Agriculture and Human Values最新文献

Organic and free-range pig farming offers a potential solution to multiple agricultural challenges, including high pesticide and antimicrobial use, excess fertilization, biodiversity loss, and animal suffering. Organic pig production, which includes outdoor access and rearing, has been one solution promoted by the European Union. This study, based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with organic and non-organic free-range pig farmers in Norway, suggests that while promising, sustaining these production systems faces challenges related to animal welfare, land management, and market dynamics for pork. Specifically, we note how the weak symbolic value of organic labels and principles for pigs and pork results in fragile markets, whilst pigs’ rooting undermines not just soil and farm boundaries, but potentially their own welfare. Farmers have responded by forming new relational arrangements, including situating pigs as a working animal contributing to the broader productivity of the farm, and decommodifying pigs and pork in favour of using them to sustain broader social relations that produce other values and opportunities. We conclude that the flexibility and adaptability of pigs opens multiple trajectories of change, with regards to market organization, farmer collaboration and breeding pigs for rearing outdoors. If Europe is to reterritorialize the pig and pork industry around alternative production methods it requires a fundamental reimagining of the socio-material relations underpinning this industry, its moral frameworks and our relationship with pigs and pork.

The paper contributes to scholarship on family farm, social reproduction, and labor migration theories. It argues that the emergence of wage labor within the family farm labor structure - and its transformation across time, place, and space - has shifted the traditional spaces where production and social reproduction functions typically occur. This shift is enabled by a self-exploitation mechanism internal to the family farm. When situated at the national border in the context of cross-border wage work, multiple fears associated with the “illegal foreign worker” identity constructed around Vietnamese laborers open the internal sphere of struggle for new actors (i.e., labor brokers and foremen) and labor hirers to manipulate for further capitalist accumulation.

Given the critical role of insects in agriculture, studying farmers’ knowledge of entomofauna and its links to crop management is essential. This study explores how such knowledge, in combination with current farming contexts, can shape the barriers and levers of integrated pest and pollinator management to design pollinator-friendly farming systems. We used mixed methods combining ethnoecological and entomological approaches—including field observations, free lists, and semi-structured interviews—to study the diversity of local agricultural insects and farmers’ knowledge in smallholder farming systems in the Ecuadorian Andes and to assess their perceptions and management of agricultural entomofauna. Our results show that organic farmers recognize and categorize more taxa, especially pollinators, than farmers using pesticides who focus more on taxa considered pests and their harmful functions. Our findings highlight the need for a refined approach of integrated pest and pollinator management, recognizing the diversity of roles insects play in agroecosystems. Strengthening awareness among farmers requires not only bridging gaps between scientific and local knowledge but also promoting a greater emphasis on coexistence with insects rather than solely managing them for their functions. By recognizing diverse knowledge systems, our study underscores the urgency of integrating them to ensure more sustainable agriculture in smallholder contexts.

Soil is an essential part of urban foodscapes. While community gardens have received attention as parts of this foodscape, the role of experienced gardeners in the everyday transformation of human-soil relations is underexamined. This paper traces an action research project aimed at connecting human-soil relations with the “30 by 30” national food security policy that is part of the Singapore Green Plan 2030. Based on a collaboration initiated by a community group with the National Parks Board of Singapore, this paper introduces the concept of “soil companions”, and presents the qualitative findings of a larger 36-month study. It examines the practices of experienced gardeners who build soil as bioinfrastructure. A thematic analysis of interviews with five soil companions–gardeners employing soil regeneration practices–in Singapore was conducted. We discuss the ecological and social dimensions of their practices, and implications for soil and food security policies for an increasingly urban world. We raise future directions for research on foodscapes, public health, and global commodity chains.

Remote sensing, digital farm management tools, and machine learning are technological innovations that when combined have the potential to greatly enhance digital twin capability in rangeland grazing systems. User centred design is increasingly recognised as integral to technological development in agriculture and is essential during the early phases of development in emerging technologies, like digital twins, when those technologies are unfamiliar to key users. This article explores the effectiveness of user centred design in the development of farmer-friendly digital twins for grazing planning, viewed through an affordance lens. A targeted literature review was conducted prior to, and in parallel with, 36 semi-structured interviews involving user centred design prototyping sessions with farmers and farm consultants. Findings highlight the importance of digital interfaces that are adapted to decision-making practices and thinking processes of farmers; supporting high utility without compromising functionality from irregular data entry; and the strong influence of management intensity on the perceived usefulness of digital twin supported grazing planning. This article provides the first account of how farmers operating in Australian rangeland grazing systems respond to the idea and specific interface elements of digital twin technology. By engaging with the design problems we identified, farmer centred design can help researchers and technology developers better understand what digital twins can afford their intended users.

Current agriculture and food systems are major drivers of global environmental change and are linked to numerous ethical concerns. Against this backdrop, agri-startups are perceived as promising catalysts for new and more sustainable agri-food systems. However, their potential to actually contribute to sustainability transformations has been understudied. The aim of this study is to narrow this gap by analyzing German agri-startups’ visions and how these co-produce prevailing or novel sociotechnical imaginaries in agriculture. We conduct an in-depth qualitative comparative case study of agri-startups (n=16) in both a rural–agrarian and an urban (nonagricultural) setting in Germany. We identify four visions with varying scales and scopes of envisioned change, with different conceptualizations of sustainable agri-food transformation: (1) Reconfiguration of Sociomaterial Structures, (2) Partial Redesign, (3) Optimization of Value Chains, and (4) Incremental Improvement. Our findings highlight the relevance of the sociospatial context of agri-startups and innovation processes in co-producing agri-food futures. While urban startups tend to envision more holistic changes, rural agri-startups rather envision applied and pragmatic changes. We critically discuss the differences among these visions and their limited ability to transform existing agri-food systems. Finally, we highlight that agri-startups largely perpetuate existing imaginaries and that the disruptive character that is often attributed to (agri-) startups needs critical scrutiny.

