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</xml><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> Agricultural Lessons for the Posthumanities


= The Posthuman Life of Agriculture: Local Knowledges, Open Source Lives  =
[http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/ISBN_Numbers ISBN: 978-1-60785-253-7]


== <br>  ==
''edited by'' [http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Agriculture/bio Gabriela Méndez Cota] __TOC__


When Foucault introduced the concept of biopolitics he referred to a historically specific power agenda involving a particular approach to life. This approach was at the root of the modern sciences of biology and political economy, both of which set out to describe, explain and manage their objects of study as abstract processes of production and reproduction. Agricultural science must be situated in relation to the biopolitical agenda of 'applying' the modern scientific approach to the management of social life.&nbsp;[http://www.jae-online.org/back-issues/58-volume-37-number-4-1996/556-the-origins-of-agriscience-or-where-did-all-that-scientific-agriculture-come-from.html The scientification of agriculture]&nbsp;<u></u>took place in the United States towards the end of the 19th century through a process that entailed both a delegitimation of farmer-generated knowledges and [http://chla.library.cornell.edu/c/chla/browse/title/7032038.html the production of new, modern subjectivities].&nbsp;As farmers became entrepreneurs in need of scientific education and advice, newly trained agronomists devoted themselves to designing fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seeds with the goal of maximizing yields. Public institutions were created which coordinated agricultural production with both science and trade policy. Agricultural science was thus inseparable from the process which transformed much of US agriculture into transnational agribusiness, and local farming networks all over the world into consumer endpoints of a globalized food industry.
== [http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Agriculture/Introduction '''Introduction: The Posthuman Life of Agriculture'''] ==


