An Alibi for Ecocide

Michael Grunwald is an environmental journalist who sees maximizing efficient production as the most important sustainability strategy. His book, "We Are Eating the Earth," brings fresh attention to an old debate. Episode Links We Are Eating the Earth Grunwald, M. (2024, December 13). Opinion | Sorry, but This Is the Future of Food. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/opinion/food-agriculture-factory-farms-climate-change.html The Useful Idiot, Land Food Nexus rebuttal to Grunwald's NYT piece The Enduring Fantasy of Feeding the World, Spectre Journal Historians rethink the Green Revolution The Globalization of Wheat: A Critical History of the Green Revolution Max Ajl's A People's Green New Deal On the contribution of yields to hunger abatement:  Smith, L. C., & Haddad, L. (2015). Reducing Child Undernutrition: Past Drivers and Priorities for the Post-MDG Era. World Development, 68, 180–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.11.014 On the role of intensive agriculture in failing to reduce deforestation: Ceddia, M. G., Bardsley, N. O., Gomez-y-Paloma, S., & Sedlacek, S. (2014). Governance, agricultural intensification, and land sparing in tropical South America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(20), 7242–7247. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1317967111 Pratzer, M., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Meyfroidt, P., Krueger, T., Baumann, M., Garnett, S. T., & Kuemmerle, T. (2023). Agricultural intensification, Indigenous stewardship and land sparing in tropical dry forests. Nature Sustainability, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01073-0 Thaler, G. M. (2017). The Land Sparing Complex: Environmental Governance, Agricultural Intensification, and State Building in the Brazilian Amazon. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 107(6), 1424–1443. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1309966 Land sparers feel thier oats Thaler, G. M. (2024). Saving a Rainforest and Losing the World: Conservation and displacement in the global tropics. Yale University Press.   The IEA on competing theories of Indirect Land Use Change and biofuels: Towards an improved assessment of indirect land-use change – Evaluating common narratives, approaches, and tools   More Work for Mother: The Ironies Of Household Technology From The Open Hearth To The Microwave | Ruth Cowan Munro, K. (2025). Reconsidering the relationship between home appliance ownership and married women's labor supply: Evidence from Brazil (No. 2509). The Global Alliance for the Future of Food call for investment in food systems transition The World Resources Institute report on Denmark's Green Tripartite Agreement Behind the Danish Green Tripartite – Democracy, Smallholders and the Rights of Rural People Grunwald debates an agroecologist At COP30, Brazilian Meat Giant JBS Recommends Climate Policy    About Landscapes Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus. Send feedback or questions to [email protected] or Bluesky Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).      

Even as efforts to transition Appalachia out of coal receive broad policy support, the fate of the landscape is ultimately driven by incumbent actors used to getting what they want. Dr Lindsay Shade and Dr Karen Rignall discuss their research about how legacies of land ownership frustrate equitable and effective transition strategies. While an "Abundance"  argument suggests that  "the Democratic fetish for legalistic procedure has in so many places, made it impossible to get stuff done," the afterlives of coal provides a stark reminder of the deeper powers that control what happens on the land. Confronting the legacies of landownership may be the only path to meaningful landscape transformation.  Episode Links Dr Lindsay Shade Dr Karen Rignall Shade, L., Schwartzman, G., Rignall, K., Slovinsky, K., & Johnson, J. (2025). Afterlives of coal: land and transition dynamics in Central Appalachia. Environmental Research: Energy, 2(1), 015015. Also see: Shade, L., Rignall, K., Tarus, L., & Starr, C. (2025). The role of land in a just transition: the Appalachian Land Study collective. Environmental Research: Energy, 2(2), 025010. The ongoing Appalachian Land Study and the historic Appalachian Land Ownership Study Martin County solar project on the former Martiki mine The Cumberland Forest Project (The Nature Conservancy) Congressman Hal Rogers and prison development Carbon sequestration court case: Pocahontas Surface Interests and Forestland Group The Alliance for Appalachia The Appalachian Rekindling Project  The Abundance critique of process The Heavens, by Sandra Newman Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus. Send feedback or questions to [email protected] or Bluesky Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue). Podcast Guest Correction: "At minute 26.41 - 27.55 it is implied that The Nature Conservancy (TNC) acquired all 253,000 acres as a single parcel and that it all passed through Pocahontas Land Company and Heartwood Forestland Fund, and also that The Forestland Group "sold" land to the former. Heartwood Forestland Fund is managed by The Forestland Group and holds land under various subsidiaries. In the three states where TNC brokered land deals for the Cumberland Forest Project, the land is held by various LLC's that TNC controls, all of which purchased land from subsidiaries of either The Forestland Group or Molpus-Woodlands, two different timber investment management organizations (TIMO's). These TIMO's previously bought land and/or timber rights from various coal and natural resource landholding companies in the region, including Pocahontas. As we describe in our paper on p. 8, the trajectory of the land in our case study in East TN is as follows: the land was first consolidated by the 19th century British coal company and land speculation firm "The American Association Ltd," later sold to JM Huber Coal, and then to Molpus-Woodlands, before being acquired by Cumberland Forest LLC, which The Nature Conservancy has a controlling share and manages."

