As policy debates increasingly challenge the idea that growth alone can end poverty, a deeper question emerges: what if ending hunger requires transforming who controls food systems and how food is produced?

The UVM Institute for Agroecology’s Molly Anderson and Colin R. Anderson, co-director, have contributed a new policy briefing on agroecology and food sovereignty to the Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth—an initiative led by the former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. The project expands policy options beyond growth-centered approaches, advancing pathways grounded in human rights, equity, and ecological sustainability.

“Agroecology offers a pathway to ending poverty that moves beyond the largely unquestioned assumption that economic growth is the only solution,” says Colin Anderson. “Instead, it recognizes poverty as a political issue rooted in the concentration of power and control and points to food sovereignty as a foundation for building a more just and healthier planet.”

The Roadmap is an ongoing, live project that is co-constructed by a global coalition of UN agencies, governments, civil society organizations, trade unions, grassroots movements, and academic experts. It offers a set of actionable policy measures that place care, well-being, and planetary boundaries at the center of economic systems.

“This policy briefing sketches both immediate and long-term policy options for shifting food systems toward agroecology,” says Anderson. “It calls for moving beyond a narrow focus on yield and growth to center care, equity, and ecological balance, so that people and the planet can truly thrive.”

An advance version of the Roadmap was presented at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva on April 22, 2026. The final publication, along with the full set of policy briefs will be submitted to the United Nations in June 2026.

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For questions, suggestions, or other thoughts on the agroecology briefing, please email: Molly.Anderson@uvm.edu.

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Molly Anderson is a research associate professor at the UVM Institute for Agroecology and a professor emerita at Middlebury College in Vermont.
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Colin Anderson is the co-director of UVM Institute for Agroeoclogy and research associate professor of the UVM Department of Agriculture, Landscape, and Environment.