Small holders, householders – Robert Netting
Robert Netting describes 2 forms of social organizations. Smallholders and householders. Smallholders is defined as smaller players in agribusiness who Netting believes to be more sustainable than large scale players. Without the interference of governments and the use of indigenous wisdom of the ecosystems, Netting describes smallholders to be “biologically regenerative, equity enhancing, and participative.” That isn’t to say that smallholders are superior to large-scale industrial farms due to the fact that physical, chemical, biological, and socioeconomic degradation has been found on both scales. However, by using a family-based approach that must make decisions based on long-term production, the land must be treated so that it can be inherited in the same manner. Netting believes that smallholders adapt in different ways towards changing population and market, which is interesting when applied towards Japan. The geography of Japan does not favor arable land, and what land that exists is highly subsidized. However, with the historical evidence of small villages that heavily relied on agriculture, Japan’s economic development eventually lead towards a large-scale agribusiness culture. Unfortunately, now, Japan is facing an increase in abandoned farmland, decrease in able workers, a 40% decrease in food sufficiency, and a lack of successors. It is arguable that if Japan maintained a smallholder organization, that these effects would be less prominent, but with so little space to farm, it cannot be assumed. This post industrial state of agriculture was interesting to me because with the amount of land to be used as farm, one would think it would be cherished and cared for. This abandonment of farmland highlights the seriousness of Japan’s changing demography.
From Robert McC. Netting, Smallholders, Householders: Farm Families and the Ecology of Intensive, Sustainable Agriculture.© 1993 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Used by permission of Stanford University Press.
