The Politics of Land | Chris Smaje
www.planetcritical.com
Aug 11, 2022 • 1HR 1M
The Politics of Land | Chris Smaje
Why land is the resource we must reclaim
Appears in this episode
Rachel Donald
Planet: Critical is the podcast for a world in crisis. We face severe climate, energy, economic and political breakdown. Journalist Rachel Donald interviews those confronting the crisis, revealing what's really going on—and what needs to be done.
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Chris Smaje is a social scientist, farmer, and author of A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity, and a Shared Earth.
Chris joins me for a fascinating discussion about the political importance of land, its historical context, the current inefficiencies of farming, and the liberation people can find in reclaiming land and the capacity to produce their own food.
We also discuss the historical framing of peasantry and serfdom, and offer new narratives which could galvanisee urbanised populations to rebuild their relationships to land, food and independence.
The Politics of Land | Chris Smaje
Thanks for another great interview. I got a bit bogged down with numbers when I read Chris Smaje's book, but he's a pleasure to listen too and clearly knows his stuff. I share his unease with the 'precision fermentation' route as proposed by George Monbiot, although 'Regenesis' is another deep and meticulously researched book.
"You can have a farm and still read books" - classic!
Population increase correlates with using more oil, which makes sense as a barrel of oil is worth many thousands of hours of human labor (harder work in living is probably a constraint without the power of oil).