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An Agrarian Imaginary in Urban Life: Cultivating Virtues and Vices Through a Conflicted History

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Abstract

This paper explores the influence and use of agrarian thought on collective understandings of food practices as sources of ethical and communal value in urban contexts. A primary proponent of agrarian thought that this paper engages is Paul Thompson and his exceptional book, The Agrarian Vision. Thompson aims to use agrarian ideals of agriculture and communal life to rethink current issues of sustainability and environmental ethics. However, Thompson perceives the current cultural mood as hostile to agrarian virtue. There are two related claims of this paper. The first argues that contrary to Thompson’s perception of hostility, agrarian thought is popularly and commercially mobilized among urban populations. To establish this claim I extend Charles Taylor’s notion of a social imaginary and suggest that urban agriculture can be theorized as an agrarian imaginary. Entwined with the first claim is the second, that proponents selectively use agrarian history to overemphasis a narrative of virtue while ignoring or marginalizing historical practices of agrarian violence, exclusion and dispossession. I do not discount or deny the significance of agrarian virtue. By situating agrarian thought within a clearer virtue ethics framework and acknowledging potential manifestation of agrarian vice, I suggest that the idea of agrarian virtue is strengthened.

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Notes

  1. The connection between agriculture and democracy goes to the heart of Jefferson’s dispute with Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson regarded Hamilton’s ideas on central government and mercantile economy as likely to lead to a return to the old injustices of Europe with a few governing without the consent of the governed (Mayer 1994: 198), which was a major concern for Jefferson (Helo 2009).

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Donald Thompson and Leland Glenna for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for providing substantive feedback and generous recommendations.

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  1. Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, The University of Sydney, Level 1, Medical Foundation Building (K25), Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Christopher Mayes

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Correspondence to Christopher Mayes.

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The research was undertaken on Rock Ethics Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, 131 Sparks Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA.

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Mayes, C. An Agrarian Imaginary in Urban Life: Cultivating Virtues and Vices Through a Conflicted History. J Agric Environ Ethics 27, 265–286 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-013-9463-x

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