DOCSLIB.ORG

Dissertation Full Draft

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Dissertation Full Draft The Alchemy of Capital: Industrial Waste and the Chemicalization of United States Agriculture By Adam M. Romero A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Nathan F. Sayre, Chair Professor Richard A. Walker Professor Robin L. Einhorn Professor Garrison Sposito Spring 2015 The Alchemy of Capital: Industrial Waste and the Chemicalization of United States Agriculture © 2015 Adam M. Romero Abstract The Alchemy of Capital: Industrial Waste and the Chemicalization of United States Agriculture by Adam M. Romero Doctor of Philosophy in Geography University of California, Berkeley Professor Nathan F. Sayre, Chair Along with mechanization and scientific plant breeding, modern forms of industrial agriculture are premised on the use of synthetic chemicals to sustain yield, irrigate fields, decrease erosion, and provide defense against pests and disease. Chemicalized agriculture has its origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the presence of industrially produced chemicals became available on domestic and international markets, as crop production specialized, and as scientists, farmers, and policy makers turned to chemicals to “fix” fertility, pest, and labor issues. While the use of agricultural chemicals has created the conditions for astonishing yields, their generalized use has also resulted in the pollution and degradation of ecosystems, harmful effects on consumers and farm workers, and large greenhouse gas emissions. This dissertation investigates the relationships between the late 19th and early 20th century US mining, chemical, and petroleum refining industries, their waste byproducts, and the promotion and naturalization of economic poisons in US agriculture. Specifically, I explore the transition from the ad hoc use of economic poisons on US farms to the use of economic poisons as an agricultural necessity by focusing on the complex and multidirectional links between industrial and chemical waste and the use of a rapidly industrializing and specializing agriculture as an efficacious and profitable outlet for industrial byproducts. Drawing from fourteen archives across the US, I use the history of mining and smelting companies, chemical and petrochemical manufacturers, marketers and dealers, industrial R&D, governmental institutions, university scientists and extension agents, capital investment, environmental regulation, the military, along with politics of an inchoate toxicological science, to narrate the political economic thresholds of industrial waste’s transmutation and US agriculture’s chemicalization. In other words, I relay the historical and political economic origins of economic poisons in US agriculture from the mid 1860s to the end of WWII through the lens of industrial waste. 1 “Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art Wherin all Nature’s treasure is contain’d: Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky, Lord and Commander of these elements.” C. Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, 1616 i To all who have mixed their labor with the soil, and to all who ever will ii Acknowledgments My debts of gratitude are too numerous and too great to be captured in a few paragraphs. However, I would like to acknowledge my dissertation committee and the graduate students that made this adventure possible. The Martin Institute (Geraldine F. Martin, President), the Chemical Heritage Foundation, along with UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library Fellowship and the UC Office of the President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship provided funding for the project. I also want to thank all the librarians and archivists that I encountered over the last few years. Lastly, I want to thank my partner, Shannon Cram, who taught me to love the written word. Words cannot express my affection. iii Preface: When I Grow Up I Want To Tell Stories “The ‘control of nature’ is phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man. The concepts and practices of applied entomology for the most part date from that Stone Age of science. It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth.” Rachael Carson, Silent Spring, 19621 In 1980, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson published their seminal book Metaphors We Live By in which they argued that “human thought processes are largely metaphorical.”2 More than simply rhetorical flourish, as Aristotle suggested, metaphors shape everyday thought and practice. “If we are right in suggesting that our [ordinary] conceptual system is largely metaphorical” they wrote, “then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do everyday is very much a matter of metaphor.” Metaphors are incredibly powerful are shape how we think, act, imagine, and relate to the world. Metaphors tell stories. What Lakoff and Johnson suggested, and what has been confirmed in countless cognitive science and neuro-linguistic studies since is that the subtlest incantation of metaphor can have tremendous influence on how we conceptualize and act to solve social problems. The most prominent recent example of this is a 2011 PLOS One study titled “Metaphors We Think By: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning,” where the authors examined the role of metaphor on how people think about crime.3 Comparing crime-as- virus and crime-as-beast metaphors (both malevolent forces of nature outside human agency) they demonstrated how metaphor actively shapes how and literally where we think about crime (using fMRI). Many other studies, in kindred spirit with Donna Haraway’s Situated Knowledges, have shown similar outcomes for the role of metaphor on how science is performed, communicated, and understood.4 (Besides the military, the other group that is really interested in this area of research is the upper echelon running political campaigns). To be involved in debates with environmental and agricultural thinkers today, as I am, is to be awash in a sea of economic metaphors. I am told that the market via prices efficiently and apolitically allocates scare resources. I am told that environmental destruction, pollution, 1 Carson, R. Silent Spring. New York: Houghton Mifflin 1962. 