From power trees of the enclosure to the apple trees of the commons

Abstract

First paragraph:

Hendrik Wolter’s Sustainable Apple Breeding and Cultivation in Germany: Commons Based Agricul­ture and Social Ecological Resilience offers a compre­hensive and timely analysis of how fruit breeding systems are intertwined with the ecological, social, and political dynamics of food systems. Wolter argues that apple breeding should be understood not as a purely technical or scientific pursuit but as a social and ecological process embedded in own­ership structures, governance arrangements, and market institutions. Drawing on social ecological systems theory, resilience thinking, and commons scholarship, he redefines fruit breeding as a reflec­tion of broader questions about power, equity, and sustainability. His analysis resonates strongly with the four-dimensional agroecology framework developed by the Coopération Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité (CIDSE, 2018) which incorporates ecological, social, political, and economic dimensions. In this review, I contend that Wolter’s book is an important contribution to the agroecology social movement. The book offers both theoretical depth and practical insight into how collective governance can foster ecological resilience and social justice in food systems. . . .