scholarly journals Healing the Metabolic Rift between Farming and the Eco-System: Challenges Facing Organic Farmers in Canada and in Sweden

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Clow ◽  
Darrell McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Organic Farming ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Food System ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Metabolic Rift ◽  
The Social ◽  
Organic Farmers

There is a growing list of scholarly and popular works which, when taken collectively, raise major concerns about industrialized farming and our present food system, particularly its impact on the natural environment. Over a century ago, Karl Marx used the concept “metabolic rift” to describe problems related to ecological and social sustainability resulting from capitalist industry and agriculture. in this paper, we examine the extent to which some members of today’s organic farming movement are addressing the metabolic rift and changing the social organization of food production.

The life cycle of alternative agricultural research

1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly D. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food System ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Agricultural Systems ◽  
Agricultural Technologies ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
The Social

AbstractThe acceptance and utility of alternative agricultural research can be enhanced by better incorporating social sciences and issues and by broadening its scope to the entire food system rather than focusing only on food production. Researchers have made strong contributions in developing and evaluating alternative agricultural technologies, but research attention also is needed to articulate strategies for synthesizing those technologies into coherent strategies, to examine the social effects of different scenarios, and to create better decisionmaking processes for ensuring broad-based knowledgeable participation in the choices among alternative strategies. Research that addresses human needs beyond food and fiber will help build truly alternative and desirable agricultural systems.

scholarly journals Multifunctionality of Organic Farming: Case Study from Southern Poland

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruta Śpiewak
Keyword(s):  
Organic Farming ◽  
Social Resources ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Economic Welfare ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Southern Poland ◽  
The Social ◽  
Organic Farmers

Abstract The main goal of this article is to answer the question whether organic farming, which is developing in some parts of Poland, can be considered as a form of multifunctional farming and contribute so to non-commodity functions and the process of change in a particular territory of given areas. The analyses are based on data obtained from 2013 of several points in the south of Poland representing a cluster of organic market oriented farmers. The results show that namely market organic farming may serve as multifunctional one, but only under certain conditions and for a specific type of farming. Through specific functions, organic farming facilitates the changes, primarily on a local scale. The existence of a strong integrated organic farming sector might influences development and change, resulting in not only the improvement of economic welfare of organic farmers, but also of whole local communities, strengthening the bonds amongst them, mobilising the social resources.

The economic implications of organic farming

1986 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Cacek ◽  
Linda L. Langner
Keyword(s):  
Organic Farming ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Commodity Prices ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Yield Data ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Horticultural Crops ◽  
The Social ◽  
Organic Farmers ◽  
Balance Of Trade

AbstractMany farmers are turning to organic or “low input” farming as a strategy for economic survival. Several comparisons of actual grain farms in the central and northern states showed that organic farming equals or exceeds conventional farming in economic performance. These findings are supported by studies that used yield data from research plots as inputs to economic models. However, models that relied more heavily on hypothetical data showed an economic disadvantage for organic farming. This may have been a result of the failure of the hypothetical models to incorporate valid assumptions on conservation and efficient utilization of water, nutrients, fuel, labor, and capital. Established organic farmers are less vulnerable to natural and economic risks than conventional farmers because their systems are more diversified. They also are less able, however, to take advantage of income tax deductions. Future trends in commodity prices, input prices, pollution regulation, and research can be expected to have mixed effects on conventional and organic farmers, but the net impact will probably favor organic farmers. On a macroeconomic (i.e. national) scale, conversion to organic farming would have many benefits. It would reduce federal costs for supporting commodity prices, reduce depletion of fossil fuels, reduce the social costs associated with erosion, improve fish and wildlife habitats, and insure the productivity of the land for future generations. However, widespread conversion to organic farming would have an undesirable impact on the balance of trade. Future research on the economics of organic farming at the farm or microeconomics level should be directed at horticultural crops, southern latitudes, marketing, and the process of conversion from conventional to organic farming. Future macroeconomic research should quantify the social benefits described above, enabling decision makers to compare organic farming with other policy options.

Intended and actual behavior of organic farmers in Austria after a five-year commitment period

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leopold Kirner ◽  
Stefan Vogel ◽  
Walter Schneeberger
Keyword(s):  
Organic Farming ◽  
Organic Agriculture ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Actual Behavior ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Telephone Interviews ◽  
Commitment Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
Organic Farmers ◽  
Actual Decision

