Economics and “Nature's Standard”: Wes Jackson and The Land Institute

Abstract

This essay introduces or re-acquaints readers with the work of Wes Jackson and The Land Institute in Salinas, Kansas. At the center of this work is an effort to develop perennial poly-culture as an alternative to industrial agriculture. The latter dominant model of food and fiber production is shown to involve severe problems in terms of short-run ecological costs and long-run sustainability. It is also argued that the perennial poly-culture model has much to recommend it to radical economists as a corrective to capitalist inefficiency. Finally, notwithstanding Jackson's facile criticism of Marx, it is argued that Marx's own writing actually anticipates Jackson's agro-ecological critique of capitalism.