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When Foucault introduced the concept of biopolitics, he referred to a historically specific power agenda involving a particular approach to life. This approach was at the root of the modern sciences of biology and political economy, both of which set out to describe, explain and manage their objects of study as abstract processes of production and reproduction. Agricultural science must be situated in relation to the biopolitical agenda of 'applying' the modern scientific approach to the management of social life.&nbsp;[http://www.jae-online.org/back-issues/58-volume-37-number-4-1996/556-the-origins-of-agriscience-or-where-did-all-that-scientific-agriculture-come-from.html The scientification of agriculture]&nbsp;took place in the United States towards the end of the 19th century, through a process that entailed both a delegitimation of farmer-generated knowledges and [http://chla.library.cornell.edu/c/chla/browse/title/7032038.html the production of new, modern subjectivities].&nbsp;As farmers became entrepreneurs in need of scientific education and advice, newly trained agronomists devoted themselves to designing fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seeds with the goal of maximizing yields. Public institutions were created which coordinated agricultural production with both science and trade policy. Agricultural science was thus inseparable from the process which transformed much of US agriculture into transnational agribusiness, and local farming networks all over the world into consumer endpoints of a globalized food industry. [http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Agriculture/Introduction (more...)]
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;Alison G. Power&nbsp;
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:[http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/365/1554/2959.full Ecosystem Services and Agriculture: Tradeoffs and Synergies]
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;Andrew K. Evers, Amanda Bambrick, Simon Lacombe, Michael C. Dougherty, Matthias Peichl, Andrew M. Gordon, Naresh V. Thevathasan, Joann Whalen and Robert L. Bradley&nbsp;
  <o:Characters>459</o:Characters>
:[http://www.benthamscience.com/open/toasj/articles/V004/SI0047TOASJ/49TOASJ.pdf Potential Greenhouse Gas Mitigation through Temperate Tree-Based Intercropping Systems]
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;Vincent Thieu, Gilles Billen, Josette Garnier and Marc Benoît&nbsp;
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:[http://www.springerlink.com/content/w218435644u81584/fulltext.html Nitrogen Cycling in a Hypothetical Scenario of Generalised Organic Agriculture in the Seine, Somme and Scheldt Watersheds]
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;Acácio A. Navarrete, Fabiana S. Cannavan, Rodrigo G. Taketani and Tsiu M. Tsai&nbsp;
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:[http://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/2/5/787/pdf A Molecular Survey of the Diversity of Microbial Communities in Different Amazonian Agricultural Model Systems]
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;Wagner Bettiol, Raquel Ghini, José Abrahao Haddad Galvao, Marcos Antônio Vieira Ligo and Jeferson Luiz de Carvhalo Mineiro&nbsp;
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:[http://www.scielo.br/pdf/sa/v59n3/10591.pdf Soil Organisms in Organic and Conventional Cropping Systems]  
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;Chengyun Li, Xiahong He, Shusheng Zhu, Huiping Zhou, Yunyue Wang, Yan Li, Jing Yang, Jinxiang Fan, Jincheng Yang, Guibin Wang, Yunfu Long, Jiayou Xu, Yongsheng Tang, Gaohui Zhao, Jiangrong Yang, Lin Liu, Yan Sun, Yong Xie, Haining Wang and Youyong Zhu&nbsp;
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;Ricardo Antonio Marenco and Ávila Maria Bastos Santos&nbsp;
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:[http://www.scielo.br/pdf/pab/v34n10/7189.pdf Crop Rotation Reduces Weed Competition and Increases Chlorophyll Concentration and Rice Yield]
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;Samuel Kilonzo Mutiga, Linnet S. Gohole and Elmada O. Auma&nbsp;
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:[http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/view/7432/7872 Agronomic Performance of Collards under Two Intercrops and Varying Nitrogen Application Levels as Assessed Using Land Equivalent Ratios]
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;Gregory A. Jones and Jennifer L. Gillett&nbsp;
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:[http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1653/0015-4040%282005%29088%5B0091%3AIWSTAB%5D2.0.CO%3B2 Intercropping with Sunflowers to Attract Beneficial Insects in Organic Agriculture]
</xml><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times; mso-ansi-language:ES-TRAD">&nbsp;More than 20 years ago [http://www.dces.wisc.edu/faculty/kloppenburg/index.php Jack Kloppenburg], a rural
;Cristina A. Faria, Felix L. Wäckers, Jeremy Pritchard, David A. Barrett, Ted C. J. Turlings&nbsp;
sociologist and advocate of farmer-generated local knowledges wrote that
:[http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0000600 High Susceptibility of Bt Maize to Aphids Enhances the Performance of Parasitoids of Lepidopteran Pests]
'agricultural science as currently constituted provides neither a complete, nor
;Andréia S. Guimaraes and José S. Mourao&nbsp;
an adequate, nor even a best possible account of the sphere of agricultural
:[http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/pdf/1746-4269-2-42.pdf Management of Plant Species for Controlling Pests by Peasant Farmers at Lagoa Seca, Paraíba State, Brazil: An Ethnoecological Approach]  
production' (2009: 248). Agriculture has been reduced by agriscience to the
;Julia Quartz&nbsp;
exploitation of land through intensive monoculture farming. Oriented towards
:[http://www.ijtds.com/IJTDS1_1_quartz.pdf Creative Dissent with Technoscience in India: The Case of Non-Pesticidal Management (NPM) in Andra Pradesh]
the conquest of foreign markets, agricultural production has been made to
;Jack Kloppenburg&nbsp;
depend on mechanization, agrochemicals, and the constant replacement of
:[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2010.00275.x/full Impending Dispossession, Enabling Repossession: Biological Open Source and the Recovery of Seed Sovereignty]
improved crop varieties. A cultivar with improved disease or insect resistance
;Keith Aoki&nbsp;
performs well for a few years (typically 5-9), after which yields begin to
:[http://law2.fordham.edu/publications/articles/500flspub17892.pdf "Free Seeds, not Free Beer": Participatory Plant Breeding, Open Source Seeds, and Acknowledging User Innovation in Agriculture]
drop, productivity is threatened by weeds or pests that have become resistant
;Derek Byerlee and Harvey Jesse Dubin&nbsp;
to agrochemicals, and a more promising cultivar comes to replace the previous
:[http://www.thecommonsjournal.org/index.php/ijc/article/view/147/113 Crop Improvement in the CGIAR as a Global Success Story of Open Access and International Collaboration]
one (Altieri 2001). In recent years, the efficiency of commercial 'inputs' has
;Laxmi Prasad Pant and Helen Hambly-Odame&nbsp;
decreased and the yields of key crops have in some places been leveling off.
:[http://www.innovation.cc/scholarly-style/pant_odame_creative_commons4final2rev.pdf Creative Commons: Non-Proprietary Innovation Triangles in International Agricultural and Rural Development Partnerships]
Mainstream agroscientists believe that this is happening because the maximum
 
yield potential of current varieties is being approached, and therefore genetic
== [http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Agriculture/Attributions '''Attributions''']  ==
engineering must be applied to the task of redesigning crops. Critics of
 
agriscience, however, argue that such a solution would would only make things
== A 'Frozen' PDF Version of this Living Book  ==
wors, since it would amount to an intensification of the conventional
 
destructive paradigm (Altieri 2001). It is well-known today that
;[http://livingbooksaboutlife.org/pdfs/bookarchive/AnotherTechnoscienceisPossible.pdf Download a 'frozen' PDF version of this book as it appeared on 7th October 2011]
chemical-intensive monoculture farming has everywhere led to soil erosion,
water pollution and numerous other serious damages such as the loss of plant
and animal species, the destruction of natural pest control mechanisms, the
consequent proliferation of new pests and 'super weeds',</span>
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Latest revision as of 17:14, 3 October 2012

