The concept of “crisis,” as historical theorist Reinhardt Koselleck has shown, is used in history as a marker of epochal transition—“indicat[ing] a critical transition period after which—if not everything, then much—will be different” (Koselleck, 2006: 371). Agricultural historians have long been among those scholars most attracted to the terminology of crisis, applying it to analyses of famines, environmental disasters, farm price shocks, political revolutions, mass migrations, epizootic pandemics, and much more. Indeed, for agricultural researchers, it can be difficult to find a period in history that is not in some way fundamentally defined by crisis. Crises punctuate the periodization of agricultural history, on micro- as well as macro-scales, helping us make sense not only of the past but also of the present, when desires for, if not everything, then much, to be different permeate our understanding of the political, economic, and material environments in which food and fiber are grown, sold, and consumed.

This panel will examine modern agricultural crises across a range of times and spaces, from the era of European imperial expansion to Late Qing China to early-20^th century western North America, when dramatic material and social challenges in the production of food provoked epochal transformations in governance, scientific knowledge, and economic power. All three presentations demonstrate the significance of the specificity of historical context, both material and discursive, rather than assuming that the conflicts of the rural past are antecedents of contemporary conflicts over agricultural knowledge, value, and productivity in an era of climate change and material resource depletion. Yet all three also contribute to richer understanding of our present moment of uncertainty regarding the future of the agrofood systems upon which we all depend.

References

Reinhart Koselleck, "Crisis," Journal of the History of Ideas 67, no. 2 (2006): 357-400. trans. Michaela W. Richter, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30141882.