Robert Netting looks at the ‘truths’ of Western scientific and engineering knowledge as they apply to agricultural practices. He begins with a critique of the long standing assumption of social evolutionists about the superiority of Western technology. This view is based on the belief that high-energy technologies are what allow societies to evolve and that a reliance on human energy is inefficient and inferior. Netting points out the issues with this assumption
He next looks at the concept of “sustainability” which has become a vague buzzword, and outlines the difficulties of determining if a practice is sustainable. He explains the purpose of his work is to study the dynamics of smallholder social and economic systems with relation to their changing environment. Given their need to adapt to both the market and ecological changes successful smallholders must find a good balance of energy output and management. Netting does not give specific evidence, but I assume this section was meant to be an introduction to a different way of thinking.
He ends this section by looking forward. As he implies, this has large implications for the way we think about agricultural practices and sustainability as it could be an economically and environmentally positive alternative to large-scale agriculture. He also briefly questions the “doctrinaire” position of some ecologists that sustainable production is incompatible with economic grown and capitalism. This was perhaps his weakest argument. His claim that energy-efficient cultivation can be economically advantageous is sound; however it is a leap to this last claim that it is compatible with economic growth. Economic stability would have been a better term.
- Netting, Robert. “Smallholders, Householders” From Robert McC. Netting, Smallholders, Householders: Farm Families and the Ecology of Intensive, Sustainable Agriculture. 1993