Pepita de oro: How AlVelAl is building a regional regenerative agriculture transformation through social innovations

Abstract: Regenerative Agriculture (RA) is increasingly promoted as a sustainable agri-food solution. Agronomic studies find that RA practices (e.g. cover crops, reduced tillage, crop rotation, and agroforestry) can regulate soil moisture, sequester atmospheric carbon, enhance biodiversity, and reduce the impacts of droughts and floods. Diverse public, private, and civil society initiatives therefore aim to increase farmer adoption of RA. However, empirical knowledge about the social processes underlying transformation to a regenerative food system is limited. Most research has focused on discourse analyses of RA and farmer experiences employing RA practices. While local institutions are recognized as potentially vital to facilitating RA transformations, there is a lack of empirical research documenting how institutions work to stimulate RA. This thesis presents a case study of Associacion AlVelAl, a grassroots RA movement based in Southeast Spain. Operating since 2015, AlVelAl has more than 500 members, most of whom are almond farmers. Employing concepts of adaptive capacity and bricolage, I examine the social innovations and institutional network that AlVelAl has built to nurture a RA transformation in the region. Specifically, I ask how does AlVelAl navigate sociocultural, ecological, and political-economic contexts at different scales to amplify the transformative potential of its social innovations? I conducted nine weeks of grounded research, involving participation at 7 events and interviews with 16 local actors who included AlVelAl employees, farmer members, and collaborators. My findings suggest that RA transformations depend on enabling farmers while also advancing systemic change. My study answers calls to identify strategies that can amplify adaptive capacity’s potential to generate transformational change. I point to four strategies that AlVelAl relies upon to translate RA practices into contextually-feasible steps for farmers and to mobilize collective action from diverse actors: 1) leveraging synergies among social innovations, 2) social mobilization through a vision for a desired future, 3) employing social-ecological relational thinking, and 4) adopting a systemic cross-scale approach.