The theme of agriculture enables us to engage in arenas of research in order to make society figure out and perhaps solve the riddles that arise in relation to agriculture and food, the environment and natural resources, development and social change and rural and regional issues.This beings said,our paper tries to look into such research based reading to make sense and locate sociological thought in the arena of agriculture by delving into not just the economic dimensions,but also the psycho-social relations developed in cases of religion ,gender and the realm of movements.
Globalisation and Agriculture- Pallavi Ghosh
The birth of globalisation based on a universal liberalising mission had agriculture at the heart of its discourse. The general
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The failure of achieving this is mostly attributed to infrastructural and technological lack. The logic has been of concentration of agricultural production to a limited range of cash crops instead of traditional practices emphasising mixed cropping of cash and non-cash crops leading to “a steady decline of traditional agro-ecosystems in India.” (Damodaran : 2001). As Vandana Shiva, Ashok Jafri and Afsar H Jafri also point out, the shift in agriculture post globalisation is towards monoculture, moving away from mixed cropping practices. This in turn reduces the ecological diversity ensured through mixed cropping leading to ecological degradation. Moreover, there are other social implications. As noted by A Damodaran, in ‘WTO Agriculture Agreement, Common Property Resources and Income Diversification Strategy’, “many incidents of farmers’ suicides in north-west and south India during 1998-2000 have also been attributed to unguarded shifts in cropping pattern, resulting in crop failures.” Further, informal loan economy is intimately connected to the small farmers who do not have capital to invest in technology and end up borrowing from local moneylenders at exhorbitant interest rates. The indebtedness of farmers is one of chief reasons for farmer suicides. The social cost of such agricultural practices gets highlighted through these
Even with these faults, this society appreciates the hard work of farming compared to the easy way of living today. One point of Berry’s argument is that he believes that the land is falling more and more into the hands of speculators and professional people from the cities, who, in spite of all the scientific agricultural miracles, still have more money than farmers. Big technology and large economies have caused more abandonment of land in the country than ever before. Many of the great farmers are clearly becoming different because they lack manpower and money to maintain properly. The number of part-time farmers and ex-farmers increases every year due to the problems with money and resources.
After reading McKibben and Hurst’s articles in the book Food Matters, both authors present arguments on “industrial farming”, and although Hurst provides a realistic sense on farming, McKibben’s suggestions should be what we think about.
If I were asked to rewrite this essay, I would try to give more direct individual solutions to each problem that is presented. Through the use of examples, such as the issue of farming and education, I can help to draw the reader in with not only what the problems are, but possible solutions to each of these problems. Using this outline I will atte...
Agriculture has been around for hundreds of years. With its negative effects on humanity, agriculture has greatly affected the environment. Many archeologists believe that adoption of Agriculture was not an improvement but a disaster for humans in many ways. Jared Diamond, the author of the article called “The worst mistake in the history of the human race” argues that hunter-gatherers were better off than the farmers. In a way agriculture is believed to cause many problems for humans such as sexual inequality, deep class division, changed their diet which later led to poor health and diseases.
...o. “The Great Agricultural Transition: Crisis, Change, and Social Consequence of the Twentieth Century US Farming”. Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 103-124.
The idea of the family farm has been destroyed by large food corporations. As discussed in class, industrial farming typically leads to the mass produ...
Just as food insecurity and social agricultural movements are no longer limited to the Global South, so to have such movements extended beyond the borders of rural landscapes into urban settings across the globe (Dubbeling, & Merzthal, 2006, pp. 20, 21; De Zeeuw, Van VeenHuizen, & Dubbeling, 2011, pp.
