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Agri-Culture. Reconnecting people, land and nature
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Book reviews / Journal of Cleaner Production 12 (2004) 527–531
Agri-Culture. Reconnecting people, land and nature By Jules Pretty 2002. Earthscan Publications Limited, London. ISBN 1-85383-925-6, 261 pp, £14.95 Despite extraordinary growth in agricultural productivity, farming communities across the world are in a state of crisis. Clear thinking, firm policies in combination with brave action by farmers are necessary for a way out of what Jules Pretty claims is devastating to both the natural environment and humankind. In his book on sustainable agriculture, he sets out the responsibilities for all, farmers, consumers, agro-food businesses and politicians in pursuing the path of sustainable agriculture. Jules Pretty is a professor in the center of “Environment and Society” at the University of Essex, England. A member of an international working party to set up a global Science Council for agricultural research and Chief Editor of a journal on agricultural sustainability, he is renown in the international discussions on sustainable farming. He has also co-authored a United Nations report on sustainable development for the World Summit in Johannesburg 2002. The first chapter discusses the history behind the modernization of agriculture including privatization, enclosures, colonization. He then goes on to discuss the exclusion of poor people from natural resources and how the evolving structure of landscape use can be push this trend. Predominant today is the “enclave” approach, which points to the specialization for sites of resource (biodiversity, food production, tourist resorts etc). Parallel to this development are the forced “moonscapes”, which refer to the areas used in high-intensive agricultural production. The costs and benefits of agricultural systems is the next topic. The author claims that food prices need to internalize the externalities, which in terms of food include both environmental degradation and human health hazards. The author points to the difficulties of estimating the values and costs of changes to nature, which can complicate policy development. The fourth chapter shows how modern technologies on one hand can increase agricultural productivity, but how they on the other hand increase the costs for farmers to stay competitive. Higher costs inevitably inhibit poor people’s ability to stay in the farming business, and local farming is what safeguards people’s collective capacity to manage local conditions. Sustainable agriculture is both diverse and productive, states the author. In chapter 5 we are introduced to the need to reconnect whole food systems, and this is carried out various places in the world. Many examples are given of farmers’ markets, box schemes, community-supported agriculture etc, which can help consumer and farmers get in touch on a regional basis. Chapter 6 discusses natural resources’ genetic diver-
sity, including biotechnology and genetic modification. The author addresses the important questions regarding the application of these potent however still new technologies, and emphasizes the need for evaluation of risks and benefits on a case-by-case basis. In chapter 7, the topic of ecological literacy is brought up. Ecological literacy from a social learning and participatory system could help promote new types of commons that can be used for collective management of our natural resources. Participating in groups with responsible these resources can also provoke personal change, the author claims. The final chapter provides the reader with an insight into examples of positive transformations that have occurred, as to illustrate what the need for new thinking and new policies. Despite great progress in increasing productivity in the last century, hundreds of millions of people remain hungry and malnourished. Jules Pretty argues that it is high time to realize the need for an agricultural system that is founded on more ecological principles and are in tune with local people and their societal systems. The meaning of agriculture is much more than producing food; agriculture serves societies with much more in economical, social, cultural and environmental terms. The author claims that sustainable agriculture is the one that makes the best of nature and people’s knowledge and collective capacities. A recurrent message in the book is that humankind is dismissing and losing much knowledge about the use of the ecological environment, knowledge that has been built up over a long time. This is not only dangerous because we are creating a new reality influenced by our detachment from nature, it is also dangerous because less smart because we persue agricultural business without a big knowledge bas. Jules Pretty acknowledges that the challenge to fight hunger is big and to alleviate the situation every technology can be useful. But the key test for the gene technologies is their impact on the environment: do they build natural resources or degrade them? Do they leave soils further depleted, water bodies plundered and polluted, biodiversity sacrificed to monoscapes. The author questions how an industry with its enormous rate of productivity increase can prove to be more inadequate than ever in terms of fighting hunger. And how can that industry system be a main cause for health diseases? The long-term possibilities and limitations of current practices that might not be hard to predict or track, but the damages and loss are hard to give a financial value. Though most actors such as industry and policy makers are in favor of sustainability and sustainable agriculture, there is little action taken. The author warns that the success any changes in the agro-food industry will depend on the radical reform of the institutions and policies that control global food futures and fundamental changes in the way we think.
