Healing the Metabolic Rift between Farming and the Eco-System: Challenges Facing Organic Farmers in Canada and in Sweden

Michael Clow,Darrell Mclaughlin

doi:10.18740/s4b601

Michael Clow, Darrell Mclaughlin

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.18740/s4b601

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Abstract

There is a growing list of scholarly and popular works which, when taken collectively, raise major concerns about industrialized farming and our present food system, particularly its impact on the natural environment. Over a century ago, Karl Marx used the concept “metabolic rift” to describe problems related to ecological and social sustainability resulting from capitalist industry and agriculture. in this paper, we examine the extent to which some members of today’s organic farming movement are addressing the metabolic rift and changing the social organization of food production.

Highlights

The links between the social organization of food production and environmental problems are becoming increasingly recognized (Beus and Dunlap, 1990; Gertler, 1992)
We begin by summarizing some of the main characteristics of capitalist industrial agriculture that we argue are at the heart of many of today’s environmental problems
Our research question can be stated as follows: What is at the source of the metabolic rift between farming and nature?; What strategies and practices can be used to heal the rift?; and What factors are inhibiting the healing? The objective in posing these questions are threefold: (1) to contribute to a discussion about theoretical criteria for evaluating sustainability in agriculture and the food system; (2) to make explicit the origins of many of today’s unsustainable practices; and (3) to identify more explicitly the location of organic food production in a socio-economic context presently dominated by capitalist institutions

Summary

Introduction

The links between the social organization of food production and environmental problems are becoming increasingly recognized (Beus and Dunlap, 1990; Gertler, 1992) This acknowledgment has led some people to call for the development of alternative approaches to farming (Beus and Dunlap, 1990; Buttel, 1993; Chiappe and Flora, 1998; Clow, 2001; Gertler, 1992; Hill, 1985; Howard, 1940; Jackson, 1997; MacRae et al, 1990; Shiva, 1991; Vail et al, 1994). The objective in posing these questions are threefold: (1) to contribute to a discussion about theoretical criteria for evaluating sustainability in agriculture and the food system; (2) to make explicit the origins of many of today’s unsustainable practices; and (3) to identify more explicitly the location of organic food production in a socio-economic context presently dominated by capitalist institutions Our research question can be stated as follows: What is at the source of the metabolic rift between farming and nature?; What strategies and practices can be used to heal the rift?; and What factors are inhibiting the healing? The objective in posing these questions are threefold: (1) to contribute to a discussion about theoretical criteria for evaluating sustainability in agriculture and the food system; (2) to make explicit the origins of many of today’s unsustainable practices; and (3) to identify more explicitly the location of organic food production in a socio-economic context presently dominated by capitalist institutions

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