The Industrialisation of Agriculture

Our class on the industrialisation of agriculture started with a simple game of word association. Professor Harry West asked us to think of terms that we associated with this idea. These were the results:

When we had completed the task, Harry made an interesting point. He highlighted that any term that evokes this many associations is complex by nature. For this reason we can’t rely on the term to say any one thing, because it says something about all of these things.

It is also clear that it means different things to different people.  As budding anthropologists we placed emphasis on the socio-cultural dimensions of agricultural industrialisation, as well as considering the environmental implications. The results would probably look quite different if we were a class of economics students at the LSE.

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Hunter gathering and agriculture

Since I was brought up in Australia’s Western consumer culture, I have unconsciously accepted a society fuelled by food production as a normal way of life. For me, the term ‘hunter gatherer’ conjures images of ‘bush tucker’, nuts and berries, survival of the fittest. My perception is not inherently negative, rather a romanticised vision of a lifestyle that is foreign to me and, for the most part, outmoded.

The three readings I discuss here forced me to question these preconceived notions. Each highlighted how cultures based around food production are seen as the norm, while other modes of subsistence, such as hunter gathering, are seen as backwards, inferior or socially unacceptable. None of the authors agree with this view, but instead shed light on how and why these perceptions have been socially constructed.

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