Book reviews / Journal of Cleaner Production 12 (2004) 527–531
This book lays the foundation to understand how food production should be done together with nature, possibly by controlling and not as a way to fight it. The author’s arguments circle around both theoretical and practical aspects of agricultural practices which all need be integrated both vertically with the ecosystem and horizontally with society. A next step for building knowledge for policy shaping would be to look more closely at the production chain as well as the consumer demand. The book draws on many stories of successful agricultural transformation in developing and industrialised countries, as well as giving constructive ideas about the many uses of agriculture (such as carbon sequestration). It is recommendable, however, to keep in mind that the author is trying to generalize or compare between systems and initiatives in different continents or places, but rather attempts to show the range of possibilities for improvement. This book is well worth reading in regards to the increasing concern with modern agriculture’s methods and its and implications on nature and humankind. The book gives an overview the background and current agricultural apparatus, which is taking over almost everywhere. It also provides detailed suggestions on problems and solutions without necessarily aiming backwards, and draws on many examples from a great variety of places in the world.
531
The author draws on many schools of thinking, such as economic theories (the origins and development of the use of the “commons,” “internalization of externalities”), poetry (Thoreau) and social and individual norms, as to illustrate the parables and linkages that exist. A major usefulness of this book lies in that it makes the reader, regardless of profession, start thinking along the lines of that agriculture is not only the business of farmers and governments, it is for many reasons everybody’s business. And it does it in such style that can nourish most readers, whether with quantitative or historical information or allegories or an investigation into the actors, networks or systems concerned. Another usefulness is that the book provides the reader with two sets of references, one is for a more indepth understanding using notes, graphs and elaborations, and the other is an extensive reference list for the literature sources.
Charlotte Leire, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
doi:10.1016/S0959-6526(03)00106-9
Book reviews / Journal of Cleaner Production 12 (2004) 527–531
Agri-Culture. Reconnecting people, land and nature By Jules Pretty 2002. Earthscan Publications Limited, London. ISBN 1-85383-925-6, 261 pp, £14.95 Despite extraordinary growth in agricultural productivity, farming communities across the world are in a state of crisis. Clear thinking, firm policies in combination with brave action by farmers are necessary for a way out of what Jules Pretty claims is devastating to both the natural environment and humankind. In his book on sustainable agriculture, he sets out the responsibilities for all, farmers, consumers, agro-food businesses and politicians in pursuing the path of sustainable agriculture. Jules Pretty is a professor in the center of “Environment and Society” at the University of Essex, England. A member of an international working party to set up a global Science Council for agricultural research and Chief Editor of a journal on agricultural sustainability, he is renown in the international discussions on sustainable farming. He has also co-authored a United Nations report on sustainable development for the World Summit in Johannesburg 2002. The first chapter discusses the history behind the modernization of agriculture including privatization, enclosures, colonization. He then goes on to discuss the exclusion of poor people from natural resources and how the evolving structure of landscape use can be push this trend. Predominant today is the “enclave” approach, which points to the specialization for sites of resource (biodiversity, food production, tourist resorts etc). Parallel to this development are the forced “moonscapes”, which refer to the areas used in high-intensive agricultural production. The costs and benefits of agricultural systems is the next topic. The author claims that food prices need to internalize the externalities, which in terms of food include both environmental degradation and human health hazards. The author points to the difficulties of estimating the values and costs of changes to nature, which can complicate policy development. The fourth chapter shows how modern technologies on one hand can increase agricultural productivity, but how they on the other hand increase the costs for farmers to stay competitive. Higher costs inevitably inhibit poor people’s ability to stay in the farming business, and local farming is what safeguards people’s collective capacity to manage local conditions. Sustainable agriculture is both diverse and productive, states the author. In chapter 5 we are introduced to the need to reconnect whole food systems, and this is carried out various places in the world. Many examples are given of farmers’ markets, box schemes, community-supported agriculture etc, which can help consumer and farmers get in touch on a regional basis. Chapter 6 discusses natural resources’ genetic diver-