297. 2 Lakoff, G, and M Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press, 1980. 3-5. 3 Thibodeau, P H, and L Boroditsky. "Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning." PLoS One 6, no. 2 (2011): e16782. 4 Haraway, D. "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective." Feminist Studies 14, no. 3 (1988): 575-99. iv and contamination are externalities that result from market failure. I am told that our persistence as a species depends on us internalizing these externalities. When this impossible singularity occurs, markets will realign in a new equilibrium of sustainability. But this is not necessarily the case, as internalizing externalities is not by definition a societal good. Efficiency and sustainability, as demonstrated by the likes of William Stanley Jevons more than 100 years ago, are not synonymous.5 Or as Richard Norgaard, our former colleague and one of the founders of ecological economics liked to put it, “there are an endless number of ways to efficiently destroy the world.”6 All metaphors are wrong. Some metaphors are useful. But the conceptual and discursive metaphors that dominate how we think about nature, waste, and pollution are garbage. For example, in framing environmental pollution or bodily contamination as an externality – that is as an aberration and something not intrinsic to the nature of the capitalism – we privilege the market as the solution and constrain how we imagine and practice social change. It is from this conceptual framing that we also choose – because their lives are worth less – to contaminate of the poorest among us. And yet, these metaphors have spread across academia and society writ-large. Take the ecological sciences, for example, where the economic metaphors of ecosystem services and natural capital (which start from the assumption of internalizing externalities) have become the dominant way to think about nature, so much so that many ecologists now perform bad science in their name. This is utilitarian anthropocentrism at its worst; it would even make St. Augustine blush.7 “While we cannot dispense with metaphors in thinking about nature,” the evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin wrote, “there is a great risk of confusing the metaphor with the thing of real interest. We cease to see the world as if it were like a machine and take it to be a machine. The result is that the properties we ascribe to our object of interest and the questions we ask about it reinforce the original metaphorical image and we miss the aspects of the system that do not fit the metaphorical approximation.”8 Or as the pioneer cyberneticians Arturo Rosenblueth and Norbert Weiner put it, “the price of metaphor is eternal vigilance.”9 Unfortunately though, we have not kept watch and the fire of metaphorical vigilance has gone unattended. Externality, efficiency, and market failure now rule the roost. And remember that in this view externalities are reciprocal, meaning there are no victims or perpetrators of pollution and contamination. Instead, there are only individual parties with equal property rights open to bargaining in a system that conflates economic and social welfare. 5 Jevons, W S. The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal-Mines. New York: MacMillan And Co., Limited, 1906 (1865). 6 This is something he would often say in his lectures about the economics of sustainability. 7 Glacken, G J. "Reflections on the Man-Nature Theme as a Subject for Study." 1966. 8 Lewontin, R. The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and Environment.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Building the Meat Packing Industry in South Omaha, 1883-1898
    University of Nebraska at Omaha DigitalCommons@UNO Student Work 8-1-1989 Building the meat packing industry in South Omaha, 1883-1898 Gail Lorna DiDonato University of Nebraska at Omaha Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork Recommended Citation DiDonato, Gail Lorna, "Building the meat packing industry in South Omaha, 1883-1898" (1989). Student Work. 1154. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/1154 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Work by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BUILDING THE MEAT PACKING INDUSTRY IN SOUTH OMAHA, 1883-1898 A Thesis Presented to the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA by Gail Lorna DiDonato August, 1989 UMI Number: EP73394 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertaffan PWWfeMng UMI EP73394 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 THESIS ACCEPTANCE Acceptance for the faculty of the Graduate College, University of Nebraska, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts, University of Nebraska at Omaha.
