Climate change is now recognized by businesses as a major challenge, prompting the agribusiness sector to transform to meet sustainability goals. However, there are many ways to achieve sustainability. Precision agriculture and agroecology are two concepts that evolved from conventional and regenerative approaches respectively, and offer distinct perspectives on sustainability attainment.

Precision agriculture relies on technological solutions like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, gene editing, and carbon dioxide removal technologies (CDR) and aims to revolutionize industry operations through automatization. Agroecology, on the other hand, creates a symbiotic relationship between farming practices and ecosystem services. It aims to replace non-renewable resources with nature-based solutions and an ecologically skilled workforce (Carlisle et al., 2019). It not only sustains food production but also preserves the ecological balance and supports local communities. This thesis investigates whether and how these contrasting approaches - precision agriculture and agroecology - can be complementary, integrating both to achieve greater environmental and socio-economic outcomes.

For that, I take a systemic perspective (complex systems view) and review them through cultural, environmental, and business perspectives. In three parts, I conduct a comprehensive multidisciplinary analysis of how these factors interact within a complex system. In the first part, I explain how cultural perceptions determine attitudes toward nature and the cultivation of food. The second part covers the role of biodiversity as an indispensable element of natural and artificial ecosystems’ health and resilience. In the third part, I examine the logic behind business decision-making and demonstrate how it overlooks nature’s and social complexity by favoring quantifiable data.

Then, as an accredited observer at COP28, I further investigate the discourse on sustainability strategies at the main platform for global climate action. I stress the importance of cross-cultural interactions and the creation of a “dialogue of knowledge systems” that should foster cooperation and mutuality. Additionally, I discuss how technologies such as AI can be developed in a way to enhance and generate new human capabilities, instead of taking them away. This research highlights ways to leverage technology for sustainable and ethical advancement, advocating for a holistic approach that integrates diverse knowledge systems and promotes solidarity and inclusivity.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to those who have shaped my journey of curiosity and learning, and opened my eyes to new perspectives and ways of seeing the world. I am grateful to Gustavo Esteva for all the discoveries I’ve made while living in San Pablo Etla. I had to rethink many things, and those were useful disillusionments for me. I thank the entire team of Unitierra (Universidad de la Tierra) for allowing me to be their guest and participate in their weekly discussions during my stay in Oaxaca. To my Indigenous friends from Seneca Nation, and especially grateful to Dr. Shannon Seneca - Mohawk of the Grand River Turtle Clan, a Haudenosaunee environmental engineer from the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Buffalo for her guidance.

And of course, thank you to my readers: Prof. David Van Wie and Prof. Steven Peterson, who also were students of Donella Meadows - one of the most influential environmental thinkers of the twentieth century, who laid the foundation for the methodology of system dynamics - for giving me new instruments, and to Prof. Kenneth Sharpe - whose mentorship in ethics and practical wisdom in public policy helped me bridge theoretical knowledge with real-world application.