AgricultureCover1.jpg
AgricultureCover1.jpg

Agricultural Lessons for the Posthumanities

ISBN: 978-1-60785-253-7

edited by Gabriela Méndez Cota

Introduction: The Posthuman Life of Agriculture

When Foucault introduced the concept of biopolitics, he referred to a historically specific power agenda involving a particular approach to life. This approach was at the root of the modern sciences of biology and political economy, both of which set out to describe, explain and manage their objects of study as abstract processes of production and reproduction. Agricultural science must be situated in relation to the biopolitical agenda of 'applying' the modern scientific approach to the management of social life. The scientification of agriculture took place in the United States towards the end of the 19th century, through a process that entailed both a delegitimation of farmer-generated knowledges and the production of new, modern subjectivities. As farmers became entrepreneurs in need of scientific education and advice, newly trained agronomists devoted themselves to designing fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seeds with the goal of maximizing yields. Public institutions were created which coordinated agricultural production with both science and trade policy. Agricultural science was thus inseparable from the process which transformed much of US agriculture into transnational agribusiness, and local farming networks all over the world into consumer endpoints of a globalized food industry. (more...)

Readings

Alison G. Power 
Ecosystem Services and Agriculture: Tradeoffs and Synergies
Andrew K. Evers, Amanda Bambrick, Simon Lacombe, Michael C. Dougherty, Matthias Peichl, Andrew M. Gordon, Naresh V. Thevathasan, Joann Whalen and Robert L. Bradley 
Potential Greenhouse Gas Mitigation through Temperate Tree-Based Intercropping Systems
Vincent Thieu, Gilles Billen, Josette Garnier and Marc Benoît 
Nitrogen Cycling in a Hypothetical Scenario of Generalised Organic Agriculture in the Seine, Somme and Scheldt Watersheds
Acácio A. Navarrete, Fabiana S. Cannavan, Rodrigo G. Taketani and Tsiu M. Tsai 
A Molecular Survey of the Diversity of Microbial Communities in Different Amazonian Agricultural Model Systems
Wagner Bettiol, Raquel Ghini, José Abrahao Haddad Galvao, Marcos Antônio Vieira Ligo and Jeferson Luiz de Carvhalo Mineiro 
Soil Organisms in Organic and Conventional Cropping Systems
Chengyun Li, Xiahong He, Shusheng Zhu, Huiping Zhou, Yunyue Wang, Yan Li, Jing Yang, Jinxiang Fan, Jincheng Yang, Guibin Wang, Yunfu Long, Jiayou Xu, Yongsheng Tang, Gaohui Zhao, Jiangrong Yang, Lin Liu, Yan Sun, Yong Xie, Haining Wang and Youyong Zhu 
Crop Diversity for Yield Increase
Ricardo Antonio Marenco and Ávila Maria Bastos Santos 
Crop Rotation Reduces Weed Competition and Increases Chlorophyll Concentration and Rice Yield
Samuel Kilonzo Mutiga, Linnet S. Gohole and Elmada O. Auma 
Agronomic Performance of Collards under Two Intercrops and Varying Nitrogen Application Levels as Assessed Using Land Equivalent Ratios
Gregory A. Jones and Jennifer L. Gillett 
Intercropping with Sunflowers to Attract Beneficial Insects in Organic Agriculture
Cristina A. Faria, Felix L. Wäckers, Jeremy Pritchard, David A. Barrett, Ted C. J. Turlings 
High Susceptibility of Bt Maize to Aphids Enhances the Performance of Parasitoids of Lepidopteran Pests
Andréia S. Guimaraes and José S. Mourao 
Management of Plant Species for Controlling Pests by Peasant Farmers at Lagoa Seca, Paraíba State, Brazil: An Ethnoecological Approach
Julia Quartz 
Creative Dissent with Technoscience in India: The Case of Non-Pesticidal Management (NPM) in Andra Pradesh
Jack Kloppenburg 
Impending Dispossession, Enabling Repossession: Biological Open Source and the Recovery of Seed Sovereignty
Keith Aoki 
"Free Seeds, not Free Beer": Participatory Plant Breeding, Open Source Seeds, and Acknowledging User Innovation in Agriculture
Derek Byerlee and Harvey Jesse Dubin 
Crop Improvement in the CGIAR as a Global Success Story of Open Access and International Collaboration
Laxmi Prasad Pant and Helen Hambly-Odame 
Creative Commons: Non-Proprietary Innovation Triangles in International Agricultural and Rural Development Partnerships

Attributions

A 'Frozen' PDF Version of this Living Book

Download a 'frozen' PDF version of this book as it appeared on 7th October 2011
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