Differing Visions of Agriculture: Industrial‐Chemical vs. Small Farm and Urban Organic Production

• Published date: 01 May 2020
• Author: K. Rashid Nuri,Heather Gray
• Date: 01 May 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12344

Differing Visions of Agriculture:

Industrial-Chemical vs. Small Farm and

Urban Organic Production

By HeatHer Gray* and K. rasHid Nuri†

abstract. Seed diversity and soil preservation are the foundations of

healthy agriculture. Over many generations, farmers have developed

varieties of wheat, rice, corn, and other crops that are adapted to local

growing conditions. Industrial-chemical agriculture has abandoned

that local knowledge, replacing seed diversity with genetically uniform

crops that require large doses of fertilizers and chemical poisons to

survive. One way the United States exerted control over Iraq, starting

in 2003, was to enable agribusiness to disrupt thousands of years

of tradition by imposing industrial methods on the country where

evidence of the earliest mass production of food was discovered.

Thus, it seems that conquest of people goes hand in hand with

conquest of soil. There is resistance to agribusiness around the world.

In the United States,small farms and urban agriculture are not only

providing healthy food but also reconnecting people who grow up in

cities with the life of the soil.

Introduction

There is no culture without agriculture. It is essential to have knowl-

edge of the history of agriculture to understand the contemporary

world of agriculture and the increasing interest in small farms and

urban organic agriculture. Rarely is this history taught in schools or

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 79, No. 3 (May, 2020).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12344

© 2020 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.

*Journalist, commentator, and community activist. For 23 years, Director of

Communications for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund,

the primary organization in the United States working with black farmers across the

South. Email: hmcgray@earthlink.net

†Founder of the Truly Living Well Center for Natural Agriculture in Atlanta,

Georgia. Worked in 36 countries, observing local food economies in Asia, Africa, and

Europe. Leader in development of small farms and urban organic production in the

United States. Author of Growing Out Loud: Journey of a Food Revolutionary. Email:

rashid@thenurigroup.com; Website: thenu rigro up.com

814 The American Journal of Economics and Sociology

shared within the general population. Food is essential for all human

beings. Yet the origin and integrity of this most important aspect of

our lives is often marginalized.

This article begins with a focus on the origins of agriculture. It will

then trace the degradation of agricultural production that has led to

a food system that lacks social integrity. Finally, the discussion will

examine the contemporary practice of small farms and urban organic

food production, which has the potential to reclaim food sovereignty

and the integrity of our food system, while simultaneously creating a

healthier world for us all.

The Origin of Agriculture and its Degradation

There is evidence that the first mass production of food was approx-

imately 13,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia—in

the area now called Iraq. This is where the Tigrisand the Euphrates

Rivers intersect. The Iraqi ancestral farmers growing on this fertile

land brought us major crops such as wheat, barley, dates, and pulses.

The area is hugely important in world history. For thousands of years,

the contributions of the Iraqi farmers to the world’s agricultural pro-

duction system have been unquestionably profound (Diamond 2005).

Humans as Hunters and Gatherers and the Initiation of Agriculture

Prior to the compilation and mass production of major crops, humans

were hunters and gatherers, largely in Africa, for close to 300,000

years. As hunters and gatherers, men were hunting animals and

women were gathering a wide variety of nuts, fruits, vegetables, and

roots for their community’s food needs. It is estimated that women

gathered from 75–80 percent of the food for our human groups.

Archeologists estimate that, in ordinary circumstances, the activity of gath-

ering in temperate and tropical areas provides 75 to 80% of the total cal-

ories consumed, with hunting providing the balance. In existing hunting

and gathering cultures, women usually do most of the gathering, while

the men specialize in hunting. Other than this kind of gender specializa-

tion—and it is by no means universal—there is little specialization of roles

within the group. Hunter-gatherers tend to accumulate a large and intimate

knowledge of their range and the food sources, dangers, and opportunities