Organic Farming: A Shared Practice of Community

David J. Connell

The paper works from a philosophical understanding of community as the meaning of ‘our place in this world’ communicated through shared practices. I explore a symbiotic relationship between community and the practice of organic farming within the sustainable community movement (e.g., eco-villages, intentional communities): What does organic farming do for creating community? What does community do for organic farming?

On the one hand, a community practices organic farming to foster a meaningful relation between people and land. This is an important aspect of how a community shares the meaning of ‘our place in this world.’ On the other hand, organic agriculture needs community to achieve a vision of sustainable living.

Without community, organic agriculture merely feeds the status quo because consumers remain ideologically detached from the food they eat (while continuing to live in sprawling neighborhoods). Within community, organic agriculture can be a practice of human-scale social change. Community is a place of change because it is both socially valued and a source of social values. As evident in the growing intentional community movement, the relationship among organic agriculture, sustainability, and place is community.


Source
Presented at the First Annual Conference for Social Research in Organic Agriculture. Guelph, Ontario. January 2004


Author Location and Affiliation
Wroxeter, Ontario,dave@djconnell.ca


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