Social Systems in Agriculture

Social Systems in Agriculture

Eco-Ag Program

October 3, 2003

Chad Kruger

The little farmers watched debt creep up on them like the tide. They sprayed the trees and sold no crop, they pruned and grafted and could not pick

the crop. And the men of knowledge have worked, have considered, and the fruit is rotting

on the ground, and the decaying mash in the wine vats is poisoning the air. And taste the wine -- no grape flavor at all, just sulphur and tannic

acid and alcohol.

- Steinback, John. “Hunger in a Land of Plenty.” The Grapes of Wrath. 1939.

I. Introduction to Food Systems

A. Famine Analysis Example

• Irish Potato Famine of 1848 – 1849.

• 1.5 million people died (many more emigrated). 80% of the Irish diet based on potatoes (poor had a 100% diet of potatoes).

• Yet Ireland EXPORTED corn during the famine.



• Great Bengal Famine of 1943.

• 1.5 – 3 million people died.

• More food was available in the year of the famine than in the previous year with no famine.

• Rice was EXPORTED from the Bengal Province in 1943!



So what happened?

Were their natural causes?

• Ireland – Potato Blight• Bengal, India – Climatic

variations



Or were the famines caused by socio-economic and

political causes?

Entitlements: the market failed to equitably distribute the available food, and/or it failed to restructure the food system to meet the need.

Amartya Sen (1981) “Ingredients of Famine Analysis: Availability and Entitlements”.



Note: the consequences of food systems are not limited to market-based systems –

Consider the famine in China in the 1960’s – 20 – 30 million Chinese died as a consequence of failed central planning for agriculture.

Subsistence farmers have historically suffered frequent “mini-famines” or lean years.



B. Politics of Food Aid Example

Politics of Food Aid Example

US Insistence on Export of Genetically Engineered Corn as USAID food aid to countries in Southern Africa (Zambia, Zimbabwe, etc.) who are suffering from extended drought.




C. Key Idea

The key thing to consider is that agriculture does not happen in a vacuum. Even a “subsistence”-oriented agriculture is part of complex system that has both human and ecological elements to it.




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

“They’re making people every day, but they ain’t making

any more dirt.” – Will Rogers




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

What are the reasons we need to consider sustainability?

• Population Growth• Limited and reduced

availability of resources• Increased Waste• Questionable ability of

technology change to address future needs in a timely manner.




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

What are the elements of sustainability?

• Ecologicalhow much of earth’s bounty can we extract? – how

much toxicity can the earth absorb?

• EconomicAre economic systems inherently unsustainable? Is

scale the determinant of sustainability?

• Social

How do you measure “social” sustainability?

• TimeWhat kind of time frame do we need to consider for

sustainability?




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

How does a society make decisions about

agriculture?

How does a society codify decisions about

agriculture?

Institutions




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

What is an institution?

a significant practice, relationship, or organization in a society or culture; something or someone firmly associated with a place or thing; an established organization or corporation, especially of a public character

Merriam-Webster




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

What are some examples of institutions related to US

agriculture?




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

i. Organizations/Entities

Organizations/Entities• USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) • Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture (WSU)• Cooperative Extension • Other Higher Ed Ag. Institutions (Tech/trade

schools, Liberal arts programs)• 4H, FFA, High School Vocational Agriculture

courses• Corporations (ie. Seed/petrochemical

companies)• Science Societies• Cooperatives (ie. Cenex, Land’O’Lakes,

cooperative grocery stores)• Farmer and citizen organizations (Farm Bureau,

Farmer’s Union, Rural Roots, Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network)

• Realtors, speculators, lenders




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples


ii. Laws/codes

Laws/codes

• Farm Bill• Congressional Appropriations• Compliance laws (EPA

regulations, etc.)• Taxes• Commodity programs• Land use zoning and policy• Homestead Act




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples


ii. Laws/codes

iii. Facilities

Facilities

• Railroads• Highways• Grain Depots• Feedlots• Experiment stations/trial fields• Wholesale and Retail distributors




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples


ii. Laws/codes

iii. Facilities

iv. Ideas/Practices

Ideas/Practices

• Swidden-fallow (slash and burn agriculture)

• Westward Expansion

• Slavery

• Share-cropping

• The New Deal

• John Deere . . . Technology

• Monocultures

• Green Revolution

• Oil . . . stored energy (fuel, fertilizers, etc.)