    [Show full text]
  • A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Environmental Sciences And
    A thesis submitted to the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University in part fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Science An assessment of the ecological embeddedness of a farmers’ market in Hungary Case study on Szentendre farmers’ market Gábor KIRÁLY CEU eTD Collection July, 2013 Budapest i Notes on copyright and the ownership of intellectual property rights: (1) Copyright in text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European University Library. Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the Author. (2) The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this thesis is vested in the Central European University, subject to any prior agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any such agreement. (3) For bibliographic and reference purposes this thesis should be referred to as: Király, G. 2013. An assessment of the ecological embeddedness of a farmers’ market in Hungary. Master of Science thesis, Central European University, Budapest. Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation may take place is available from the Head of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University.
    [Show full text]
  • Investigation of Beef Packers' Use of Alternative Marketing Arrangements
    Investigation of Beef Packers’ Use of Alternative Marketing Arrangements United States Department of Agriculture Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration Packers and Stockyards Program Western Regional Office 3950 Lewiston St., Suite 200 Aurora, CO 80011-1556 July 2014 Investigation of Beef Packers’ Use of Alternative Marketing Arrangements Executive Summary The USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) conducted an investigation in response to complaints by participants in the cattle industry that the top four beef packers used committed supplies1 in ways that were anticompetitive. Their concern was that by using committed supplies and formula pricing, (referred to in this report as “alternative marketing arrangements” or AMAs) the cash market was less competitive resulting in lower fed cattle prices. Investigators from GIPSA’s Western Regional Office Business Practices Unit of the Packers and Stockyards Program (P&SP) conducted the investigation. This report details the methods and findings of the investigation, the purpose of which was to determine if the use of AMAs violates the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 (Act). P&SP investigators conducted numerous interviews and collected written statements from cattle producers, sellers, feeders, industry organizations, and the packers. The investigation examined confidential transaction data from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), and confidential transaction data from the four largest beef packers and various cattle sellers. The report documents the structure of fed cattle markets and confirms that, in general, the markets are highly concentrated, especially at the regional level and with regard to negotiated cash sales. Negotiated cash market purchases made up about 39 percent of total fed cattle purchases in the United States in 2009.
    [Show full text]
  • An Overview of Economic Development of Britain a Study Of
    An overview of Economic Development of Britain Introduction A study of economic development of Britain holds special significance as in Britain agriculture and industrial development has started simultaneously. Communication and transport development were the basic factors which led to industrial development in Britain. At the end of the 19th century Britain became the wealthiest and most powerful economy of the world. The per capita income of its citizen was highest in the world. It was the first country to witness industrial revolution ,the first to install modern transportation system, the first to develop the financial infrastructure required to support its industries at home . The British economy grew pretty well throughout the period from 1860-1914. The productivity of labour continued to increase throughout the period in the sense that it got more from the resources which were available to it. The life expectancy ,which had been static since 1830 began to rise in the 1860s and at an increasing rate thereafter. However the infant mortality did not begin to fall until the early years of 20th century, so that the direct cause of overall fall was improvement in the mortality rate of first young and then older adults. The change was not uniform across all parts of the country or all social groups but there was overall and substantial improvement in the important indicator of social welfare. Another important fact is that the physique of the population changed. Heights ,weights of the adult increased because of the intake of the better food, better housing , less disease , reduction in the need to undertake hard physical work in childhood, all helped the children to grow taller and become healthy.
