Fourier and Agriculture

Joan Roelofs Joan Roelofs

doi:10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.6.3.0403

Abstract

Charles Fourier has been disdained or ignored by social scientists. Some of his ideas were “mad,” but so many others were brilliant. Now we can see that even some “mad” ideas were simply premature, for example, global warming. His works are a “whole earth catalog” of solutions to today's most intractable problems, such as agricultural labor in a democracy, environmental degradation, consumerism, loneliness, the decline of the family, the gradual disappearance of nutritious meals (and shared mealtimes), eldercare, boredom at work, unemployment, and the fragmentation of communities by “identity” politics. In 19th-century United States, Fourierist and Owenite communitarian models for settling the country were taken very seriously by intellectuals, and more than 100 communities existed. In 1909, the US Commission on Country Life found persistent problems in our largely isolated farming system: the “idiocy of rural life” and environmental degradation. Yet despite reforms, the agricultural sector today offers few options other than self-exploitation family farms, chemicalized agribusiness, brutalized migrant labor, or those questionable imports. Furthermore, labor-saving devices have not eliminated the time and thought required to obtain and prepare nutritious meals; even the affluent often resort to junk food. Fourier's solutions illuminate our rural dysfunctions and also suggest some not-so-fantastic ideas for remediating the situation.

Highlights

In the early 20th century, political and revolutionary Marxism had become “hegemonic” over other socialist theories
We need not institute every detail of his schemes, and we can note some serious
The early socialists did not assume that the economic base was the source of all other unhappiness

Summary

Introduction

In the early 20th century, political and revolutionary Marxism had become “hegemonic” over other socialist theories. Fourier provided practical policy ideas for his time and for the world as it is for developing as well as developed nations, and for an increasingly feminist world where boundaries of personal and political are shifting. Fourier was an impassioned geographer and an observant demographer He contemplates the promises and pitfalls of globalization. Fourier regarded the family as an institution deservedly on the way out. Even in his day, agribusiness was imposing a new feudalism on farmers:. Today, there are even more challenges, because of long-distance, chemicalized, commercial food production Fourier gives this need its due; one might say that gastronomy has the central place in his utopia.

Fourierism

Marxism and Fourier

Problems of US Agriculture

Communitarianism

Findings

Implementation