Another Technoscience is Possible

AgricultureCover1.jpg
AgricultureCover1.jpg

Agricultural Lessons for the Posthumanities

edited by Gabriela Méndez Cota

Introduction: The Posthuman Life of Agriculture: Local Knowledges, Open Source Lives

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