Rosa Binimelis

University of Vic | UVIC · Chair on Agroecology and Food Systems for Social Transformation

Trained in the fields of ecological economics and political ecology, we are four women activist-researchers motivated by and interested in contributing to processes of social transformation. In this chapter, we make visible part of our critical thinking process in academia, departing from our experience in the fields of food sovereignty, commons an...

Many social movements, peasant organisations and radical educators have been deeply engaged in education for food system transformation for a relatively long time. In contrast, scholarly work on the possible role of pedagogy in radically transforming food systems is more recent. But this field inquiry is growing as new insights for theory and pract...

Background In 2009, Spanish farmers reported a novel weed, now identified as a relative of maize’s ancestor, teosinte, in their maize fields. Introgression of the insect resistance transgene cry1Ab from genetically modified (GM) maize into populations of this weedy Spanish teosinte could endow it with additional defense mechanisms. The aims of this...

CONTEXT The COVID-19 pandemic has become one of the most pressing challenges for humanity. The pandemic is affecting all aspects of human lives and livelihoods, including food. In this context, new research shows the nexus between agri-food systems and the spread of emergent infectious diseases (EID) such as the coronavirus disease while at the sam...

There has been a persistent conflict over agricultural biotechnology, and existing governance institutions relying on traditional processes of scientific risk assessment have failed to address the sociopolitical dimensions of this disagreement. Although there are demands to incorporate socioeconomic impact (SEI) assessment into regulatory deliberat...

The importance of socio-economic impacts (SEI) from the introduction and use of genetically modified (GM) crops is reflected in increasing efforts to include them in regulatory frameworks. Aiming to identify and understand the present knowledge on SEI of GM crops, we here report the findings from an extensive study of the published international sc...

A novel weed has recently emerged, causing serious agronomic damage in one of the most important maize-growing regions of Western Europe, the Northern Provinces of Spain. The weed has morphological similarities to a wild relative of maize and has generally been referred to as teosinte. However, the identity, origin or genetic composition of ‘Spanis...

There is a growing demand to incorporate social, economic and ethical considerations into biotechnology governance. However, there is currently little guidance available for understanding what this means or how it should be done. A framework of care-based ethics and politics can capture many of the concerns maintaining a persistent socio-political...

The attempt to have coexistence between organic, conventional and Genetically Modified (GM) crops has generated unresolved frictions between agri-food models based on different practices, values, worldviews and cultures. This paper explores forms of everyday resistance that have emerged against the domineering power and spread of GM maize in Spain,...

Synthetic biology has become increasingly important as an approach and a tool to solve societal challenges, such as replacing fossil fuel, and to develop more efficient biological compounds, new applications for bioremediation, a platform for more efficient vaccine intervention and to improve drug targeting. As the potential of the technology and t...

Biotechnology is diversifying rapidly through the development and application of new approaches to genome editing and ongoing research into synthetic biology. Proponents of biotechnology are enthusiastic about these new developments and have recently begun calling for environmental movements to abandon their campaigns against Genetically Modified O...

Socio-economic considerations are included in the regulatory frameworks on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) of many countries. This is a reflection of an increasing interest in and recognition of the necessity to consider a broader range of issues when conducting a GMO risk assessment. At the same time, there are discussions about how socio-ec...

The Conversation: http://theconversation.com/why-europe-will-let-member-states-opt-out-of-gm-crops-50873

Over the past twenty years, agricultural biotechnologies have generated chronically unresolved political controversies. The standard tool of risk assessment has proven to be highly limited in its ability to address the panoply of concerns that exist about these hybrid techno/organisms. It has also failed to account for both the conceptual and mater...

Socio-economic considerations (SECs) are included in many countries regulation frameworks on genetically modified organisms (GMO). At the same time, there are discussions about how to capture SEC and ethical impacts and how to implement assessment. With the intention to recognise the advances done so far, we present some important characteristics a...

A broad community of independent scientific researchers and scholars challenges recent claims of a consensus over the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In the following joint statement, the claimed consensus is shown to be an artificial construct that has been falsely perpetuated through diverse fora. Irrespective of contradictory ev...

La discriminación de las mujeres rurales y la falta de una aplicación efectiva de la legislación sobre la igualdad de género es un fenómeno extendido alrededor del mundo. Las mujeres han sido tradicionalmente las responsables del cuidado y alimentación familiar, en consecuencia han desarrollado tareas productivas que facilitan la combinación de act...

Rural women's discrimination and the lack of effective implementation of the legislation on gender equality is a phenomenon found around the world. Women have been traditionally the responsible of family care and feeding, thus they have developed productive tasks that allow combining productive and reproductive activities in the farm. Food processi...

