Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in American Agriculture

2. Why We Should Stop Promoting Industrial Agriculture

23 Why We Should Stop Promoting Industrial Agriculture I always appreciate an opportunity to speak at the Breimyer Seminar, regardless of my topic. I told the conference organizers they could give my presentation any name they wanted this year and I would try to deal with it. The title they chose was “Why I Don’t Like Industrialization and Want It Stopped.” I’m sure that title was meant to be provocative, to spark some debate of the issue of agricultural industrialization. I have decided to change the title to make it bit more academic but hopefully not any less provocative. What I do or don’t like about industrialization , and whether I personally do or don’t want it stopped, is not of any particular significance. I have personal opinions on those matters, but they are no more important than yours or anyone else’s. So rather than focus on my opinions, I intend to rely on the science of economics and on logic to make an objective case against the continued industrialization of agriculture. The title I will actually address is “Why We Should Stop Promoting Industrial Agriculture.” I will address the fundamental economic and social motives for the industrialization of agriculture, because there are sound, logical reasons for industrialization . However, there are also sound, logical reasons to question industrialization. As a public-sector scientist—working for the taxpayers—it’s not my responsibility to stop the industrialization of agriculture. That decision is up to the people. However, I do have a responsibility to question whether we should be using public dollars to promote it. Our job is to provide people with objective information, not to promote anything other than the pursuit of truth. The people must decide what they want to stop or promote, based on that information. 2 24 Industrialization I have three basic reasons for questioning the industrialization of agriculture. First, we have already realized virtually all the potential economic and social gains from the industrialization of agriculture. Those gains were significant, but there simply is very little left to be gained from further industrialization —from further specialization, standardization, and consolidation of agricultural production and marketing. Second, there are rising costs—environmental, social, and economic costs—associated with the industrialization process. In fact, the total marginal costs of industrialization may have exceeded its marginal benefits as far back as the 1970s or even 1960s. Third, and as a consequence of the other two, there is growing evidence that the industrial era is coming to an end, as it has already ended in many sectors of our economy. Industrialization was the model, or paradigm, for human progress in the twentieth century, but as we approach the twenty-first century, it is rapidly becoming obsolete. We should focus our scarce public resources on exploring approaches that have possibilities for progress in the century ahead rather than on promoting a model whose century has passed. Peter Drucker, a noted and time-honored consultant of twentieth-century industrial managers, discusses the transformation from an industrial to a postindustrial society in his book Post-Capitalist Society. He states, “Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself—its worldview; its basic values; its social and political structure; its arts; its key institutions. Fifty years later, there is a new world. . . . We are currently living through just such a transformation.”1 In the late 1800s, as we began to industrialize agriculture, the potential gains from continuing the industrial revolution in agriculture were undeniable. At that time, we were still an agrarian society. More than half the people of this country were either farmers or residents of rural communities, and it took about half our total resources—money, time, and effort—just Why We Should Stop Promoting Industrial Agriculture 25 to feed and clothe ourselves. If we as a nation were to realize the emerging opportunities of the industrial revolution—to become the modern society that we know today—we had to do two things. First, we had to free people from the task of farming so they could go to work in the factories and offices of the emerging industrial economy. Second, we had to free up some of the income and other resources being spent on food and clothing so people could buy the things these new industries were going to produce. In...