V. Ernesto Mendez, PhD, is an associate professor of agroecology and environmental studies at the University of Vermont, where he leads the Agroecology and Rural Livelihoods Group, a community of practice that studies and contributes to developing practical solutions to key issues in our current agrifood system. He earned his PhD in agroecology and environmental studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz. His empirical work is mostly with smallholder coffee farmers and cooperatives in Mesoamerica as well as a variety of growers in Vermont. His research uses agroecology as a transdisciplinary, participatory, and action-oriented approach, focusing on the interactions among agriculture, food, farmer livelihoods, and environment. Most of his work utilizes a participatory action research (PAR) approach to directly support agroecological practice and farmer livelihoods.

Christopher M. Bacon, PhD, is an assistant professor with the Department of Environmental Studies at Santa Clara University, California. After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua, he completed a PhD in environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His primary research involves smallholders, cooperatives, and food security in the context of market and climatic change in northern Nicaragua, examining the political ecology of conventional and alternative food systems and their impacts on rural development and change. His second line of research focuses on environmental and food justice in California, and his previous work has been published in Global Environmental Change, the Journal of Peasant Studies, Ecology and Society, and World Development.

Roseann Cohen is the executive director for the Community Agroecology Network in Santa Cruz, California, a nonprofit committed to sustaining rural livelihoods and landscapes in the global south through the integration of collaborative res