The recent context of global food emergency and ecological crisis has increased the relevance of people's struggle for food sovereignty (FSv), which promotes the transformation of the dominant food system and claims ‘the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and thei...

Background It has been hypothesised that farmers in countries that do not adopt GM crops do or will have fewer seed options. By extension, there is concern that the choices made by countries that have so far rejected GM crops have had an impact on their productivity. To estimate how much real world choice maize farmers have in countries with differ...

Vivimos en tiempos de crisis... así empieza este libro que no pretende analizar lo desastrosamente mal que están las cosas. Todo lo contrario, es un libro de utopías en construcción, de procesos emancipatorios, de cómo reconstruir todo aquello que se relaciona con nuestros campos y nuestros alimentos, más allá de lo que se nos ha impuesto como rent...

The assessment of the impacts of growing genetically modified (GM) crops remains a major political and scientific challenge in Europe. Concerns have been raised by the evidence of adverse and unexpected environmental effects and differing opinions on the outcomes of environmental risk assessments (ERA). The current regulatory system is hampered by...

The study described in this article incorporates stakeholders' views on aquatic invasion processes and combines expert analysis with information from field work into an evaluation exercise. Management scenarios are designed based on available technical data and stakeholders' perceptions. These scenarios are evaluated using the Social Multi-Criteria...

Biological invasions are human-induced processes affecting biodiversity. Information on biological invasions can be organized following the categories of the DPSIR model. This paper examines the state of the art in the application of this model to the study and management of biological invasions.The paper focuses on driving forces and pressures, cl...

Although there is a strong controversy regarding the introduction and commercialisation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Europe, GM maize has been sown in Spain since 1998. Stakeholders' positions on the role that GMOs play in trends of the state of agriculture and environment in Catalonia are analysed. The application of the Driving for...

The article presents a study of the various meanings given by different actors to the biological invasion of Cameraria ohridella in Paris's green spaces. This insect of unknown origin has spread throughout Europe, mining the leaves of horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), a tree species widely distributed in European capital cities. The elaborat...

The broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate has become the largest-selling crop-protection product worldwide. The increased use of glyphosate is associated with the appearance of a growing number of tolerant or resistant weeds, with socio-environmental consequences apart from the loss of productivity. In 2002, a glyphosate-resistant biotype of johnsong...

Over the past century, the potential for aquatic species to expand their ranges in Europe has been enhanced both as a result of the construction of new canals and because of increased international trade. A complex network of inland waterways now connects some previously isolated catchments in southern (Caspian, Azov, Black, Mediterranean seas) and...

El libro revisa la expansión de la aparición del Sorgo de Alepo Resistente a Glifosato (SARG), a través de una investigación desarrollada en los años 2008 a 2009, donde ya se reflejaban los problemas de aparición de resistencai en malezas, derivadas del problema de la expansión e intensificación de la monocultura sojera y el paquete SD+Glifosato+So...

In conclusion, our comparative approach shows that the DPSIR framework is a useful instrument to organise information. All our definitions are social constructs, not truths but agreements, justified by their usefulness for communication. The DPSIR framework must be applied with care for analysis, not as a simple causal scheme. Consistent definition...

Humans play an undeniable role in the acceleration of threats to the diversity of ecosystems, species and genes. This book is a response to the urgent need of policy oriented socio-ecological research, profoundly based on empirical evidence. Socio-environmental patterns and political responses are compared through the use of case studies analyzing...

The introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Europe has been characterized by controversy. In 2002, the European Union introduced the concept of “coexistence” as a compromise solution that, through the establishment of science-based technical measures, should allow the market to operate freely while reducing policy conflicts on GMOs...

European network of inland waterways facilitates the transfer of invasive alien species (IAS) across European inland waters and coastal ecosystems, which requires appropriate risk assessment-based management options to address risks posed by human-mediated introductions of these species. During the development of methods to assess the risks of IAS...

Human agency plays a key role in the processes of biological invasions. This comprises not only the human role in the configuration of driving forces or in the perception of the impacts, but also the conceptualization of alien species themselves as an environmental problem. This paper examines different stakeholders' positions in bioinvasion proces...

Biological invasions have been object of ecological research for years.As one objective, natural scientists investigate the effects of invasive species on ecosystems and their functioning (Levine et al. 2003). However, impacts on ecosystems are also of relevance for society. Changes in ecosystems affect humans insofar as ecosystems provide goods an...

In recent years, novel theories and methods have enriched the possibilities for an integrated socio-ecological assessment of biodiversity loss. In order to contribute to the methodological discussion we propose an innovative procedure to build a multifunctional network of the ecological, social, economic and political interactions accompanying biod...