    [Show full text]
  • Livestock Farming at the Expense of Water Resources? the Water–Energy–Food Nexus in Regions with Intensive Livestock Farming
    water Article Livestock Farming at the Expense of Water Resources? The Water–Energy–Food Nexus in Regions with Intensive Livestock Farming Colette S. Vogeler 1,* , Malte Möck 1 , Nils C. Bandelow 1 and Boris Schröder 2,3 1 Comparative Politics and Public Policy, TU Braunschweig, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany; [email protected] (M.M.); [email protected] (N.C.B.) 2 Landscape Ecology and Environmental Systems Analysis, Institute of Geoecology, Technische Universität Braunschweig, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany; [email protected] 3 Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), 14195 Berlin, Germany * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 9 September 2019; Accepted: 3 November 2019; Published: 7 November 2019 Abstract: Policymaking in the water–energy–food nexus is characterized by complex ecological, social, and economic interdependencies. Nexus research assumes these interactions to be overseen in the respective resource governance resulting in sectoral perspectives contributing to unsustainable outcomes. In Germany, the political priority given to the formation of an internationally competitive livestock sector by means of intensification, specialization and regional concentration has exerted sustained pressure on water and soil resources. The expansion of bioenergy plants promoted by the renewable energy act has exacerbated the situation. Despite the persistency of the ecological challenges, German policymakers only reacted when the European Commission referred Germany to the European Court of Justice. Current policy efforts to tackle the ecological problems are now provoking disruptions in the agrarian sector in regions with high nitrate concentrations in water resources. By combining the social-ecological systems framework with hypotheses derived from nexus research, we explore the interactions between food, water and energy systems and aim at understanding the unsustainable outcomes.
    [Show full text]
  • Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur
    National Webinar-cum-Seminar Sustainable Development of Poorvanchal Issues, Strategies and Way Forward Organised by: Planning Department, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur EDITORIAL BOARD • Prof. Ajay Singh • Prof. R.P. Singh • Prof. Sreevardhan Pathak • Prof. Uma Srivastava • Prof. Veena Batra Kushwaha • Prof. Anubhuti Dubey • Prof. Alok Goyal • Prof. Manish Mishra • Prof. Umesh Yadav • Prof. Dhananjay Kumar Sustainable Development of Poorvanchal | ABSTRACT >i Contents: Primary Sector S.No Title of the Paper and Author’s Name Page No. 1. Neuroendocrine Regulation of Ovarian Maturation in Giant Freshwater Prawn, 3 Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man), A. K. Pandey 2. Inter connection of water and livelihood with other aspects of “Atmnirbhar Bharat.”, 4 Anjali 3. Samba -Sub1, rice variety for flood prone areas in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, through on- 5 farm participatory research, B.N. Singh 4. Harnessing productivity potential of waterlogged sodic soil through intervention of land 6 modification in Sharda Sahayak canal command of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, V K Mishra, C L Verma, S K Jha, Y P Singh, T. Damodaran, A K Singh, S Arora 5. Sal mortality in Gorakhpur Forests, Amit Pandey and Shailesh Pandey 7 6. Earthworm Community Structure fluctuate from Urban to Non-Urban Ecosystem 8 Falwinder Verma, Sharanpreet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Chander Parkash, Sartaj Ahmad Bhat, Salwinder Singh Dhaliwal. 7. Effect of Genes for Quantitative Resistance to Turcicum Leaf Blight in Maize, Dan 8 Singh Jakhar and Rajesh Singh 8. Effect of soil pollutants on the diversity of earthworms in eastern Uttar Pradesh 9 Yogendra Kumar, Gorakh Nath and Keshav Singh.
