State-led and finance-backed farming endeavours: Changing contours of investment in Australian agriculture

Abstract

Exploring the ways in which culture, systems of value, and ethics impact agriculture, this volume addresses contemporary land questions and conditions for agricultural land management. Throughout, the editors and contributors consider a range of issues, including pressure on farmland, international and global trade relations, moral and ethical questions, and implications for governance.

The focus of Finance or Food? is land use in Australia, Canada, and Norway, chosen for their commonalities as well as their differences. With reference to these specific national contexts, the contributors explore political, ecological, and ethical debates concerning food production, alternative energy, and sustainability. The volume argues that recognition of food, finance, energy, and climate crises is driving investments and reframing the strategies of development agencies. At the same time, food producers, small farmers, and pastoralists facing eviction from their land are making their presence felt in this debate, not just locally, but in national policy arenas and international fora as well.

This volume investigates the many ways in which this process is occurring and draws out the cultural implications of new developments in global land use. An important intervention into a timely debate, Finance or Food? will be essential reading for both academics and policymakers.

Biographical Note

Sarah Ruth Sippel (SFB 1199 & Leipzig University, Germany)

Sarah Ruth Sippel is a lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and a Principal Investigator at the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1199. Her research interests concern the complex nature of the global agri-food system, particularly questions in relation to food security, the financialization of agriculture and food, and the alternatives that are being developed to the current agri-food system. All these issues raise important questions in relation to politics, ethics, and social justice, which motivate her research. As a human geographer with a background in Middle Eastern Studies and Philosophy, Sarah investigates social phenomena from an interdisciplinary and transregional perspective. She intensively worked on the interlinkages between export agriculture, rural livelihood security, and labour migration in North Africa and the Western Mediterranean. Her current research addresses the diverse (re)imaginations of land in Australia.

Nicolette Larder (University of New England, USA)

Nicolette Larder is a lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education; School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the University of New England. Her research agenda revolves around the social dynamics of the global agri-food system and the myriad ways people engage with and make sense of the act of food production. Within this broad scope work to date has engaged food producers from varying backgrounds across urban and rural settings and always with the intention of unraveling how food production fits within and contributes to broader social and environmental crises such as land and water scarcity, food insecurity and social inequality. She draws from a wide range of theoretical influences to explore diverse productive environments and producers including political economy, community economies, social movement studies, gender studies and most recently financialisation. Dr Larder has conducted research in Australia and internationally in Mali, Senegal, the UK, and Germany and she is trained in qualitative research approaches including extended fieldwork and cross-cultural research. Current research projects explore the changing nature and character of agriculture in Australia as practiced by investment banks, sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms, with a particular focus on the motivations and changing labour relations associated with financialisation. Future research plans include exploration of the financial literacy of food producers, a comparative study of food sovereignty movements in Australia and North Africa and an evaluation of urban food-banks in Australia.

Lawrence Geoffrey (University of Queensland, USA)

Lawrence Geoffrey is a leading Australian sociologist with interests in rural and regional sociology, globalisation/localisation and agrifood research. He attended James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney and was School Captain in 1968. He then completed a degree in agricultural economics at Sydney University in 1972. This was followed by a diploma in social science (UNE), Master of Science in Sociology (Wisconisn-Madison) and a PhD (Griffith). In 1992 he became Associate Professor of Sociology and Foundation Director, Centre for Rural Social Research, at Charles Sturt University before moving later that year to Central Queensland University as Foundation Professor of Sociology (1992-2002) and Executive Director, Institute for Sustainable Regional Development (1998-2002). He joined The University of Queensland as Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of Social Science in 2002. He is a Life Member of the Fitzroy Basin Association, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, Life Member of the Australian Sociological Association, and was President of the International Rural Sociology Association (2012-2016). He became Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Queensland in 2014.