• Barn Raising

• Community Supported Agriculture

• Farmer’s Markets

• Private Property

• Public Land




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples


ii. Laws/codes

iii. Facilities

iv. Ideas/Practices

v. Individuals

Individuals

• Franklin Roosevelt• Henry Wallace (Former Secretary of

Ag)• Norman Borlaug (Green Revolution)• Jim Hightower (Family Farm Advocate)• Wendell Berry• Ray Croc and J.R. Simplot• Jose Bove (French farmer, jailed for

vandalizing McDonald’s)• Percy Schmeiser (Canadian farmer

sued by Monsanto)




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea

The key is that agricultural institutions are the embodiment of a society’s history, ideas and decisions about agriculture.




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea

IV. Land tenure, policy and use

A. Land Tenure

1. Defined

What is land tenure?

The rights and obligations of a [land] holder

John Bruce, 1998. “Review of Tenure Terminology” Tenure Brief No. 1, University of Wisconsin Land Tenure Center,

Madison, Wisconsin.




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure

1. Defined

2. Elements

Elements of Tenure

• Bundle of rights [and responsibilities]

• Freehold ----- leasehold ------ common property

• Perceptions of security or strength of tenure

• Theoretical linkage to agricultural performance and conservation




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure

1. Defined

2. Elements

Elements of Tenure

• Bundle of rights [and responsibilities]

• Freehold ----- leasehold ------ common property

• Perceptions of security or strength of tenure

• Theoretical linkage to agricultural performance and conservation

• Tenure reform – redistribution of land holding




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure

B. Policy and Land Use

Why is land tenure important to agricultural policy and use?




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure


1. Equity

Distribution of land for reasons of economic security and equity – dualistic agricultural systems (feudalism, Agriculture-of-the-Middle, etc.)




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure


1. Equity

2. Political Democracy

Distribution of land for reasons of political security and equity – Jeffersonian agrarianism, the idea of a “landed democracy” (a reaction to a landed aristocracy).




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure


1. Equity


3. Production / Conservation

Theoretical (and empirical) linkages between tenure security and productivity and conservation. See Tenure Model.




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure


1. Equity


3. Production / Conservation

4. Public vs. Private Good

Strength of private interests in the “exploitation” [productivity] and conservation of property vs. strength of public interest in food/fiber security and “multiple benefits of agriculture (open-space, wildlife, water quality, etc.)




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure


C. Key Idea

The key is to understand that there is a correlation between the rights that a user perceives that he or she has in a holding and how he or she uses that land.

Society [or the state] can use land tenure to balance needs of productivity and conservation.




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability A. Reasons B. Elements

III. Institutions A. Defined B. Examples C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure B. Policy and Land Use C. Key Idea

V. Structure of Agriculture

How is the US agricultural system structured?

How should it be structured?

How does a market system differ from a planned or subsistence system?

What are the benefits and consequences of a market system and how can society influence the

system in the direction of sustainability?

I. Introduction to Food Systems A. Famine Analysis Example B. Politics of Food Aid

Example C. Key Idea



IV. Land tenure, policy and use A. Land Tenure B. Policy and Land Use C. Key Idea


A. Macro-economic principles

Macroeconomic Principles

• What are the principles/models of liberal economic development? (ex. Lewis Model)

• How do supply and demand effect land, labor, capital and technology?

• What are the impacts of trade, and/or, import substitution?

• How does liberal economics compare to planned or subsistence economics?




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure


C. Key Idea



B. Stakeholders

How do stakeholders relate to each other in our agricultural system?

• What role does/should the government have in a “market-oriented” agricultural system?

• What role do/should consumer’s have?

• What role do/should producers have?• How are key dimensions of the food

system organized: research, extension, production, processing, distribution, marketing, etc?

• What is the appropriate balance of public and private interests?




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure


C. Key Idea



B. Stakeholders

C. Urban – Rural Bias

Urban-Rural Bias

• Politics of power / wealth• Demographic concerns• Market access and opportunity

- Is the farmer’s market and CSA THE PATH to sustainability?

• Consolidation of land• Politics of personal values

A thousand hills lay bare to the sky, and half of every hill was wheat and half was fallow

ground. . . . The beauty of them was austere. . . . The sun shone hot, the wind blew hard; and

over the boundless undulating expanse hovered a shadow that was neither hood of

dust nor hue of gold. . . . A singularly beautiful effect of harmony lay in the long, slowly rising slopes. . . . not a hundred harvests, nor three

generations of toiling men, could ever rob nature of its limitless space and scorching sun and sweeping dust, of its resistless age-long

creep back toward the desert that it had been.

Grey, Zane. 1919. “The Plight of an Unsung Hero in a Land of Want.”

Desert of Wheat. New York: Grosset & Dunlop Publishers, pp. 1-2.