    [Show full text]
  • Hospitality Soap Wrappers Collection 2015.290
    Hospitality soap wrappers collection 2015.290 This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 14, 2021. Description is written in: English. Describing Archives: A Content Standard Audiovisual Collections PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Hospitality soap wrappers collection 2015.290 Table of Contents Summary Information .................................................................................................................................... 3 Historical Note ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Scope and Content ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................ 5 Controlled Access Headings .......................................................................................................................... 6 Collection Inventory ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Inventory ...................................................................................................................................................... 6 By state .......................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Guidelines for Agrarian Systems Diagnosis
    - 1 - FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GUIDELINES FOR AGRARIAN SYSTEMS DIAGNOSIS Land Tenure Service Rural Development Division Sustainable Development Department Food and Agriculture Organization Rome, Italy August 1999 FOREWORD This publication on Agrarian Systems Diagnosis1 represents the result of an effort done by the Land Tenure Service (SDAA) of the Rural Development Division of FAO in cooperation with several institutions, and field projects. It describes and summarizes SDAA's experiences in developing and applying a holistic approach to land tenure dynamics in rural areas. It also presents both the conceptual elements as well as practical methodological proposals for operationalizing agrarian systems diagnosis. The examples presented are drawn from concrete experiences in which the Service has been and still is presently involved. This publication was prepared by Paolo Groppo, Christopher Tanner, and Michel Merlet, who are, respectively, Land Tenure Systems Analysis Officer at the Land Tenure Service (SDAA), Land Tenure Consultant at Cambridge SEPR Associates, 28 Houghton Road, St Ives, Cambridge, England and Agrarian Reform Consultant at IRAM, 49 rue de la Glacière, 75013 Paris, France. We are grateful to many colleagues from FAO as well as to institutes and individuals from outside FAO who have participated in the process of developing the philosophy that underlines this handbook. Special thanks go to Prof. Marcel Mazoyer and Prof. Marc Dufumier from the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, France [http://www.inapg.inra.fr/ens_rech/ses/index.htm] who have been developing the main theory on the evolution of, and difference between agrarian systems. Thanks to their work, future decisions for technical cooperation activities involving land tenure in developing countries will be better informed, more effective and more helpful to those making their living from food production.
    [Show full text]
  • Agrarian Reform in Ethiopia a Refo in Ethiopia
    Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Lppsala Agrarian Reform in Ethiopia A Refo in Ethiopia Dessalegn Rahrnato Scandinavian Institute of African Studies Uppsala, 1984 Dessalegn Rahmato is a Research Associate at the Institute of Development Research, Addis Ababa University. For information about the Institute's research activities and publications, write to: Institute of Development Research Addis Ababa University P.O. Box 1 176 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ODessaleg-n Rahmato 1984 ISBN 91-7106-226-2 Printed in Sweden by Motala Grafiska AB, Motala 1984 Publisher's Preface This book is the first full-length study of the land reform and the resultant social changes in rural Ethiopia. The author, Dessalegn Rahmato, a research fellow at the Institute of Development Research, Addis Ababa University, conducted the study as part of his own wider research on the problem of transition in agrarian societies. Dessalegn spent three months in 1982 as a guest researcher at the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies (SIAS) during which time he wrote part of the draft of the manuscript. The final draft was written in Addis Ababa during the spring of 1983. SIAS is happy to publish this important study which will contribute to the understanding of the process of change taking place in rural Ethiopia. Michael Stdhl Director SIAS Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 9 The Study 9 The Research Areas 10 The Scope of the Study 14 2 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM UNDER THE OLD REGIME 16 Introduction16 The Landholding System 17 Tenancy and Petty Prop- rietorship 22 The Organization
    [Show full text]
  • The Systeme Agraire Concept in Francophone Peasant Studies Hubert Cochet
    The systeme agraire concept in francophone peasant studies Hubert Cochet To cite this version: Hubert Cochet. The systeme agraire concept in francophone peasant studies. Geoforum, Elsevier, 2012, 43 (1), p.128-136. 10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.04.002. halshs-01374272 HAL Id: halshs-01374272 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01374272 Submitted on 13 May 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Agrarian system concept The systeme agraire concept in francophone peasant studies Hubert Cochet Abstract Among the many concepts used in farming systems research, the agrarian system—système agraire—stands out in the works of francophone agronomists, agricultural economists and geographers. It is an all-encompassing concept, capable of making sense of agricultural activities at a regional scale in a way that accounts for both ecological and socio-economic dimensions. The objective of this article is to trace the evolution of this original concept, reflect on the difficulties inherent to its use, and examine its relevance to agricultural research. After exploring its origins and development within the French school of Comparative Agriculture, the author analyzes its components in terms of constituting sub-systems.
