Governing agriculture through the managerial capacities of farmers: the role of calculation

In recent years, agricultural industries in both developed and developing nations have been transformed. The broad literature on global agri-food restructuring represents an attempt by scholars to come to terms with the regulatory nature, scale and consequences of these changes (see Bonanno et al. 1994; Burch et al. 1999; Burch et al. 1996; Goodman and Watts 1997; Le Heron 1993; McMichael 1994; Marsden et al. 1990). Characteristic of much work on agricultural ‘restructuring’ is the argument that farmers are placed under increasing pressure by global social forces and actors, and must improve their productivity and efficiency or leave the industry. Drawing on a critical political economy approach, this literature is influential in focusing attention on the macro-level global forces that shape on-farm practices, resulting in a loss of agency by smaller scale commodity producers to the profit-making interests of multinational agribusinesses. Accordingly, farmers are seen to have little choice but to conform to these global neoliberalist regulatory arrangements.