Repeasantisation in The United States
Published online on July 06, 2016
Abstract
This article adopts Van der Ploeg's theory of repeasantisation to demonstrate that, even in the largely industrialised agricultural state of Kansas, USA, there are unexpected interstices within neoliberalised agriculture where industrial farmers can exercise and produce autonomy. This study draws from interviews across a range of production strategies including conventional industrial farmers, entrepreneurial, and self‐styled organic farmers. A central claim of this article is that entrepreneurial farmers demonstrate peasant principle practices and therefore a process of repeasantisation is occurring in the USA. Most importantly, this emerging repeasantisation offers a glimpse at the kinds of sustainable agriculture that might be possible in the future. The article concludes that repesantisation strategies may offer hope for societal and ecological repair.