| In his book - The New Peasantries: Struggles for Autonomy and Sustainability in an Era of Empire and Globalization published in 2008, Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, the Dutch rural sociologist, pointed out that, three modes of agriculture emerged during the processes of agricultural industrialization and neo-liberal directed free market and capital flow, they are peasant agriculture, entrepreneurial agriculture and corporate agriculture or food empire. The differences between these three modes of agriculture do not reside in the scale, but in the different ways of organizing the social and physical materials within each mode of agriculture, as well as the different ways of connections with the outside society. While modernization has overwhelmed every corner of the world, peasants and peasant agriculture have not demised, but a trend of repeasantization has taken place. Through the analysis on the three modes of agriculture, we can better understand the reasons behind the various crises related to agriculture and food safety, and better respond to these crises and further appreciate the value of agriculture and life. The author particularly likes to tell us that a world with peasants is a better place than one without them. |
