Land, Agriculture, and the Myth of Natural Capital

Abstract

Land as natural capital in economics is at odds with the diverse forms and meanings of land and its agency. This article explores how this conceptualization and institutionalization of land as natural capital came about, and how agriculture, a key driver of land system change, played a role and perhaps shaped this conceptualization of land. Using the co-production framework in Science, Technology, Society Studies (STS) to unravel the creation and co-evolution of this knowledge and social order, the article traces how the epistemology of land evolved from a key factor of production in classical economics to a form of capital which is substitutable in neoclassical economics. From then on, the institutions and discourses constructed in the interactions among agents, mainly international, stabilize a new social order where land as natural capital becomes a production floor which takes industrial inputs to enhance labour productivity essential for agriculture to release surplus labour and capital for economic growth. There are alternatives to this normative goal of growth and the key driver, the accumulation imperative, that frames modern agriculture. Appropriate decentralized ordering instruments of co-production that respect the ontology of land as living and life giving can enable sustainable and just alternatives to the unsustainable yet seemingly resilient modern agriculture.