Agroecology and community-based care production: territorial knowledge and popular health experiences

Abstract

The article analyzes how agroecology, care, and territory are connected in the experiences of Casa do Caminho and ABHP. In this context, agroecology emerges as a tactic of resistance and community health production. The ecological crisis, the commodification of life, and the limits of medicalization have expanded debates about agroecology, traditional knowledge, and community care. It engages with political ecology, popular health, ecology of knowledge, and decolonial epistemologies, based on action research and social mapping. These experiences in community territories link cultivation, health, spirituality, and intergenerational solidarity, challenging fragmented perspectives. Boaventura de Sousa Santos advocates for the ecology of knowledge, recognizing epistemological plurality and the legitimacy of diverse ways of knowing and living. Malcom Ferdinand shows that the environmental crisis is inseparable from coloniality, racialization, and the commodification of nature. Such experiences break institutional barriers of SUS works through popular education, sharing knowledge, and strengthening community and emotional ties. The conclusion is that agroecology and popular health are ethical projects of re-existence, challenging the commercialization of life in health practices.