Sustainability Challenges of Pre-industrial Local Food Systems—Insights from Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research in Austria

Gizicki-Neundlinger, Michael; Gingrich, Simone; Güldner, Dino

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-69236-4_6

Cited by 2 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The main agricultural workforce was recruited from the population of the subject villages, either within corvée or wage-labour relations. As shown in [23], small rustic land plots required less labour input than the large landlord economies. In some of the villages, smallholders accessed so little land that they only needed around half of their available labour time to cultivate it.…”

Section: Lord and Peasant Agriculture In Grundherrschaft Grafeneggmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Also, peasant fields were situated in a complex amalgam of dispersed land tenure relations. On the contrary, landlord fields were geographically integrated to perform uninterrupted and efficient agricultural rotations [23]. In return for the land tenure, peasants were obliged to perform certain manorial services.…”

Section: Conditions Of Pre-industrial Agriculture In Central Europementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These accounting books comprise all relevant inputs and outputs to and from the manorial farmsteads and cover the most important agricultural activities in the demesne economy: production of cereals and legumes, production of hay and wine, harvest of fodder crops, livestock products, seeds applied, commodities exported, the collection of tithes and other taxes, imported goods such as salt, tools and candles, etc. [23]. Today, we can use the rich information contained in the accounting documents to reconstruct a fine-grained, biophysical picture of agricultural life on the Breuner demesnes.…”

Section: Historical Sources and Their Socio-metabolic Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It should be pointed out that data generation from historical sources is a very sensitive, context-driven process. Gizicki-Neundlinger et al [23], Gingrich et al [57], and Krausmann [59] provide details on how to process historical data for socio-ecological analyses of 19th-century rural communities in Austria. Also, it is important to keep in mind to be aware of possible data uncertainty and keep a critical view on the sources.…”

Section: Historical Sources and Their Socio-metabolic Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though Gonzalez de Molina and Toledo [3] have pointed out that an unequal distribution of materials, energy and nutrients within a specific socio-economic system may cause sustainability problems and lead to overexploitation of the resource base, the socio-economic conditions of peasant production and reproduction have largely been neglected in SEM research. Thus far, only a few authors [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] have tried to explicitly address the unequal distribution of resources within pre-industrial agriculture to open their SEM research for political analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Surplus, Scarcity and Soil Fertility in Pre-Industrial Austrian Agriculture—The Sustainability Costs of Inequality

Gizicki-Neundlinger

Güldner

2017

Sustainability

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This paper takes a Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) perspective to integrate important aspects of social inequality into Socio-Ecological Metabolism (SEM) research. SEM has dealt with biophysical features of pre-industrial agricultural systems from a largely apolitical perspective, neglecting social relations and conditions of peasant production and reproduction. One of the politically and economically most important manorial systems in Early Modern Austria (Grundherrschaft Grafenegg) serves as a case study to reconstruct the unequal distribution of central resources between ruling landlords and subjected peasants. We show that peasant land use systems generated small surpluses only, whereas landlords enjoyed significant economies of scale. Furthermore, we explore what these conditions of landlord surplus and peasant scarcity implied for their respective agro-ecological sustainability. Finally, we argue that within pre-industrial agrarian systems sustainability costs of inequality were severely limiting margins for agricultural intensification and growth of peasant economies.

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Section: Lord and Peasant Agriculture In Grundherrschaft Grafeneggmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Conditions Of Pre-industrial Agriculture In Central Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Historical Sources and Their Socio-metabolic Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Historical Sources and Their Socio-metabolic Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Surplus, Scarcity and Soil Fertility in Pre-Industrial Austrian Agriculture—The Sustainability Costs of Inequality

Gizicki-Neundlinger

Güldner

2017

Sustainability

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Can the Caribbean localize its food system?: Evidence from biomass flow accounting

Rahman

Singh

McCordic

2022

J of Industrial Ecology

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Small island economies are highly dependent on food imports. Self‐sufficiency through food localization is therefore often advocated. Can a small Caribbean island nation localize its food system? To answer this question, we conducted socio‐metabolic research on four Caribbean nations: Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, and Jamaica. Derived indicators from a diachronic biomass flow accounting from 1961 to 2019 suggest a declining trend in local food production for all cases. While in Barbados and Jamaica this decline already began in the 1960s, for Dominica and Grenada, this did not start until the late 1970s–1980s. The physical trade balance of biomass is similar across all cases: from net exporters at the start of the study period to net importers as countries developed, albeit at different time periods. By disaggregating biomass flow data to crop level, Barbados and Jamaica indicate a trend that is moving away from food localization, while Dominica and Grenada appear to be modestly moving toward localization in recent years. Given the many resource security challenges small island economies face, this study provides a biophysical perspective to the Caribbean's food security debate and questions the extent to which food localization is possible in a small island context, and whether other strategies are urgently needed.

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Sustainability Challenges of Pre-industrial Local Food Systems—Insights from Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research in Austria

Cited by 2 publications

References 53 publications

Surplus, Scarcity and Soil Fertility in Pre-Industrial Austrian Agriculture—The Sustainability Costs of Inequality

Surplus, Scarcity and Soil Fertility in Pre-Industrial Austrian Agriculture—The Sustainability Costs of Inequality

Can the Caribbean localize its food system?: Evidence from biomass flow accounting

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