ABSTRACT
The sustainability discourse has been remarkably persistent, indeed growing, in its political and social stature over the twenty years or so since it first rose to prominence. In agriculture the already well-established interest in sustainability has been fuelled recently by pressures to extend the use of bio-technology, an increasing consumer interest in food safety, a global focus on food security, and emerging public, political and consumer demands for a ‘clean and green’ food supply. Despite the social and political interest in sustainability, the ‘agri-industrial’ model of agriculture remains persistent. Economic and political agendas continue to promote a globalized food system, mass food markets, competition and efficiency, along with what Jessop (1997) refers to as the ‘hollowing out’ of the state. According to Marsden (2003), powerful interests, supported by regulatory and social networks, have been successful in upholding an inherently unsustainable accumulation system, but the ‘crisis’ of the extant accumulation system has deepened in the face of the sustainability agenda. Thus agricultural policies that seek to entrench the agri-industrial model increasingly stand in contrast to regulation and governing in respect of the environment. For farmers, this presents the dilemma of at once responding to supposedly unfettered markets while simultaneously satisfying increased regulatory and social expectations in terms of their environmental performance and other requirements (e.g. in relation to food quality). How these respective influences are mediated at the farm level in terms of decisions about land use and resource allocation is a question of some importance.
