ABSTRACT
The purpose of agriculture is to produce food. Producing food is an energy conversion process. Worldwide environmental concerns have led critics to advocate restricted use, or even elimination of chemicals in agriculture. If the products of agriculture become "decommodified," agricultural research itself becomes a commodity. Producing food provides us with employment and income, and thus a wholesome place to live. Primitive agriculture consisted of scattering seeds on the land and accepting a meager yield. Little or no "cultural" energy was involved. In a book entitled, The Condition of Postmodernity, geographer David Harvey writes about the widespread cultural abandonment of "the project of modernity." The agricultural research system was developed to solve specific problems. Researchers should be studying the specifics in depth, but others should be looking at more general issues. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
