Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Keywords
Agroecological transitions, anaerobic soil disinfestation, soil-borne pathogens, fumigant alternatives in strawberry production, SDG 12, responsible consumption andproduction
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1080/21683565.2024.2303454
Abstract
Agroecology emphasizes a shift from low diversity, high chemical input farming to more biodiverse agroecosystems cultivated in conjunction with natural ecosystem processes and embedded in socially just relationships. Yet achieving such agroecological transitions presents enormous challenges in industrial agricultural landscapes dominated by consolidation and overproduction. We examine both the challenges and the opportunities for agroecological transition in one particular industrial agricultural context: the fumigant-dependent strawberry production of California’s Central Coast. We do so by exploring adoption of Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation (ASD), an agroecological alternative to fumigation which has shown considerable promise but has been historically underutilized. Building on previously identified “domains of agroecological transformation,” we characterize the enabling and disabling conditions for agroecological transitions in California’s agricultural landscape. Through semi-structured interviews with farmers, extensionists, and industry stakeholders we uncover significant regime lock-ins: most prominently insecure land tenure and unequal access to land, unequal systems of exchange, and a culture that favors silver bullet narratives and top-down knowledge transfer; as well as drivers of change. The case of ASD, we conclude, reveals that technology-led agroecological transitions will have difficulty succeeding unless they are embedded in broader efforts to transform the social and political relationships of industrial agriculture.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, v. 48, issue 3
Scholar Commons Citation
Jiménez-Soto, Estelí; Fairbairn, Madeleine; Muramoto, Joji; and Shennan, Carol, "Agriculture Against The Wall: Barriers and Opportunities for Agroecological Transitions in California’s Industrial Agricultural Landscapes" (2024). School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications. 2433.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub/2433
