Appropriationism

Appropriationism describes the transformation of agricultural production processes into industrial activities that minimize constraints to profit accumulation imposed by agriculture's basis in biological cycles. As a consequence, appropriationism also entails the reincorporation of the production processes taken over by industry back into agricultural production as purchased inputs. Examples of appropriationism include the use of fossil fuel-powered machinery in place of human and animal farm labor and the use of industrially produced fertilizer in place of farm-based nutrient management systems such as crop and livestock rotations that use farm-based methods of crop fertilization.

David Goodman, Bernardo Sorj, and John Wilkinson developed the parallel concepts of appropriationism and substitutionism in their theory of agro-industrial development [Page 36]described in From Farming to Biotechnology. Together, these concepts explain the industrialization of agriculture through the application of science and capital investments to discrete segments of the rural labor and biological processes in agricultural production. Although appropriationism refers primarily to the industrial replacement of biological or farm-based production processes, substitutionism refers to industrial intervention in postharvest, downstream agricultural product processing.

Agriculture is different from manufacturing or industrial sectors in its reliance on biological processes, such as plant growth and animal gestation. These processes take time and make agriculture a less-profitable investment, relative to other forms of industrial production, which can often be accelerated or made more efficient through technological innovation or labor reorganization alone. Agriculture also requires larger amounts of land than most forms of industrial production. The spatially extensive land requirements of agriculture limit farm size, given a fixed supply of labor and no industrial intervention to replace animal and human labor with fossil fuel-powered machinery.

Appropriationism, then, refers to industrial sectors' attempts to reduce these natural barriers to accumulation by, for example, accelerating plant growth rates with industrially produced nitrogen fertilizer or increasing harvesting efficiency with farm machinery. The industrial sector invests in agricultural technologies to make a profit by selling manufactured products to farms as purchased inputs that perform the duties once fulfilled by rural labor and biological processes.

Industry, however, has been unable to completely transform agricultural production processes. The biological cycles inherent in agricultural production cannot be performed entirely by industry—plants need sunlight and soil for growth, and animal growth rates cannot be reduced to zero. Given that industrial appropriation of agricultural production is only partial, the historical processes of appropriationism have taken several discrete forms. Among them are mechanical, chemical, and genetic appropriations of rural labor and biological production processes. These are discussed in turn here, drawing on the United States' case as an example.

Appropriationism first emerged through the mechanization of rural agricultural production. Between the mid-1830s and early 1850s, U.S. crop harvesting was revolutionized by the development of animal-powered mechanical reapers that replaced human-powered harvesting tools like scythes or cradles. Increased harvesting efficiency led to reductions in the quantity of labor needed at harvest time and made it possible for a single farmer to plant more acres. Thus, the prevalence of mechanical harvesters reduced the constraint that land as space had on possibilities for accumulation in agriculture. Farmers could cover more ground more quickly, and farm-implement manufacturing industries were born.

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