Corporate Farming

This study has assessed the array of harms ranging from animal welfare, environmental and public health implications induced by the intensive rearing of livestock. In light of this, the socioeconomic dynamics of contemporary society have been assessed against the backdrop of these harms. Subsequently, it has been argued that the origins of these harms are deeply entangled in socioeconomic processes inherent to a capitalistic world society.

According to David Harvey, Accumulation by Dispossession (ABD) has become the dominant form of accumulation under the mantra of neoliberalism backed by the State policies, whether in developed or in developing economies. Using empirical evidence on contract farming in India, I argue that capitalist accumulation can indeed occur without dispossession. I show how a class of petty capitalist farmers (petty, in comparison to corporate capital) is encouraged to maintain its private property (land) and to enter into commercial contracts with big industrial (multi-national) companies to deliver certain farm products at a predetermined price. These companies have no intention to dispossess the farmers, and they do not have to. As a structure of multiple class actors (big business; capitalist farmers; rural labour), contract farming is a process that represents centralisation (and concentration) of capital and points to the ways in which agrarian and industrial capitals are intertwined. Contract farming as a form of accumulation is based on appalling working conditions of labour, including vulnerable women workers and migrants, on contract farms, and it exhibits much geographical variation in its occurrence. Acumulación por desposesión o acumulación sin desposesión: El caso de la agricultura por contrato en la India Resumen Según David Harvey, la acumulación por desposesión (APD) se ha convertido en la forma dominante de acumulación bajo el mantra del neoliberalismo respaldado por las políticas estatales, ya sea en economías desarrolladas o en desarrollo. Utilizando pruebas empíricas sobre la agricultura por contrato en la India, sostengo que la acumulación capitalista puede de hecho ocurrir sin desposesión. Muestro cómo se alienta a una clase de pequeños agricultores capitalistas (pequeños, en comparación con el capital corporativo) a mantener su propiedad 78 Human Geography ACCUMULATION BY DISPOSSESSION OR WITHOUT privada (tierra) y a firmar contratos comerciales con grandes empresas industriales (multinacionales) para entregar ciertos productos agrícolas a un precio pre-determinado. Estas empresas no tienen intención de desposeer a los agricultores, y no tienen que hacerlo. Como estructura de múltiples actores de clase (grandes empresas, agricultores capitalistas, mano de obra rural), la agricultura por contrato es un proceso que representa la centralización (y concentración) del capital y señala las formas en que los capitales agrarios e industriales están entrelazados. La agricultura por contrato como una forma de acumulación se basa en las terribles condiciones de trabajo de la mano de obra, incluidas las trabajadoras vulnerables y los migrantes, en las fincas de contrato, y exhibe gran variación geográfica en su ocurrencia. Palabras clave: Capital corporativo, centralización de capital, acaparamiento de tierras, cambio agrario, David Harvey, India

In Romania, agricultural researchers are enlisted to promote the agrochemical industry and large-scale intensive agriculture. This role can be made intelligible through notion of a scientific field, highlighting rivalries between the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the University sector. The former has lost its public funding but maintains a temporal capital through its responsibilities within bodies devising and leading agricultural policy. The latter gives primacy to a scientific capital through peer recognition and integration within international networks but lacks co-financing required for being effectively included in international research projects. Each academic institution tries to devalue the rival's strong points and gain recognition for the superior value of its own assets. The funding provided by private agrochemical industry adapts to the scientific field’s structure: leading multinational firms take advantage of rivalries between academic institutions and fuel them at the same time. They consolidate current form of temporal capital valued by members of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, especially when seeking their support for authorization for seeds and plant-protection products. Industry funds also create a new kind of temporal capital for University staff, emphasising international connections but disconnecting them from purely academic achievements. Meanwhile all Romanian agronomists defend the type of agriculture promising the most significant business opportunities for the agrochemical industry.  Thus it uses institutional rivalries for its agenda, though without directly influencing the direction of research.

"Corporate Farming generally refers to the direct ownership or
leasing of farmland by agro-business firms to produce for their
captive processing requirements or for open market. This
approach potentially offers solution to a number of production and
marketing problems that have resulted to low rural productivity in the Philippines."