Farming Inside Invisible Worlds: Modernist Agriculture and its Consequences (Contemporary Food Studies: Economy, Culture and Politics)

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by the University of Otago, New Zealand. Farming Inside Invisible Worlds argues that the farm is a key player in the creation and stabilisation of political, economic and ecological power-particularly in colonised landscapes like New Zealand, America and Australia. The book reviews and rejects the way that farms are characterised in orthodox economics and agricultural science and then shows how re-centring the farm using the theoretical idea of political ontology can transform the way we understand the power of farming. Starting with the colonial history of farms in New Zealand, Hugh Campbell goes on to describe the rise of modernist farming and its often hidden political, racial and ecological effects. He concludes with an examination of alternative ways to farm in New Zealand, showing how the prior histories of colonisation and modernisation reveal important ways to farm differently in post-colonial worlds. Hugh Campbell’s book has wide-ranging implications for understanding the role farms play in both our food systems and landscapes, and is an exciting new addition to food studies. This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on (http://www.bloomsburycollections.com) www.bloomsburycollections.com . It is funded by the University of Otago, New Zealand . Farming Inside Invisible Worlds argues that the farm is a key player in the creation and stabilisation of political, economic and ecological power-particularly in colonised landscapes like New Zealand, America and Australia. The book reviews and rejects the way that farms are characterised in orthodox economics and agricultural science and then shows how re-centring the farm using the theoretical idea of political ontology can transform the way we understand the power of farming. Starting with the colonial history of farms in New Zealand, Hugh Campbell goes on to describe the rise of modernist farming and its often hidden political, racial and ecological effects. He concludes with an examination of alternative ways to farm in New Zealand, showing how the prior histories of colonisation and modernisation reveal important ways to farm differently in post-colonial worlds. Hugh Campbell's book has-ranging implications for understanding the role farms play in both our food systems and landscapes, and is an exciting new addition to food studies. The farm is understood as a place where other forms of social of economic power are played out. Hugh Campbell re-visions the farm as a key player in the creation and stabilisation of political, economic and ecological power, particularly in colonised landscapes like New Zealand, America and Australia. Campbell shows how farm power was particularly instrumental in creating a specific dynamic in colonised settings while also silencing other voices and ways of using the land. He investigates colonies in New Zealand, drawing on research from Australia, the USA, and Canada, and illustrates how the farm enacted stabilised ontological worlds that secured the colonial farm project. He then moves to show how this stability has been increasingly disrupted and destabilised via two significant factors: the emergence of 'contested countryside' politics and the emergence of 'alternative foods' requiring new ways of farming and opening spaces for a new ontology of the farm. The book is ambitious in scope and has wide-ranging implications for understanding the role farms play in both our food systems and landscapes "Farming Inside Invisible Worlds argues that the farm is a key player in the creation and stabilisation of political, economic and ecological power-particularly in colonised landscapes like New Zealand, America and Australia. The book reviews and rejects the way that farms are characterised in orthodox economics and agricultural science and then shows how re-centring the farm using the theoretical idea of political ontology can transform the way we understand the power of farming. Starting with the colonial history of farms in New Zealand, Hugh Campbell goes on to describe the rise of modernist farming and its often hidden political, racial and ecological effects. He concludes with an examination of alternative ways to farm in New Zealand, showing how the prior histories of colonisation and modernisation reveal important ways to farm differently in post-colonial worlds. Hugh Campbell's book has-ranging implications for understanding the role farms play in both our food systems and landscapes, and is an exciting new addition to food studies."-- Provided by publisher Cover Half title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements Glossary of Māori terms Prologue: Visible and invisible farming worlds 1 Farming and ontology 2 The colonial farm and its powers 3 From colonial to modernist farming 4 The crisis of modernist farming 5 Farming inside visible worlds Epilogue: Theorizing the ontology of farms References Index