A global corporate trust for agroecological integrity : new agriculture in a world of legitimate eco-states / John W. Head.

This book examines global environmental governance and how legal, institutional, and conceptual reform can facilitate a transformation to a new 'natural-systems' form of agriculture. Profound global climate disruption makes it essential that we replace our current agricultural system - described in this book as a fossil-carbon-dependent 'modern extractive agriculture' - with a natural-systems agriculture featuring perennial grains growing in polycultures, thereby mimicking the natural grassland and forest ecosystems that modern extractive agriculture has largely destroyed. After examining relevant international legal and conceptual foundations (sovereignty, federalism, global governance) and existing international organizations focusing on agriculture, the book explores legal and institutional opportunities to facilitate dramatic agricultural reform and ecological restoration. Among other things, it explains how innovative federalism structures around the world provide patterns for reorienting global environmental governance, including what the book calls eco-states that would, through exercise of pluralistic sovereignty, be responsible for agroecological management. Drawing from his experience working in international institutions, the author provides detailed global-governance proposals for facilitating the type of agricultural reform that can help avoid ecological collapse, especially through soil degradation and climate change. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international law, agroecology, climate change, ecological restoration, sustainable development, and global governance, as well as policy-makers and practitioners working in these fields.

Cover; Half Title; Series Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; List of illustrations; About the author; Preface; About this book -- second in a series; "Situating" this book and its contribution; About my conceptual and institutional proposals; Acknowledgments; Notes on usages, citations, and abbreviations; Part I Reorienting agriculture: the promise and the challenge of agroecological husbandry; 1 Modern extractive agriculture and agroecological husbandry; I. Modern extractive agriculture and its discontents; II. Agroecological husbandry as a viable alternative

2 Legal challenges of transitioning to agroecological husbandryI. National legal changes; II. International legal changes: the Global Convention on Agroecology; III. Modern sovereignty, the nation-state, and agroecological husbandry: reframing the challenges; Part II Reorienting sovereignty: from nation-Ưstate to eco-Ưstate; 3 Eco-zones and eco-states; I. A world of ecoregions and biomes; II. Integrating nature and society: imagining legitimate eco-Ưstates; 4 Pluralistic sovereignty for agroecological governance; I. Introductory matters

II. Guides, precedents, and models for eco-states and pluralistic sovereigntyIII. New roots for sovereignty: the character of the eco-state; Part III Reorienting ecological governance: a global public trust; 5 International institutions, agroecology, and a defense of multilateralism; I. Getting to now: the creation of a new international person; II. International institutions and agriculture; III. Criticisms of the global economic and agricultural institutions; IV. Repairing damage, restoring confidence: multilateralism returns

6 Designing the Global Corporate Trust for Agroecological IntegrityI. Purposes, participation, and powers; II. Finances, functions, governance, and enforcement; III. Closing observations and grounds for encouragement; Appendix: A "bare-bones legal and policy brief ": creating a Global Corporate Trust for Agroecological Integrity to facilitate and manage a new agriculture in a world of legitimate eco-states; Selected bibliography; Index

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