- Title
- Unsustainable food production: its social origins and alternatives
- Creator
- Leahy, Terry
- Relation
- A Sociology of Food & Nutrition: the Social Appetite p. 58-77
- Relation
- http://www.oup.com.au/titles/higher_ed/social_science/sociology/9780195551501
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2008
- Description
- As we humans of the planet earth go about producing and consuming our food we set in train a long list of environmental problems. The process is unsustainable because the environmental damage we are causing will make it increasingly harderfor us to live well. We are also drastically reducing the opportunities for other forms of life. These problems arise from specific social structures. It is not 'us' as a mass of individuals, or even 'us' meaning the whole of society, who create environmental problems. These problems come from our relationships with each other, relationships of class, economy, work and power. It is possible to set out some of the ways in which current practices of food production damage the environment and also to look at some of the alternatives. Agricultural strategies designed to achieve commercial success are inevitably constrained by the market. Often the more satisfactory environmental solution is impossible in the marketplace. This chapter will also look at the kinds of social structures that might deal with this crisis of environmental damage. While capitalism may be considered to be part of the problem, alternative social structures seem unlikely to gain popular support soon, whether we are talking about more nationalised ownership of the economy, an anarchist gift economy or a deconstruction of industrial civilisation.
- Description
- 3rd ed.
- Subject
- agroforestry; global warming; permaculture; sustainable agriculture; polyculture; monoculture; gift economy; social structure; capitalism
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/804513
- Identifier
- uon:6638
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780195551501
- Language
- eng
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