Local food systems, citizen and public science, empowered communities, and democracy: hopes deserving to live

Since 1984, the AHV journal has provided a key forum for a community of interdisciplinary, international researchers, educators, and policy makers to analyze and debate core issues, values and hopes facing the nation and the world, and to recommend strategies and actions for addressing them. This agenda includes the more specific challenges and opportunities confronting agriculture, food systems, science, and communities, as well as broader contextual issues and grand challenges. This paper draws extensively on 40 years of AHV journal articles and reviews and begins with a focus on a limited number of key grand challenges (climate change and global warming; threats to democracy and the growing neo-nationalism, populism, and authoritarianism; and increasing national and international inequality). With these challenges as the underlining context, the remainder of the paper addresses core journal themes of sustainable agriculture and local food systems, citizen and public science, and empowered communities. Highlighted are numerous important journal contributions to the analyses and recommendations to address these hopes and themes. I conclude that these themes and hopes not only deserve to live but are essential for changing and redirecting an unsustainable and destructive environmental, economic, political and social agenda to a viable, livable and just democratic society.

Automated summary

Since 1984, the AHV journal has served as a crucial platform for interdisciplinary, international researchers, educators, and policy makers to address key issues and recommend strategies. This paper focuses on grand challenges such as climate change, threats to democracy, and inequality, and highlights the journal's contributions to sustainable agriculture and empowered communities. The author concludes that these themes and hopes are vital for transforming an unsustainable agenda into a just and livable society.