Migrant seasonal agricultural workers around the world constitute the backbone of labor-intensive agriculture while facing the most grim consequences of societal, economic and environmental changes from slow and rapid on-set hazards. Here we examine the impact of flash floods and the recent earthquake (February 2023) on seasonal agricultural migrant workers in Türkiye. Adopting the slow and silent violence approaches (Nixon, 2011; Watts, 2013), we explore the structural inequalities present before the disasters and analyse the intersecting vulnerabilities shaped by environmental, socio-economic, and political factors during and after these events. We argue that the relatively invisible slow violence and more visible forms of violence overlap in the case of seasonal agricultural workers and migration status of the workers strongly influence their im/mobilization in disaster-affected areas. Immobilization in rural ghettos has facilitated the recovery of land and agricultural production as well as social reproduction in rural communities. This observation necessitates rethinking the role of worker im/mobility not only as a factor in production and social reproduction but also as a central component in disaster recovery. Therefore, we suggest a time-space nexus shaped by the analytical tools of violence and mobility to contribute to the literature on disasters and critical agrarian studies.

Agricultural systems are central to human well-being, providing food, materials, and medicines. However, intensive farming practices drive significant environmental degradation, which is exacerbated by challenges such as climate change and unequal global consumption patterns. Increasing evidence suggests that biodiversity in agricultural systems, encompassing the diversity of crop species and varieties that support agroecosystem functioning and human values, could be a crucial asset in supporting transformations towards sustainability. While agrobiodiversity is under threat due to various human and environmental pressures, crop diversity trends, particularly at the local scale, as well as the drivers of these trends, are insufficiently addressed. This symposium addresses this gap by emphasising the role of Indigenous and local knowledge in understanding crop diversity management and its dynamics through time and space. The articles in this symposium examine crop diversity trends in understudied regions, employing methods rarely used in agrobiodiversity studies, including semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and participatory workshops. Overall, the works presented here reveal a decline in the diversity of traditional crop species and varieties, as well as the adoption of high-yielding varieties influenced by economic, political, climatic, and sociocultural factors. Key findings highlight the nuanced insights of Indigenous and local knowledge into these trends, providing a deeper understanding of the role of agrobiodiversity in sustainability and adaptive strategies. A key implication of the findings presented here is the need for more inclusive policies that recognise the importance of complementing plural knowledge systems in supporting diversified agroecological cropping systems grounded in diverse socio-cultural values and lifestyles. This evidence emphasises the importance of integrating socio-cultural drivers and evolving demographics more effectively into future research. A more holistic approach is crucial for developing adaptive and, consequently, resilient agricultural systems that thrive in the face of local and global challenges while preserving agrobiodiversity for future generations.

Calls for food waste reduction and prevention are intensifying, including in the hospitality sector, where waste occurs in kitchens and during food service. Hospitality organisations are encouraged to adopt an engaged approach, committing to responsible food handling with a focus on waste reduction. However, drawing on the “dirty work” literature, which refers to activities perceived as tainted, we expect that an engaged approach may trigger stigmatising perceptions and negative judgments, hindering organisations’ responsible engagement with food waste. Yet, the dirty work literature also highlights the role of “shields” that mitigate the effects of stigma. Based on a qualitative study in Switzerland, we explore the dirty work associations that hospitality organisations face when adopting an engaged approach to food waste and how they can shield themselves from stigmatising judgments. Our study reveals that hospitality organisations face two main negative judgments. Guests may perceive reused food as having low economic value, leading to expectations of low prices, or associate it with low quality and safety risks. Both associations are disadvantageous, and our data show that a small, ideologically motivated consultancy can play a key role in providing protection. This consultancy acts as an intermediary, operating as a status shield while developing a necessity shield by emphasising the economic and ecological value of engaging with food waste. These shields protect hospitality organisations from dirty work associations, enabling their effective engagement with food waste. Our findings contribute to the food waste literature and advance the dirty work literature by highlighting the importance of inter-organisational dynamics in combating food waste and shielding against dirty work associations.

Urban farms and gardens provide critical economic, social, and environmental benefits, yet they remain shaped by historical and systemic inequities that disproportionately disadvantage Black women agriculturalists. This article examines how long-standing racialized land dispossession, discriminatory policies, and exclusion from financial and institutional support continue to restrict Black women’s access to land and agricultural resources in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA). Using in-depth interviews and photovoice data, the study demonstrates how these systemic barriers, rooted in historical racial discrimination and reinforced through contemporary urban agriculture policies, undermine Black women’s ability to sustain viable farming operations. Findings demonstrate that while Black women actively engage in urban agriculture, they remain marginalized within the sector, lacking the same access to land tenure, financial capital, and training opportunities afforded to white growers. These findings build on Black feminist thought, illustrating the systemic and interconnected nature of inequity and discrimination in urban agriculture. The research also contributes to the growing field of intersectional agriculture by centering the voices and experiences of Black women agriculturalists and emphasizing the urgent need for equity-focused policies and practices that address systemic barriers while fostering community resilience and empowerment. This study underscores the need for urban agriculture to be understood as a land justice issue, advocating for policies that confront racialized land dispossession, counteract gentrification-induced displacement, and provide targeted financial and structural support for Black women agriculturalists to ensure sustainable and just urban food systems.