Is 'subsumption' still relevant?: the question of control in Australian broadacre agriculture

Lockie, Stewart

Abstract

[Extract] During the 1980s, rural sociological debate was dominated by discussion of the commoditisation of production relationships in agriculture. An important element underlying this debate was the idea that the control of on-farm production activities was moving away from farmers and towards off-farm agribusinesses. While family farms remained the dominant form of farm ownership, they were believed to be 'subsumed' by off-farm capital through contract farming arrangements and the operation of a 'technological treadmill' that kept farmers dependent on them for innovations and non-farm inputs. While the term 'subsumption' has itself largely disappeared from the international literature, more recent theoretical trends tend to make similar assumptions about who controls on-farm production. It is pertinent, therefore, to review evidence of the extent to which this is actually the case.

Journal

Rural Society

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ISBN/ISSN

1037-1656

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3-4

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Publisher

EContent Management

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DOI

10.5172/rsj.7.3-4.27