ABSTRACT
Like many fields of knowledge, agronomy is inflected with power and politics. Once we acknowledge how power dynamics have shaped the dominant forms of agricultural knowledge and cropping systems around the world, then it is possible to begin imagining more equitable and sustainable alternatives. This chapter takes the basic conceptual tools of political ecology and demonstrates how they may be productively employed to better understand a range of industrial cropping systems in diverse geographies around the world. In particular, this chapter argues that paying attention to power dynamics, multi-scalar interplays, processes of marginalization, social difference, and dominant discourse allows for the more incisive diagnosis of problems and helps develop alternatives in the context of industrial crop production.
