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Together for Sustainable Agriculture Family farms from Austria and Argentina have joined forces, transcending borders to advance a sustainable future in agriculture. They are united by a shared determination to drive change themselves –through globally inspired solutions, participation, and tangible action on the ground.
What Alianza has taught us
Personal Connections drive Change
Intercultural exchange broadens horizons, inspires, and fosters understanding of different lived realities.
Bridges Can Be Built Without Compromising a Firm Stance
Where crises divide, initiatives are needed that defend social and environmental rights while creating spaces for respectful dialogue.
Participation Creates Hope
When those affected become active agents of change, motivation and hope emerge even in times of despair.
Diversity is Strength
When people with diverse experiences and perspectives engage in dialogue, creative approaches emerge that gain broad support.
Reimagining Development Cooperation Brings Value
Genuine, decolonial collaboration thrives when every voice is heard, learning is mutual, and a unifying goal guides the process.
How Alianza Worked
The intercultural encounter between farmers laid the foundation for joint solutions:
Alianza’s work unfolded in three phases, resulting in global impact:
1st Phase: Awareness and Evidence
What connects Austrian and Argentinian agriculture?
What impact does agriculture have on climate change?
And how is agriculture itself affected by climate change?
To answer these questions, farmers in Austria and Argentina analyzed our current food system…
…and experienced global interconnections firsthand during two international learning journeys.
Beyond the farmers participating in these journeys, around 160 farmers, 56 farming organizations, 7 scientific institutions, 11 civil society organizations and 15 political representatives were involved.
In Argentina, the Austrian farmers learned about the pressures that climate change and industrial agriculture exert on family farms – and were impressed by how they tackle these challenges.
In Austria, the Argentinian farmers were surprised to discover that despite subsidies, many farms are closing – and the family farms exchanged views on how they can deal with rising societal demands, climate change, and financial pressures.
2nd Phase: Making Alternatives Visible
What do these broad, global issues mean for the day-to-day work of family farms in Argentina and Austria?
How can they farm in ways that benefit the climate and the environment?
And how can they do this while remaining economically viable and socially sustainable?
To explore these questions, more than 300 farmers, agricultural technicians, and researchers took part in ten gatherings, where they visited successful farms, learned from one another, and exchanged ideas on sustainable agriculture.
In Austria, farmers discussed how to shape agriculture sustainably, considering ecological, economic, and social dimensions. This is a summary of their findings:
Here is a summary of their results:
In Argentina, farmers shared their knowledge on improving cattle farming while simultaneously preserving forest biodiversity and its diverse ecological functions.
The analyses from Argentina were presented at scientific conferences. You can read the papers here:
3rd Phase: Demanding Supportive Framework Conditions
Farmers have considerable freedom in deciding how to run their farms.
Yet their agency has clear limits: Political and societal framework conditions largely shape their options. Some do not favor sustainable family farming.
For this reason, farmers from Austria and Argentina developed policy recommendations to enable more sustainable livestock farming.
In workshops taking place separately in Austria and Argentina, they gathered the learnings from their exchange visits and crafted demands. They then consolidated them in international exchanges, ensuring that the demands of one country would not harm the interests of the other.
The resulting policy demands were presented at an international conference with 177 participants from Europe and South America (via Zoom and livestream).
You can read them here:
Download in Spanish Download in Englisch Download in German
Through targeted campaigns, these demands were brought to the attention of both society and policymakers. Approximately 5,000 individuals and 800 organizations and institutions – spanning agriculture, academia, civil society, and the church –supported the demands from both countries.
ALIANZA was much more than a time-bound project – it marked the beginning of lasting change that still resonates across regions, political landscapes, and within the participating organizations.
Here are a few voices from participating farmers in Austria and Argentina:
I was deeply shocked to see the impact soybean cultivation has on people in Argentina: the displacement, the contaminated drinking water. On my farm, we have now decided to stop sourcing soy from South America altogether and to switch to non-GMO European soy."
As pig producers in Argentina, we always looked to Europe and saw intensive livestock farming as a model. Now we come here and see that they are trying to move away from it – taking a step back in order to move toward greater economic and ecological sustainability."
We need to make it much clearer that natural areas like forests and pastures are immensely important – not only ecologically but also for food security. Their destruction affects us all."
It has become clear to me: global problems require global solutions – it’s that simple. No country can change things on its own, but through international exchange, we can move things forward together."
You can find a summary of the additional changes inspired by Alianza here: PDF “What Remains of Alianza”
We need alliances
to build a sustainable, culturally diverse and healthy food system.
Would you like to join or support our alliance?
Get in touch here: alianza@welthaus.at incupo@incupo.org.ar
Alianza is collaborative initiative of Incupo (Argentina) and Welthaus Graz (Austria), supported by the Austrian Ministry of Austria for Climate Action & Energy (until 2025).
Content: Welthaus Graz & Incupo Images: Welthaus Graz & Incupo, Ernst Zerche, Julian Schmelzinger, Gerd Neuhold, Rocio Navarro Illustration: Daniela Hinterreiter Graphic: Petra Temmel Web design: Marco Janics