Agroecology and soil stewardship: values and techniques of smallholder farmers in Bernalillo County

Agrarian movements around the world use agroecology to build sovereignty and steward dynamic ecosystems. Research has shown that agroecological farmers steward more resilient crops, more resilient soil biomes, and greater biodiversity than conventional agriculture. GIS and remote sensing offer many tools to detect the impacts of these farmers on the environment, but it is less clear how such technologies fit into agroecological goals. This study asks: what values, experiences and knowledge do smallholder producers in Bernalillo County embody in their soil stewardship practices? Also, what experience or knowledge do smallholder producers in Bernalillo County have about remote sensing, and would they use remotely sensed data to understand the impact of their soil stewardship practices? To answer these questions, I look to political ecology and feminist theory for understanding the embodied knowledge and practices that are fundamental to agroecology. I find that the practice of farmers in this study embody the same values and methods of agroecology farmers worldwide. Additionally, the remote sensing process could be useful to detect the impacts of farmer practices on soil dynamics in Bernalillo County.