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Economics and "Nature's Standard": Wes Jackson and The Land Institute

Department of Economics, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN 47809, drichards{at}isugw.indstate.edu

This essay introduces or re-acquaints readers with the work of Wes Jackson and The Land Institute in Salinas, Kansas. At the center of this work is an effort to develop perennial poly-culture as an alternative to industrial agriculture. The latter dominant model of food and fiber production is shown to involve severe problems in terms of short-run ecological costs and long-run sustainability. It is also argued that the perennial poly-culture model has much to recommend it to radical economists as a corrective to capitalist inefficiency. Finally, notwithstanding Jackson's facile criticism of Marx, it is argued that Marx's own writing actually anticipates Jackson's agro-ecological critique of capitalism.

Key Words: agricultural sustainability • perennial poly-culture • Wes Jackson • The Land Institute

This version was published on June 1, 2009

Review of Radical Political Economics, Vol. 41, No. 2, 186-195 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0486613409331424


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