I. Introduction to Food Systems A. Famine Analysis Example B. Politics of Food Aid Example C. Key Idea




V. Structure of Agriculture A. Macro-economic principles B. Stakeholders C. Urban-Rural Bias

D. Key Idea

The key issue is to understand how public and private entities and interests interact in a market-oriented agricultural system.

The agricultural sector is one of the least “liberalized” sectors of the US market economy – because the availability and distribution of food and fiber are considered to be a political necessity – and it continually faces real and ideological challenges to the nature of it’s socio-politico-economic structure – which ultimately brings into question the sustainability of our agricultural system.




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure


C. Key Idea



B. Stakeholders

C. Urban-rural bias

D. Key Idea

VI. Participation in Democracy

How do we leverage the existing agricultural institutions and/or create new ones that promote sustainability as the goal for

agriculture?

Should we be civic minded (Town of Dunn) or should we litigate?

How does one engage the political process of agriculture?

I. Introduction to Food Systems A. Famine Analysis Example B. Politics of Food Aid

Example C. Key Idea




V. Structure of Agriculture A. Macro-economic principles B. Stakeholders C. Urban-rural bias D. Key Idea

VI. Participation in Democracy A. The political process

1. Organizations

Organizations

National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and the

Regional Sustainable Agriculture Working Groups

Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

Center for Rural Affairs, Walthill, NE Food First Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Family Farm Defenders Women, Food and Agriculture Network Southern Federation of Cooperatives Organic Farming Research Foundations Henry Wallace Center, Winrock International Food and Society Policy Fellows Program







1. Organizations

2. Events / Opportunities

Events and institutional opportunities to provide

input

Farm Bill and Appropriations Federal Decision making panels Federal Rule Comment periods







1. Organizations

2. Events / Opportunities

Federal Stakeholder Input Rule.

84 people submitted public comments on the Federal Stakeholder Input Rule for Land Grant College of Agriculture Plans of Work – and ultimately those 84 comments led to the inclusion of language in the rule that makes the Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture more transparent and responsible to citizen input. Imagine if it were 8400, 84,000 or 84 million people who provided comment?




C. Key Idea

II. Sustainability

A. Reasons

B. Elements

III. Institutions

A. Defined

B. Examples

C. Key Idea


A. Land Tenure


C. Key Idea



B. Stakeholders

C. Urban-rural bias

D. Key Idea

VI. Participation in Democracy

A. The political process

B. Civic Action

How can I engage in a local or community-minded political process?






VI. Participation in Democracy A. The political process B. Civic Action

1. Local organizations

Local Organizations

Land Stewardship Project Church’s Center for Land and People Rural Roots Washington Sustainable Food and

Farming Network Seattle Tilth Regional Sustainable Ag Societies Michael Fields Agricultural Institute Lane County Food Coalition (Eugene,

Oregon) Milwaukee Hunger Task Force Local religious centers Schools 4H and FFA







1. Local organizations

2. Local Events

Local Events

Community Celebrations/potlucks, etc.

County Fairs and agricultural trade shows

Public meetings and hearings Field trips, field days, agricultural

breakfasts, etc.







1. Local organizations 2. Local Events

3. Purchasing Power

Voting with your $$$$$$

. . . By buying local, organic, sustainable, etc.

farmer’s markets Local coops Health food stores Community Supported Agriculture Eco-labels







1. Local organizations 2. Local Events

3. Purchasing Power

Voting with your $$$$$$

. . . At the polls

• Tax levies and public revenue referendums

• Example: Town of Dunn, Wisconsin







C. Arguments

A Valid Argument

Political debates are often fueled by emotive rhetoric – strongly held opinions and values that are not well-reasoned or articulated. A

valid, sound argument, that utilizes reasonable premises and

conclusions – in addition to timely, appropriate evidence, make a

citizen appear more intelligent, informed, well-thought and

convincing.






VI. Participation in Democracy A. The political process B. Civic Action C. Arguments

D. Key Idea

The key is that there are numerous opportunities and strategies for engaging the political system in favor of promoting a more sustainable agricultural system.

Both civic action and litigation/political action are probably necessary avenues of engagement, depending on the scale of the political opportunity (ie. local issues = civic action and national/global isues = litigation/political action).

Valid, reasoned arguments are critical to both civics and litigation.

Study Questions:

1. Is sustainability a process or product of agricultural systems? Explain.

2. What are some benefits and problems of institutions?

3. Should private ownership of property be a right? Explain.

4. What are some potential benefits and problems with market-oriented agricultural systems?

5. How does the scale of a political entity (number of people, size of area, etc.) influence the political process?

Documents

Social Systems in Agriculture