It is often said that extraction of minerals and hydrocarbons lies at the core of modern economic and social development, but accelerating climate change and rapid digitalisation of productive processes are challenging received wisdom. In Latin America, policies that promote extractivism as the primary path to inclusive development are hotly contested.

Agriculture and food policies have always been at the heart of human development concerns. Building on my long experience in researching Amazonian agri-food systems, this programme examines related implications of climate change and sustainability challenges for the organisation of agriculture and trade in agricultural products between regions of the global North and South.

This programme emerges from collaborative work with indigenous scholars and anthropologists researching ‘indigenous knowledge systems’ in the face of accelerating climate change. Together, we are engaged in a multifaceted reflection on how diverse science makes for better science. Anthropology has made significant contributions to the study of non-western forms of knowledge. Yet, the contributions that scholars located at the peripheries of metropoles continue to make to worldwide science have not received the attention they deserve.