Innovation and recognition of food and farming styles

Abstract

The ‘productionist paradigm’ in agriculture emphasizes high tech inputs and high material output. Its assumed main ethical value is the concept of justice as fair distribution of outputs, with the main aim to reduce hunger and to optimalize sustainability. Although this paradigm can be proud of its enormous success to feed the world, it also produces huge problems, which make it unsustainable and not fair. The approach decreases biodiversity, increases erosion, is animal unfriendly and depletes scarce resources. It has an huge impact on climate change and its economic and patenting system increases the gap between rich and poor, thereby reducing chances for rural livelihood, producing unemployment, inherently instable social relations and food insecurity. Probably, it can produce food for even more than eight billion in 2050 with enormous cost. The agrosystem approach, its alternative, starts with local farming practices and innovation activities. It implicitly acknowledges the ethical value of how to lead a good life. However, variants of this approach either give farmers full priority in what and how to produce (as in agrarianism) or give consumers the lead (as in urban gardening). The current utilitarian and deontological ethical approaches are quite blind for how to deal with these strategies that cut across justice, good life and other values. Due to the dynamics of social, economic and cultural systems, agricultural priorities cannot anymore be established one sided by either farmers (and producers) or consumers. Sustainability and climate change require changing consumer food styles (in expanding urban areas) and new farming styles. To improve the approach of agrosystem into one of plural and democratic agrosystems, I propose to make room conceptually for the negotiation and cooperation of farmers and consumers about their interests, preferences and values. In this revised agrosystem approach a concept of justice is assumed not as fair distribution but as fair recognition of farming and food styles. This ethical notion enables to take into account the pluralism of farming and food styles and various interactive ways of intensification and innovation with consumers.