Preliminary Programme

Wed 12 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00

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Saturday 15 April 2023 08.30 - 10.30
M-13 TEC06 Thinking about the Past, Thinking about the Future. Innovation, Technological Changes, and Agricultural Knowledge Circulations in 20th Century
C32
Networks: Rural , Science & Technology Chair: Merit Hondelink
Organizer: Bruno Esperante Discussants: -
Gabriel Coleman : Fertilization Regimes in Post-war Irish Pastures: Transnational Technology Transfer and Rural
This paper examines the role of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in shaping a productivist agricultural regime in Ireland during the country's integration into the EEC over the 1970s. Access to a European export market, Common Agricultural Policy production quotas, and European Development and Regional Funds fundamentally shifted Ireland’s economy, industry, and ... (Show more)
This paper examines the role of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in shaping a productivist agricultural regime in Ireland during the country's integration into the EEC over the 1970s. Access to a European export market, Common Agricultural Policy production quotas, and European Development and Regional Funds fundamentally shifted Ireland’s economy, industry, and agricultural sector during this period. Fundamental in adapting Ireland's pasture-dominated agricultural industry to its new position in Europe was the practice of applying synthetic fertilizers high in nitrogen to pastures in order to increase grass growth and allow for greater livestock numbers. Though this practice gained traction in Northern Ireland during the postwar era, it remained uncommon in the Republic until the mid-1970s. This paper attempts to understand how agricultural communities chose to interact with this technological development through assessment of farmers’ writings to rural newspapers and journals as well as archival correspondence between farmers and agriculture advisory services. Assessing this technological innovation from a rural perspective offers insight into how Ireland’s agricultural communities navigated development and industrialization pressures, evaluating the possibilities between remaking their pastures and livelihoods around these synthetic nitrogen inputs or rejecting the technological regime change altogether. (Show less)

Bruno Esperante, Daniel Lanero Táboas : Why here “Yes” and there “Not”? Financial Aid and Agricultural Technological Transfers from the US to the Iberian Dictatorships, 1950-1975
In this paper, we describe and analyze the mechanisms by which the United States mediated technological change in Spanish and Portuguese agriculture in 1950-1975. The financial assistance of the United States is part of the geopolitics of the beginning of the Cold War, from the very beginning of the Korean ... (Show more)
In this paper, we describe and analyze the mechanisms by which the United States mediated technological change in Spanish and Portuguese agriculture in 1950-1975. The financial assistance of the United States is part of the geopolitics of the beginning of the Cold War, from the very beginning of the Korean War in June 1950. We will therefore analyze the impact of this aid, identifying the model of imported innovation and the technology transfer channels, as well as their specific objectives in Spain and Portugal. We will be mainly interested in the importation of agricultural machinery, livestock feed, fertilizers, as well as the implementation processes of the Official Agricultural Extension Services in the Iberian Peninsula. In addition to the scarce bibliography on this topic, this contribution will focus in the documentation preserved by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) – USA, originated from the Department of State and the US embassies (Agricultural attachés reports) in both countries. In the international framework of agrarian modernization during the Cold War, in which Agrarian Extension was a key element, my work wonders the reason why Francoism received American technical assistance with such an enthusiasm, whereas Portuguese Estado Novo (New State) showed much more caution and distrust. (Show less)

Clémence Gadenne-Rosfelder : Adherence and Resistance to Agricultural Modernization. An Oral History of Pig Farming Buildings in Brittany: Modernity, Diy, Handling (1940s-1970s)
Many studies have highlighted the role of unions, cooperatives, and other organizations such as the J.A.C. in the intensity of agricultural modernization in the western regions, largely encouraged by the agricultural laws of 1960 and 1962. All of these organizations were led by young modernists convinced of the benefits that ... (Show more)
Many studies have highlighted the role of unions, cooperatives, and other organizations such as the J.A.C. in the intensity of agricultural modernization in the western regions, largely encouraged by the agricultural laws of 1960 and 1962. All of these organizations were led by young modernists convinced of the benefits that farm modernization promised. In the farms that chose to specialize in pork production, this modernization was notably visible in the multiplication of modern livestock buildings, built in new materials (cinder block, "sandwich panels", concrete), capable of accommodating increasingly large herds. This paper proposes to revisit the notion of "agricultural modernization" for pig farmers between the 1940s and the 1970s, trying to qualify the linear characteristic that is still too often attributed to it, by studying the account that farmers give of the construction of farm buildings. Indeed, if the archives of the Journées de la Recherche Porcine, and the numerous brochures published by the Institut Technique du Porc (ITP) in collaboration sometimes with the INRA, sometimes with other organizations, often private, are precious to make a history "from above" of the modernization of the breeding buildings, it seemed to me that the testimonies of the stockbreeders could give a vision perhaps more realistic of what was done on the field. This paper is thus based on the twenty or so oral history interviews that I conducted in 2021 in the Côtes d'Armor department, with farmers born between 1925 and 1950. The aim is to show that while pig farmers undeniably adhere to the impetus and modernizing project of rural areas, they remain economically cautious, and that the tinkering and reorientation/reorganization of livestock buildings could also be interpreted as forms of resistance to this same modernizing project." (Show less)

Harro Maat : Colonial Agronomy and Salvage Capitalism; Plantation agriCulture, Smallholders Farmers and Conflicts over Knowledge Production
The Netherlands, a small European country surrounding the delta of the Rhine and Meuse rivers, ranks second on the list of exporters of agricultural products (measured in monetary value), exceeded only by the US. Main reasons for this exceptional position are geographical location, a favourable trade infrastructure and intensive, industrial ... (Show more)
The Netherlands, a small European country surrounding the delta of the Rhine and Meuse rivers, ranks second on the list of exporters of agricultural products (measured in monetary value), exceeded only by the US. Main reasons for this exceptional position are geographical location, a favourable trade infrastructure and intensive, industrial farming practices supported by various agricultural knowledge producers. When tracing this combination of favourable factors back to the beginning of the twentieth century, the agricultural sector in the colonial territories gives a better match than agriculture in the Netherlands. To be more precise, the European-run plantation sector in the colonies of the early twentieth century shows all the features of modern capitalist agriculture. Alongside the plantations existed a large and extensive smallholder farming sector. The plantation sector and smallholder farming were not entirely disconnected and their connection is well captured as salvage capitalism, a notion coined by Anna Tsing to characterise the ways in which large commercial companies impel small, independent producers into capitalist supply chains. This paper looks at the role of knowledge producers in this process. The dominant knowledge producers in the plantation sector were agricultural research stations, where scientists trained in Europe studied and experimented with tropical crops. This form of knowledge production was effective for the plantation sector but, this paper will show, much less effective for smallholder agriculture. Consequently, smallholder farmers in the colonial territories only partially entered salvage capitalism. An important reason, this paper argues, is crop diversification, a key feature of smallholder farming and a major blind spot of agricultural science. (Show less)



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