Abstract
How do we address issues that pose world-wide problems when we cannot imagine them as global? The Netherlands is the second largest agricultural exporter in the world. Significant sectors of this industry are highly unsustainable, the reality of which begs world-wide questions about how food is produced and consumed. Yet, internally, the producers of those products, farmers, are frequently framed in solely national terms. In this paper, I show how this framing can be employed so effectively and how it benefits big-agrobusiness by obscuring major problems. I argue there is a pervasive idea of what an “authentic” farmer is and that this idea is saturated with idyllic notions that often contradict the current material reality of farming, for example by obscuring mechanization, digitalization, and international trade. I will do so by close reading a case study: a Dutch show called Onze Boerderij. In light of this analysis I also wonder: Is there a danger in thinking environment over economy, when the two are so intimately linked? In order to engage with this question I turn to how more sustainable ways of producing food are framed: often as an idyllic escape from globalization by becoming one with nature. Through a close reading of the documentary Plattelandspioniers I argue that the imagination of sustainable farming is not deviating much from the imagination of mainstream agro-industry. Thus, global issues remain obscured and the question arises: what kinds of agricultural change can happen when its imagination remains as limited.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
RURAL, TV, DUTCH, THE NETHERLANDS, AGRO-INDUSTRY, SUSTAINABILITY, AUTHENTICITY, FARMERS, IMAGINATIONS
