Beyond agriculture: the counter-hegemony of community farming

Abstract

In this paper we seek to understand the interplay between increasingly widely held concerns about the hegemony of industrialized agriculture and the emergence of counterhegemonic activities, such as membership of community supported agriculture (CSA) initiatives. Informed by Blackshaw's (2010) work on "liquid leisure," we offer a new leisurebased conceptualization of the tactics of counter-hegemony, arguing in the process that food politics offers a rich site for new, transitional identity formation. Using a case study of a wellestablished community farm in southeast England, we demonstrate how the community members devote themselves to transient and inconsequential activities as a means of attempting to realize a larger self-related identity project. We also demonstrate how the seemingly close inter-personal bonds typical of CSA may not reflect the permanence accorded to them, with members able willingly to leave these communities once they can no longer progress their identity project. We conclude by arguing that our findings are emblematic of society in transition, with people moving well beyond the work/leisure activity into a world in which they embody the idea and the practice of being an active co-producerin our case, of food. While recognizing that this does not necessarily mean that there is simple causality between practice and identity formation, we do argue that there is evidence of an increasing relationship between activity, time, and the performance of a new form of civil labor practice.

The spaces and times of community farming

“…There has been much recent academic and practitioner interest in the transformative potential of community food growing initiatives, in both urban and rural environments (Cox et al 2008;Petherick 2010;Saltmarsh et al 2011;Shi et al 2011;Rioufol and Ravenscroft 2012;Ravenscroft et al 2013). This is part of what has been referred to elsewhere as a cultural turn in farming and food production, away from intensive and industrialised farming towards what have become known as alternative food networks (Renting et al 2003;Follett 2009;Wilson 2012;Si et al 2015).…”

“…She understands her connection in these terms; taking her turn, going beyond her own interest, doing things that are both minor daily chores and tasks imbued with meaning, countering the increasing speed of everyday life (Virilio 1977;Shove 2009). Many records of community supported agriculture contain similar details (see, for example, Groh and McFadden 1997;Ravenscroft et al 2013), often with overt reference to the social, pedagogic and therapeutic potential of such institutions (Wells and Gladwell 2001;Jarosz 2011;Ravenscroft et al 2012). Yet we need equally to recognise that not all CSA members experience this (DeLind 1998(DeLind , 2011, nor necessarily want it, certainly in terms of a totalizing notion of community (Mount 2012;Galt 2013;Si et al 2015).…”

“…For others, including Shi et al (2011) and Wittman (2009), new forms of agrarian or ecological citizenship have the therapeutic potential to address the ills of agribusiness (Schneider 2015), promote care of the self (Jarosz 2011;Ravenscroft et al 2013) and heal what Wittman (2009) characterises as the metabolic rift that has opened between society and nature. Indeed, it is widely claimed that an ethic of care, allied to a response to food scares (Sempik and Aldridge 2006;Jarosz 2008Jarosz , 2011Shi et al 2011;Qu and Jiao 2013;Si et al 2015) is a strong motive for many people to get involved in CSA and other such projects.…”

“…Many people value CSA for more than food without the necessity of visiting on a regular basis (see, for example, Jarosz 2011; Flora and Bregendahl 2012;Ravenscroft et al 2013). However, we need richer ways of understanding this value in communities associated with food, given that current conceptualisations are too broad and contested to be helpful in identifying how individuals relate to each other and to the land and environment.…”

“…We have chosen to focus on China and the UK because their engagement with, and experience of, CSA is at very different stages of development. In the UK, CSA is an established, if still relatively novel, form of agricultural organisation that is largely counter-cultural in reifying small farms and local food (Saltmarsh et al 2011;Ravenscroft et al 2012Ravenscroft et al , 2013. This is not the case in China, where CSA is very much in the start-up phase and is utterly dominated by consumers (Si et al 2015) despite there being increasing recognition of the need to protect small farms and traditional farmers (Schneider 2015;Liu et al 2016).…”