Organic farmers throughout Austria were asked in 1999 if, once the first agri-environmental program (ÖPUL) ends, they intended to commit themselves to a further five-year period of organic farming. The study presented here addresses those farmers who expressed in the survey the intention to end their participation in organic farming under ÖPUL, or who were undecided at that time. The aim was to compare and analyze the intended behavior with actual behavior. The research was based on material from, and analyses of, the 1999 survey and the survey conducted in 2002. Additional information regarding the reasons for abandoning (or continuing) organic farming and the decision-making process itself was collected through a series of telephone interviews in 2004. The comparison revealed a connection between actual behavior and the intentions expressed in the 1999 survey. However, there were no clear differences in terms of the reasons given in 1999 for potentially discontinuing with organic farming between those farms that remained organic and those that reverted to conventional farming methods. There were differences between those reasons given in the 1999 survey for potentially leaving organic agriculture and the reasons that determined the actual decision, as cited in telephone interviews in 2004. In the 1999 survey, economic issues were the main reasons for potentially ceasing to farm organically. When it came to the actual decision, problems concerning organic guidelines and inspections were more prominent. The environmental attitudes and the social embedding of the farmers within organic agriculture played a decisive role on those enterprises that chose to continue farming organically. The analysis indicates that the presence of a successor is also a stabilizing factor for organic farming.

scholarly journals The Transition of the Agro-Food System: Lessons from Organic Farming in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9495
Author(s):  
Isabel Salavisa ◽  
Maria Fátima Ferreiro ◽  
Sofia Bizarro
Keyword(s):  
Organic Farming ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Food System ◽  
Conventional Agriculture ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
Organic Farmers ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Development Paths

The paper presents a study on the transition of the agro-food system in Portugal through the analysis of case studies in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The theoretical framework draws on the literature on the transition of sociotechnical systems, taking into account the multidimensional nature of the food system (ecological, environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural). Social and institutional innovation, technological innovation, public policy impact, and the interactions with the dominant regime are the main dimensions guiding the study of the organic farming initiatives. We identified the supportive policy measures, the role of producers’ networks, the relevance of values, and the obstacles and challenges these initiatives face in their growth process. While the results are in line with the theoretical debate, they also provide new insights on the selection environment, the networks’ dual nature and the existence of different development paths within the organic food niche. One of the main conclusions is that organic farmers perceive the regulatory framework as unfair relative to that of conventional agriculture. Therefore, it is crucial to change this framework to speed up the transition of the agro-food system in Portugal and at the European level.

Metabolic Rifts and the Ecological Crisis

2018 ◽  
pp. 650-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Clark ◽  
John Bellamy Foster ◽  
Stefano B. Longo
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Nutrient Cycle ◽  
Metabolic Rift ◽  
The Social ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
Natural Cycles

In analyzing the relations between human societies and the larger biophysical world, Karl Marx employed a dialectical triadic scheme of “the universal metabolism of nature,” the “social metabolism,” and the metabolic rift. He incorporated this metabolic approach within his critique of political economy, allowing him to assess the historical interchanges and interpenetrations of society and ecological systems. Given its endless pursuit of accumulation, capitalism imposes its demands on nature, increasing pressures on ecological systems and the production of wastes. It generates distinct metabolic rifts (ruptures) in natural cycles and processes. Marx specifically developed this approach in his critique of capitalist agriculture, with regard to how this system created an ecological rift in the soil nutrient cycle. Contemporary scholarship has drawn upon this work to examine a broad array of ecological contradictions, which are culminating in an ecological crisis.

The Social organization of urban water heritage and its contribution to the management of scarcity in the southern cities of Morocco: التنظيم الاجتماعي للموروث المائي العمراني وإسهامه في تدبير الندرة بمدن الجنوب المغربي

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 103-88
Author(s):  
Ridouane manouze Ridouane manouze
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Positive Adaptation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Water Issues

  This short topic talks about the issue of the social organization of the urban water heritage and its contribution to the management of scarcity in the southern cities of Morocco. We have identified this title so as to highlight the importance of water in recent years in the context of heated debate about the future of this vital material in Morocco because of the rapid climate changes that Morocco can live in the future for water scarcity, if it does not have a unified strategy to face All problems related to water scarcity، in the case of what the sky was not merciful. Therefore, I will try to study the forms of dealing with water issues in relation to the problems of scarcity through the creation of traditional social organizations and administrative and architectural techniques Contributed to positive adaptation with constraints the natural environment that does not help human stability.

HERITAGE IN THE LIVED ENVIRONMENT OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES AND THE GULF REGION

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph John Hobbs
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Gulf Region ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Spatial Features ◽  
Gulf Countries ◽  
The Social ◽  
Islamic Values

This paper examines how the architectural, social, and cultural heritage of the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries may contribute to better development of this region’s lived environment. Modern urbanism has largely neglected heritage in architectural design and in social and private spaces, creating inauthentic places that foster a hunger for belongingness in the UAE’s built environment. The paper reviews recent urban developments in the UAE and the Gulf Region, and identifies elements of local heritage that can be incorporated into contemporary planning and design. It proposes that adapting vernacular architectural heritage to the modern built environment should not be the principal goal for heritage-informed design. Instead we may examine the social processes underlying the traditional lived environment, and aim for social sustainability based on the lifeways and preferences of local peoples, especially in kinship and Islamic values. Among the most promising precedents for modern social sustainability are social and spatial features at the scale of the neighborhood in traditional Islamic settlements. Interviews with local Emiratis will also recommend elements of traditional knowledge to modern settings. 

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