The Right to the Soil— Food Production and Agricultural Landscapes Under Capitalism Three Nordic Examples

Abstract: Productive agricultural soil is an essential ingredient in the agricultural landscape, which further exists in a dialectical relationship between ruality and the broader society. Soil destruction and industrial farming are common place in Scandinavia today, and resultantly, this essay problematises our ambivalent relationship with soil as part of our material base on one hand, and the consumer driven society as a part of capitalisms inherent need for physical expansion, on the other. Specifically, this thesis seeks to answer the question: How do we reconcile the benefits we receive today, from destroying soil and agricultural landscapes for capitalist purposes, with its costs for tomorrow? The methodology employed uses context, process, function and form to read contested landscapes and reveal ideology and values directing societal priorities and individual choices. Capitalism is identified as dominant ideology and its process and function are investigated. Following, this essay criticises capitalisms’ unquestionable position in future choices with an examination of its destructive effect on soil, community and identity. Thus, industrial food production and the commodification of food as a solution to an increasing population and environmental problems are rejected. And in answering the main question in this thesis, I posit that the role of capitalism as a development mechanism at the expense of productive soil and agricultural landscapes is questionable and as such cannot be reconciled.