SUSTAINABILITY IN AGRICULTURE AND ALIENATION IN PEASANTRY: ARGUMENTS DERIVED FROM THE CASE OF TURKEY

English (OpenAlex)

Industrial agriculture, unlike traditional agriculture, relies solely on high yield and profit. All the problems attributed to it are directly or indirectly linked to this single-purpose nature. However, the industrialization of agriculture does not proceed only in large holdings belonging the rich farmers: The small holdings, under a multilayered pressure exerted by large scale capital dominating the input, output and credit markets, also resort to these production methods. This creates a vicious circle through which small-scale producers, due to increasing costs, price volatilities and indebtedness, gradually lose control of their economic activity. Peasants under this pressure have to use industrial, even prohibited inputs, knowing very well the harm they cause to the environment and consumers. Additionally, they are perfectly aware that the capital holders controlling the input-output and credit markets gain profit by appropriating their labor through price mechanisms. Under these contradictory conditions, agricultural production loses all the traditional meaning attributed to it for the peasant. The peasant is thus alienated from his produce in a way that is similar (but not exactly the same) to worker's alienation to his labor power. This study investigates the example provided by ukurova Region in Turkey to present arguments on the link between sustainability (or the lack thereof) and peasant alienation.