Social transformation in

Agriculture
• Bryant, p. 291, talks about a shift in values
embedded in farming and agricultural land

– What are the value shifts that you observe?

World Bank Food Price Index
 Agricultural Restructuring
• In this section on Agriculture, we
examine:
– Stages of agricultural development in
Canada
– Distinct modes of agriculture –
productivism and post-productivism
– Farm crisis, what is this crisis? How can it
be address?
– Relationship between agriculture and rural
communities
 Stages of Agricultural
Development (Knuttila 2003)
• Phase one: Establishment and Expansion
(turn of the Century to the great
depression)
• Phase two: Crisis management and
Maintenance (1930s to 1960s)
• Phase three: globalization and
restructuring (1960s to ?)
 What are the main drivers of
change in Canadian agriculture?

– Productivism
Number and percentage change
of farms in Saskatchewan
Average size and percentage
change of farms in
Saskatchewan
 Major impact of productivism –
growth in agricultural production
Main drivers of change in Canadian
agriculture
– Productivism
• Intensification
• Concentration
• Specialization

– What are the consequences, good and

bad…?
 Other trends in Agriculture
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6sOiQ
1W20A
• http://www.prairieurbanfarm.ca/p/video-
reel.html
 Post-productivism
• Extensification
• Diversification
• Countryside stewardship
Growth in organic producers
Countryside stewardship
Environmental Farm Plan
 Wetland Conservation
• Ducks Unlimited
– http://www.ducks.ca/what-we-do/your-
land/prairie-programs/

• Restoring wetlands project

– http://www.edmontonjournal.com/University+A
lberta+project+will+market+mechanisms+rest
ore+wetlands/10878047/story.html
 Post-productivism
• Extensification
• Diversification
• Countryside stewardship

– What are the consequences, good and bad…?

 Chapter 14, The Social
Transformation of Agriculture
• Three cross-cutting themes
– Shift in values embedded in farming and
agricultural land
– Driving forces are external and internal to
rural communities
– Heterogeneity of transformations
 Farming identities
• Construction of new identities for
agriculture by the non-farming population,
p. 293
– What are the challenges here?
 Emerging patterns, p. 295
CSA: Community supported agriculture

• Organics, CSA, urban agriculture Multifunctionality in

agriculture refers to
the numerous benefits

• New entrants, new types of farming

that agricultural
policies may provide
for a country or region.
Generally speaking,

• Multifunctional development (most multifunctionality

refers to the non-trade
benefits of agriculture,

important change) that is, benefits other

than commerce and
food production

CSA: is an alternative, locally-based economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA also refers to a particular network
or association of individuals who have pledged to support one or more local farms, with growers and consumers sharing the risks
and benefits of food production. CSA members or subscribers pay at the onset of the growing season for a share of the anticipated
harvest; once harvesting begins, they periodically receive shares of produce. In addition to produce, some CSA services may
include additional farm products like honey, eggs, dairy, and meat.

Post Productivism: The concept of 'post-productivism' was introduced in the 1990s as an

attempt to explain and theorize changes and trends in contemporary agriculture, where the focus
on agricultural production gradually shifted towards demands for amenities, ecosystem services
and preservation of cultural landscapes
 Multifunctionality
• Examples of water conservation
– Watersheds Taiwan
– Watersheds in New York

From text: The idea of multi-functionality reflects:

1. Changing socio-economic production systems and associated values
2. Changing demographic structures (reflecting changing mobility patterns)
3. Changing values appropriated by the government (MAPAQ) and other agencies (SRQ)
 New York City Watershed

http://www.nytimes.com/video/nyregion/10
0000003176142/living-city-a-billion-
gallons-a-day.html
 Examples of new
developments, p. 299
• Urban fringes and the broader urban field
• New peripheral rural areas
• State Initiatives
• “neo-ruralities,” p., 301
The neo-rurals are city dwellers who decided to leave to settle in rural
areas; bring with them different values, with environmental
conservation and the purchase of locally produced foodstuffs .
Peri-urbanisation relates to those processes of dispersive urban growth that
creates hybrid landscapes of fragmented urban and rural characteristics
One project: uses the principal of non-
agricultural functions of agricultural land and the
development of viable farming activities focused
on organic production and catering to urban
markets.
Research action project – aimed at
accompanying groups of farmers in the
development of an agricultural project to
maintain their farming activity over a long term.
Sell to
1. Suburban markets
2. Direct selling (like CSA?)
3. Selling in an urban food cooperative
 Farm Crisis
– Debt
– Income
– Government Support
– Rural Communities
The years 2003-2006 will be some of the four worst years of Realized
Net Income (RNI) in Canadian history, with an average per farm of $5,592
per year.
CAUSES OF AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE FARM CRISIS

Smart, J. Department of Anthropology, University of Calgary

 Ontario Farm Crisis
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvtV5k
qfe24
 Explaining the farm crisis
Source: National Farmers Union (2005)

• Farm crisis (debt, low income, farm failure)

– At least 20 years old
– Global
– Unprecedented
• Non-causes
• Potential causes
– Subsidies increased production
oversupply falling prices farm crisis
• Real Cause
 Solutions to the farm crisis
National Farmers Union (2005)

• Guarantee farms their costs of production

• Set aside land and modulate grain supplies
• Control the power and profits of input
manufacturers
• Help farmers to unhook from profit-draining
input makers
• Ban corporate farming
• Control supermarket and processor power
• Labeling. Help consumers make informed
choices
 Voice and Action
1. History, Trends, and Territory
2. Structure and Discourse
3. Culture and Identity

4. Voice and Action

– Endogenous change, mobilization of
citizens, resist established patterns of
thinking and behaviour
– “rural residents are not simply passive
recipients of change, but they are co-
creators of change”
 Chapter 15, Darin Barney
• “That’s No Way to Run a Railroad” The
Battle River Branchline and the Politics of
Technology in Rural Alberta

– What are the social, economic, political,

environmental dimensions of grain handling?
Grain Handling Technologies
Grain Handling Technologies
Grain Handling Technologies
Battle River Railway
 Battle River Railway
• http://gdp.nfb.ca/photo-essay/1807/full-
steam-ahead-the-battle-river-railway
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ulHm
65RBlM
 Chapter 15
• P, 317. Producer car cooperatives, is it
nostalgic or essential?

• - “cooperation is essential to survival, and

certain modes and scales of productive
organization are more supportive of
cooperative subjectivity than others”
 Chapter 15
• Subjectivity and objectivity, how are these
terms used in this chapter?