SOC 808 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Soil Biodiversity, Soil Fertility, Soil Retrogression And Degradation
Document Summary
Chapter 9 a political ecology approach to industrial food production. Industrial capital agriculture more & cheaper food: production comes from fewer and larger farms. The more food gets severed from time and space, the less eating is appreciated as a powerful bodily interaction with the earth. Political ecology - approach to unpack the environmental costs of cheap food supply: gives attention to the political-economic tendencies, power imbalances, and ecological instabilities. Historically, humans had minute part of net primary product. Agricultural expansion was the biggest factor in the slow but steady increase in the human appropriation of the net primary product (of photosynthesis) hanpp. Until recently, agricultural societies were predominantly localized. Soil loss, pests, and drought had to be mitigated using nearby resources and by intercropping (planting multiple crops in mutually beneficial combinations) Long-distance trade was limited to commodities that were prized for flavouring, preservation, and medicinal effects rather than sustenance. Soil is the (cid:498)living skin of the earth(cid:499) throughout history.