sity, including biotechnology and genetic modification. The author addresses the important questions regarding the application of these potent however still new technologies, and emphasizes the need for evaluation of risks and benefits on a case-by-case basis. In chapter 7, the topic of ecological literacy is brought up. Ecological literacy from a social learning and participatory system could help promote new types of commons that can be used for collective management of our natural resources. Participating in groups with responsible these resources can also provoke personal change, the author claims. The final chapter provides the reader with an insight into examples of positive transformations that have occurred, as to illustrate what the need for new thinking and new policies. Despite great progress in increasing productivity in the last century, hundreds of millions of people remain hungry and malnourished. Jules Pretty argues that it is high time to realize the need for an agricultural system that is founded on more ecological principles and are in tune with local people and their societal systems. The meaning of agriculture is much more than producing food; agriculture serves societies with much more in economical, social, cultural and environmental terms. The author claims that sustainable agriculture is the one that makes the best of nature and people’s knowledge and collective capacities. A recurrent message in the book is that humankind is dismissing and losing much knowledge about the use of the ecological environment, knowledge that has been built up over a long time. This is not only dangerous because we are creating a new reality influenced by our detachment from nature, it is also dangerous because less smart because we persue agricultural business without a big knowledge bas. Jules Pretty acknowledges that the challenge to fight hunger is big and to alleviate the situation every technology can be useful. But the key test for the gene technologies is their impact on the environment: do they build natural resources or degrade them? Do they leave soils further depleted, water bodies plundered and polluted, biodiversity sacrificed to monoscapes. The author questions how an industry with its enormous rate of productivity increase can prove to be more inadequate than ever in terms of fighting hunger. And how can that industry system be a main cause for health diseases? The long-term possibilities and limitations of current practices that might not be hard to predict or track, but the damages and loss are hard to give a financial value. Though most actors such as industry and policy makers are in favor of sustainability and sustainable agriculture, there is little action taken. The author warns that the success any changes in the agro-food industry will depend on the radical reform of the institutions and policies that control global food futures and fundamental changes in the way we think.
Book reviews / Journal of Cleaner Production 12 (2004) 527–531
This book lays the foundation to understand how food production should be done together with nature, possibly by controlling and not as a way to fight it. The author’s arguments circle around both theoretical and practical aspects of agricultural practices which all need be integrated both vertically with the ecosystem and horizontally with society. A next step for building knowledge for policy shaping would be to look more closely at the production chain as well as the consumer demand. The book draws on many stories of successful agricultural transformation in developing and industrialised countries, as well as giving constructive ideas about the many uses of agriculture (such as carbon sequestration). It is recommendable, however, to keep in mind that the author is trying to generalize or compare between systems and initiatives in different continents or places, but rather attempts to show the range of possibilities for improvement. This book is well worth reading in regards to the increasing concern with modern agriculture’s methods and its and implications on nature and humankind. The book gives an overview the background and current agricultural apparatus, which is taking over almost everywhere. It also provides detailed suggestions on problems and solutions without necessarily aiming backwards, and draws on many examples from a great variety of places in the world.
531
The author draws on many schools of thinking, such as economic theories (the origins and development of the use of the “commons,” “internalization of externalities”), poetry (Thoreau) and social and individual norms, as to illustrate the parables and linkages that exist. A major usefulness of this book lies in that it makes the reader, regardless of profession, start thinking along the lines of that agriculture is not only the business of farmers and governments, it is for many reasons everybody’s business. And it does it in such style that can nourish most readers, whether with quantitative or historical information or allegories or an investigation into the actors, networks or systems concerned. Another usefulness is that the book provides the reader with two sets of references, one is for a more indepth understanding using notes, graphs and elaborations, and the other is an extensive reference list for the literature sources.
Charlotte Leire, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
doi:10.1016/S0959-6526(03)00106-9