Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
regulatory agencies to contribute to these initiatives. Creative agency
staff have had to stretch existing programs to provide the kind of assis-
tance needed. Protected Harvest is more nimble and entrepreneurial than
regulatory agencies with their limited legal mandates, but one cannot
avoid the inference that it exists as an organization because public
officials have not developed responsible agro-environmental legislation.
Latour's circulatory system of science model is particularly helpful for
interpreting how diverse actors reshape an agricultural knowledge
system to meet their needs. It has helped us interpret the dialectical
relationship between these actors and agroecological knowledge. The
growers described in these narratives believed that another way of farm-
ing was possible, and set out to discover how to improve their practices.
They learned as most farmers have learned throughout time: by trial and
error. This approach and the scientific method yield different kinds of
knowledge. Trial and error cannot establish causal relationships like the
scientific method, but these case studies show how it can foster innova-
tive thinking.
For most of the twentieth century, most American agricultural scien-
tists have fallen into the trap of reductionistic thinking. Agroecology is
the antidote. Genuine environmental progress requires a systems
perspective. Latour's circulatory system of science does a superior job
of explaining how science really works, especially during these periods
of transition. STS perspectives help us to see how science is never
“pure content,” but rather woven into social networks, tied to existing
motivations.
Agroecological partnerships should not be thought of as permanent
features. They most often arise during a period of transition or uncer-
tainty. The additional investment in social networking can only be
justified so long as participants are able to realize benefits from their
interactions. After several years of close collaboration, partnership
participants experience diminishing returns on the investment of their
time. After this flush of new social learning, growers and their consult-
ants can approach their farming systems in new ways. Here partnerships
again confront the existing structures of economic incentives.
Could partnerships operate successfully on a broader geographic
scale? A nascent partnership in the Mississippi River watershed is poised
to test this question. The Green Lands, Blue Waters project is an attempt
