Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This essay introduces or re-acquaints readers with the work of Wes Jackson and The Land Institute in Salinas, Kansas. At the center of this work is an effort to develop perennial poly-culture as an alternative to industrial agriculture. The latter dominant model of food and fiber production is shown to involve severe problems in terms of short-run ecological costs and long-run sustainability. It is also argued that the perennial poly-culture model has much to recommend it to radical economists as a corrective to capitalist inefficiency. Finally, notwithstanding Jackson's facile criticism of Marx, it is argued that Marx's own writing actually anticipates Jackson's agro-ecological critique of capitalism.

Keywords

agricultural sustainability perennial poly-culture Wes Jackson The Land Institute

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anonymous. 2001. Ethanol fuel from corn faulted as "unsustainable subsidized food burning" in analysis by Cornell scientist. Cornell News. August 6. http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug01/cornbasedethanol.hrs.html .

Bennett, H.H. 1931. The problem of soil erosion in the United States . Annals of the Association of American Geographers 221 (3)(September):147-170.

Burkett, P. 1999. Marx and nature: A red and green perspective. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Cox, T.S. , J.D. Glover , D.L. Van Tassel , C.M. Cox , and L.R. DeHaan . 2006. Prospects for developing perennial grain crops. Bioscience 56 (8)(August): 649-659.

Jackson, W. 2002. Poverty and agricultural policies: We ain't winning because the old dominant idea has a way of reasserting itself. Population and Environment 24 (1)(September): 55-67.

Jackson, W. 1999. Matfield Green. In Rooted in the land: Essays on community and place, ed. W. Vitek and W. Jackson. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Jackson, W. 1999b. From genomes to ecosystems to human communities . In Agriculture as a mimic of natural ecosystems, ed. E. C. Lefroy , R. J. Hobbs , M. H. O'Conner , and J. S. Pate , 39-55. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Jackson, W. 1994. Becoming native to this place. Lexington : University of Kentucky Press.

Jackson, W. 1987. Altars of unhewn stone. San Francisco : North Point Press.

10.

Jackson, W. 1980. New roots for agriculture. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press.

11.

Kriz, M. 2007. Fueled by Uncle Sam. National Journal 39 (15)(April): 27-28.

12.

Pimental, D. , C. Harvey , P. Resosudarmo , K. Sinclair , D. Kurz , M. McNair , S. Crist , L. Shpritz , L. Fitton , R. Saffouri , and R. Blair. 1995. Environmental and economic costs of soil erosion and conservation benefits. Science 267 (5201)(February): 1117-1123.

13.

Pollan, M. 2006. The omnivore's dilemma: A natural history of four meals . New York: Penguin Press .

14.

Shapouri, H. , J.A. Duffield , and M.S. Graboski. 1995. Estimating the net energy balance of corn ethanol: An economic research service report.

15.

United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Report Number 721. July. http://www.ethanol-gec.org/corn_eth.htm.

16.

Thurmond, W. 2007. Biodiesel's bright future. The Futurist 41 (1)(July-August): 27-30.

17.

United States Department of Agriculture. 2002 . Data sets: United States farm and farm-related employment, 2002. http://www.ers.usda.gov/StateFacts/US.htm.

Economics and “Nature's Standard”: Wes Jackson and The Land Institute

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References