sovereignty.

Bio: Ivette Perfecto is the Bunyan Bryant Collegiate Professor of Environmental Justice. She is an interdisciplinary scholar that works in agroecology with a focus on the intersection between biodiversity, agriculture, and food sovereignty. Her research examines arthropod-mediated ecosystem services in agricultural and agroforestry systems with an emphasis on understanding ecological interactions that result in autonomous pest control and reduction of pesticide use. She also works on the spatial ecology of the coffee agroecosystem and is interested more broadly in the links between small-scale sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, and food sovereignty in Latin America. Currently, she is conducting research in Mexico and Puerto Rico. She is co-author of four books, Breakfast of Biodiversity, Nature’s Matrix: Linking Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty, Coffee Agroecology, and Ecological Complexity and Agroecology.

Professor Perfecto is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Senior Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. She also received an Honorary Doctoral Degree (honoris causa) in Education from the Universidad Sagrado Corazón, her alma mater in Puerto Rico. She was one the lead authors of the International Assessment of Science, Technology and Knowledge for Development (IAASTD). She is a long-time member of Science for the People and the New World Agriculture and Ecology Group (NWAEG).