Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Productivism and its discontents
Increasingly exposed to volatile 'free' markets and terms-of-trade declines, Australi-
an farmers have eagerly embraced productivism as a means of expanding output
and improving their competitiveness. They tend to
specialize
in one product; they
in-
tensify
their operations, looking to utilize the latest agribusiness inputs that promise
greater production eiciencies; and they atempt to gain returns to scale by expand-
ing the
size
of their operations. The combination of these leads to
economic concen-
tration
in agriculture - fewer farmers can produce ever-increasing volumes of food
and fibre for the domestic market and for export (Gray and Lawrence, 2001; Argent,
2002).
Although the productivist pillars of specialization, intensification, farm size in-
crease, and concentration have provided a solid foundation for the expansion of
'high teh' farming under neoliberalism, there have been a number of signiicant im-
pacts. In fact, it could be argued that productivism has been implicated in one of
the worst cases of collective environmental vandalism ever perpetrated on the Aus-
tralian continent. The clearing of native vegetation for the expansion of farming has
resulted in soil erosion, soil acidification and salinization, species decline and the re-
lease of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (PMSEIC, 2010). Water used for irriga-
tion has been extracted from fragile inland river systems - leading to serious eco-
system deterioration, including destruction of wetlands and species loss. The syn-
thetic fertilizers employed in intensive farming have run into waterways, polluting
streams and stimulating the growth of invasive weeds and poisonous algal blooms.
Toxic agricultural pesticides have leahed into soil and water systems, compromising
ecosystem health and generating resistance in target pests. Increasing pest resistance
places the farmer on a so-called 'tehnological treadmill' - having to use ever-more
potent (and expensive) hemicals eah year to control infestations. Finally, the whole
system of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and the fuelling of heavy agricultural
mahinery is one totally reliant upon the petrohemical industry. A key outcome of
productivism has been the production of heap foods; however, relatively low costs
of foods are subsidized through an ever-depleting environment. With the cost of oil
rising (and predicted to rise into the future as a consequence of 'peak oil'), food
prices are also predicted to rise. The whole system of productivism can therefore be
considered economically vulnerable and environmentally unsustainable (Gray and
Lawrence, 2001).
