Soil as a site of struggle: differentiated rifts under different modes of farming in intensive commercial agriculture in urbanizing China

The metabolic rifts resulted from the rural urban divide and agricultural commodification require remedy with synthetic fertilizers, multiple labour practices and other methods of repair in urbanizing China. The case study in North China shows that the metabolic rift unfolds in an uneven way in diff...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of peasant studies 2022-09, Vol.49 (6), p.1207-1228
Main Authors: Xu, Huijiao, Ye, Jingzhong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural development
Agricultural production
Agriculture
Ambivalence
Case studies
Commodification
Family farms
Farmers
Fertilizers
Internalization
Livelihood
metabolic repair
metabolic rift
Small farms
soil fertility
sustainable agriculture
Sustainable development
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Summary:The metabolic rifts resulted from the rural urban divide and agricultural commodification require remedy with synthetic fertilizers, multiple labour practices and other methods of repair in urbanizing China. The case study in North China shows that the metabolic rift unfolds in an uneven way in different farmer groups with differential labour patterns and livelihood strategies. Simple commodity producers have generally greater potential than capitalized family farmers to ameliorate soil by internalizing external squeeze. This implies contradictory processes and a complex dialectic of destruction and replenishment which makes soil a site of struggle and metabolic rift an increasingly ambivalent notion. This contradiction between intensive 'modern agriculture' and its complex material base will ultimately limit the sustainable development of agriculture, which requires a fundamental change of the productivist paradigm and a return to ecological principles.
ISSN:0306-6150
1743-9361
DOI:10.1080/03066150.2021.1907352