Communities have endogenous land management tools that can favour environmental transition based on bioeconomics. Research must facilitate, accompany and amplify these processes. How land was managed or can be managed sustainably is well-known and explainable. With available analytical tools, information can be compiled about the long evolution of the rural world up to the present (knowledge of land management, local forms of crop organization, market-oriented food production, livestock management and fertilization). Agroecology and history can inform a sustainable future that leverages the necessary knowledge to achieve this.