ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter synthesizes and systematizes the main insights of the individual chapters regarding the mechanisms underlying the transformative power of industrial crops. It uses the main conceptual tools and perspectives of political ecology, namely multi-scalar analysis, attention to marginalization, attention to social difference, and attention on discourses and narratives. It argues that industrial crop systems are not inherently bad or good for ecosystems, local communities, and national economies, but that the processes harnessing their production and outcomes vary widely depending on a multitude of context-specific factors. In this sense, it is essential to critically understand on a case-by-case base how industrial crops are justified, promoted, produced, traded, and used through robust and interdisciplinary lenses. Political ecology can offer such a lens that is capable of critically deconstructing the main elements of industrial crop systems, and thus identifying pressure points and opportunities to improve their performance and reduce, to the extent possible, their negative outcomes.