    [Show full text]
  • The Agrarian System Concept
    European Commission Workshop on « Systems Approaches for sustainable agriculture – Part I » Brussels, 5-6 December 2016 Systems approaches for sustainable agriculture : the Agrarian System concept Sophie DEVIENNE UFR Comparave Agriculture and Agricultural Development UMR PRODIG, AgroParisTech, CNRS, EPH, IRD, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Paris-Diderot University , Paris-Sorbonne University , Paris [email protected] Sophie Devienne 6/12/2016 1 Challenges of sustainable development in agriculture What producve processes to promote and how to manage to support farmings types in order to : • Ensure abundant and quality food producon • Preserve exploited ecosystems and their inhabitants • Preserve and even create jobs and income • Contribute to reducing the inequali@es = economic viability, ecological sustainability and social equity Sophie Devienne 6/12/2016 2 Challenges of sustainable development in agriculture In order to propose effecve and adapted projects or policies to support sustainable agricultural development, it is necessary : • to understand agricultural reali@es • To idenfy the condi@ons (not only at the farmers level) so that the farmers – Have the means to implement sustainable producon systems – Find it worth their while. Sophie Devienne 6/12/2016 3 An agricultural reality • A complex ecological and economic object • Ecological, technical, economical and social elements in interac@on • These elements to be apprehended at different scales : parcel, unit of produc@on, territory, region, naon… • Geographical diversity of forms of agriculture • In a given agricultural area : different categories of farms, of produc@on systems • A reality in movement : necessary to understand the reasons for the evolu@ons and their consequences Sophie Devienne 6/12/2016 4 The concept of agrarian system (M.
    [Show full text]
  • !Ncredible Kerala? a Political Ecological Analysis of Organic Agriculture in the “Model for Development”
    !ncredible Kerala? A Political Ecological Analysis of Organic Agriculture in the “Model for Development” By: Sapna Elizabeth Thottathil A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Jake Kosek, Chair Professor Michael Watts Professor Nancy Peluso Fall 2012 ABSTRACT !ncredible Kerala? A Political Ecological Analysis of Organic Agriculture in the “Model for Development” By Sapna Elizabeth Thottathil Doctor of Philosophy in Geography University of California, Berkeley Professor Jake Kosek, Chair In 2010, the South Indian state of Kerala’s Communist-led coalition government, the Left Democratic Front (LDF), unveiled a policy to convert the entirety of the state to organic farming within ten years; some estimates claim that approximately 9,000 farmers were already participating in certified organic agriculture for export at the time of the announcement. Kerala is oftentimes hailed as a “model for development” by development practitioners and environmentalists because of such progressive environmental politics (e.g., McKibben 1998). Recent scholarship from Political Ecology, however, has christened organic farming as a neoliberal project, and much like globalized, conventional agriculture (e.g., Guthman 2007 and Raynolds 2004). Drawing from fourteen months of fieldwork in Kerala between 2009-2011, I explore this tension between Kerala as a progressive, political “model,” and globalized, corporatized organic agriculture. I utilize Kerala’s experiences with organic farming to present another story about North-South relations in globalized organic farming. In contrast to recent Political Ecological work surrounding alternative food systems, I contend that organic agriculture can actually offer meaningful possibilities for transforming the global agricultural system in local places.
    [Show full text]