This is necessary as the vast majority of individuals migrating from rural to urban centers has been steadily increasing with the level of economic growth seen within the past twenty years as mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, this situation has further shown the structural issues and inequalities of cities, as most migrants end up having a poor quality of life living in informal settlements as highlight substantially by Boo. As a means of tackling this, however, the Indian government has turned its focus on investing rural regions, developing the agricultural sector. Specifically, Boo mentions that “the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, had come down from Delhi to express his concern for the farmers’ hardships, and the central government’s determination to relieve it” (p. 138). While this is definitely important funds are not being divided justly. For starters, between rural and urban areas almost all investments are being targeting towards rural regions, which is only addressing issues of inequality in one section of the country. Furthermore, across rural areas inequalities of investment are quite often overlooked. Although, “one of the governments hopes was to stop villagers from abandoning their farms and further inundating cities like Mumbai, but Asha’s relatives knew nothing of these celebrated relief programs” (p. 138). Therefore, even though
Agriculture is the science and practice of producing crops and livestock. The primary aim of agriculture is to use the land to produce more abundantly to feed and clothe the world at the same time protecting it from deterioration or misuse. Humans had to improve agriculture as they became more dependent on food, creating a solitary evolutionary connection between plants and animals (Campbell and Reece, 2001). In this day and age, so many people have forgotten the authentic premises of survival. It is easy for some to believe that the grocery stores produce food and clothing is produced by shopping centers. These inaccurate presumptions are being made due to the lack of knowledge of how agriculture truly works. There are also significant differences in the levels of understanding between rural and urban communities.
By this account, one may better understand the helpless feeling of the farmer. The pressures are there, both economic and social, to expand. When the farmer is conscience of this drifting away from a more direct contact with the soil, as Meyers' father was, the sadness may be greater, but even farmers who are not alert to what is happening will suffer. This is ...
Before the industrial revolution, villagers practiced communal farming, in which residents worked together to farm on a large lot of land. Part of the land was divided up into three different crop fields. One for wheat or rye, one for oats or beans, and one for fallow. The fourth section of land was left to give livestock a place to graze, plant wild plants, and store firewood for the winter. The Enclosure Movement helped propel the shift from agriculture to industry. With this movement, agriculture was used for commercial practices and not so much as a way to feed single families. Before the start the Enclosure Movement, villages practiced communal farming in which the land and what was grown and raised on it was shared between the residents. However, this way of farming changed as effects of the Enclosure Movement made their way into the villages. Communal farms were divided up into single-family farms, with each family receiving and equal share of land. The owners of the land were rich families. These owners lease the land to farmers. During the enclosure movement, the land owners wrote new leases to individual families. These leases usually lasted 19 years and every family that lived in the village had the right to get a lease. People who got very small farms could not survive on their own without the right to use the common land, of which there was little to no land because it had been divided up. Therefo...
As agriculture has become more intensive, farmers have become capable of producing higher yields using less labour and less land. Growth of the agriculture has not, however, been an unmixed blessing. It, like every other thing, has its pros and cons. Topsoil depletion, groundwater contamination, the decline of family farms, continued neglect of the living and working conditions for farm labourers, increasing costs of production, and the disintegration of economic and social conditions in rural communities. These are the cons of the new improved agriculture.
In the recent years globalization has begun to appear as one of the most predominant issues in the world. The term ‘is generally used when discussing the technology and advances in an assortment of areas including, but not limited to, everything from technology to capital. The main aspects that comprise globalization are debatable. Throughout this essay, globalization will be explored as a recent social change in our society as it relates to incorporating economic relations and incorporations political relations around the world, despite the fact that this change is often portrayed as a problematic and unequal one of the restrictions of mobile subjects and connectivity. To begin my segment, I’ll begin to discuss on some of the most important definitions of globalization. Lastly, I’ll begin to investigate the imbalanced and difficult practices that make up globalization.
(The Sustainability of Irish Agriculture, n.d.) Sustainability is very important on my home farm. Practices have been put in place that won’t cause harm to the environment. My home farm is a small, family enterprise and I feel that new approaches are needed in order to maintain the farms sustainability status. Non-renewable inputs that are harmful to the environment or to the health of farmers should be minimised. As well as this, farmers have knowledge and skills that could be put into use, therefore substituting human capital for costly external outputs. Sustainable agriculture outcomes can be positive for food productivity, reduced pesticide use and carbon balances. (Agricultural Sustainability: concepts, principles and evidence, 2007) In this essay, I will discuss the principles and practices of sustainable agriculture, identifying how they may relate to my home farm. I will then discuss whether or not present activities can change to more sustainable methods in the
Today agriculture is the livelihood of most poor underdeveloped nations. This communal life blood provides a majority of the population with a source of employment, nourishment and income. It is considered to be an invaluable skill, that is taught down from generation to generation along with a sense of respect for the environment. However as a nation begins to undergo development, so do their food production systems. The country's newfound development causes significant restructuring of their agricultural production practices. This restructuring leads to poor environmental practices, and adverse agriculture methods. Increased economic development/production negatively affects a country's environmental and agricultural health.