An apparent "success story" of Amazonian forest conservation motivates a 6-years investigation of the land sparing hypothesis. Dr. Gregory Thaler's new book, Saving a Rainforest and Losing the World, reveals a tragic belief that agricultural intensification will solve our problems of enduring extraction of the world's biodiversity. Episode Links Saving a Rainforest and Losing the World: Conservation and Displacement in the Global Tropics. Yale University Press Roser, Max. 2024. Why Is Improving Agricultural Productivity Crucial to Ending Global Hunger and Protecting the World's Wildlife? Our World in Data. Phalan BT. 2018 What Have We Learned from the Land Sparing-sharing Model? Sustainability. 10(6):1760.  Scientists calling the apparent Brazilian halting of deforestation "one of the great conservation successes of the twenty-first century," in Nature Food For an excellent review of the Land Sparing / Land Sharing debate see: Claire Kremen, Ilke Geladi (2024). Land-Sparing and Sharing: Identifying Areas of Consensus, Remaining Debate and Alternatives, Editor(s): Samuel M. Scheiner, Encyclopedia of Biodiversity (Third Edition), Academic Press, 435-451, ISBN 9780323984348.  OR Land Spares Feel Their Oats, Land Food nexus Ritchie, Hannah. 2021. Palm Oil. Our World in Data. An example of the "active land sparing argument." The green revolution: Patel, R. (2013). The long green revolution. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(1), 1-63. An argument for the "forest transition model" as it applies to Brazilian forests.   Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus. Send feedback or questions to [email protected] or https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social  Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

The Netherlands is a world leader in the industrial model of agriculture with speculation-driven land prices to match. Dido van Oosten of Stitchting Kapitaloceen presents a strategy for unravelling entrenched land relations from within a place where property is sacred. Episode Links Nicholas Blomley: Performing Property: Making the World Mietshäuser Syndikat De Warmonderhof training program Land van Ons Vrijcoop collective housing project Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus. Send feedback or questions to [email protected] or https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social  Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

Recognizing how systems of private property control new visions of land use is one thing. Working on a political process of land reform is another. Bonnie VandeSteeg of the People's Land Policy discusses the recent program outlined in: Towards a Manifesto for Land Justice. Episode Links Land for What? Land for Whom? by Dr Bonnie VandeSteeg Towards a Manifesto for Land Justice A People's food policy from the Land Worker's Alliance Scottish Land Commission Liverpool Land Commission Southwark Land Commission Land for the Many, 2019, UK Labour Right to Roam Campaign Dartmoor Wild Camping court case Climate Litigation Example Access and Property: A Question of Power and Authority. Sikor and Lund 2009 Three Acres and a Cow The Diggers Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus. Send feedback or questions to [email protected] or https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social  Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).    

A recent wave of sustainability claims confidently dictate how, for what, and where we ought to use land for climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation. Nikki Yoxall, a self proclaimed regenerative landscape manager walks through her thinking on land use decision making and responds to these critiques. Episode Links Food without agriculture, Nature Sustainability  Guthman on the problems with localism DeLind on the problems with localism Phil Loring – deeper meaning of regen ag Understanding Ag team in the US Paige Stanley's rangelands research Pasture for Life Remembering David Stanley Carbon Cowboys Network Samantha Mosier article on evidence of benefits of Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing Soilmentor  Highlands Rewilding Hannah Ritchie introducing her new book An environmentalist gets lunch – Hannah Ritchie The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People, George Monbiot EU project on livestock futures   Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus.    Send feedback or questions to [email protected] or https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social  Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).            

Normally, land owners get a powerful say in the direction of land use. But what if we could design policies such that public values of land use directed who gets to own the land? PhD student and farmer Roz Corbett travels to France to find out. Episode Links Public consultation on the Proposed Land Ownership and Public Interest (Scotland) Bill (closes 12th September 2023) Scotland's Rural Land Market insights (Scottish Land Commission) Tim Lang, Feeding Britain Terre des Liens How the authorisation system works and it's impact on land market competition Summary article on the development of the new Land law in France Amelia Veitch Speculation in French agricultural land markets and the impact on SAFER decisions on land allocations Article exploring the impact on proactive local authority support for agroecological installations Resistance to mega basins 1 Resistance to mega basins 2 Agroecological Transitions for Territorial Food Systems Project Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode and extended shownotes can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus.  Send feedback or questions to [email protected].  This podcast was a team effort of Tanguy Martin from Terre de Liens, Amelia Veitch from the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Politique (LAP-EHESS) and the University of Lausanne, Hélène Bechet and Alice Martin-Prevel from Terre de Liens, and Claire Lamine from INRAE for her involvement and support through the ATTER project. Georgie Styles provided production and audio mastering support. With thanks to the ATTER project for funding this podcast.  Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).    

Reforming property for sustainability requires both innovation in the law as well as in how we relate to land. Legal geography is a conceptual project that describes how law and space interact. Frankie McCarthy (lawyer) and Nicholas Blomley (geographer) discuss property through the legal geography lens. Episode Links Frankie McCarthy Nicholas Blomley Remember property? Progress in Human Geography A Statement of Progressive Property State v Shack case Performing Property: Making The World. Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence The Mystery of Capital. Hernando de Soto Why Are We Allowing the Private Sector to Take Over Our Public Works? The New York Times. Brett Christophers Blomley on housing justice Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus.  Send feedback or questions to [email protected]. Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

Brexit produced a once a generation chance to create a wholesale reform of agricultural subsidies. Kai Heron works through what the England's new farm subsidy plan reveals about the politics of food system transformation.  Episode Links Kai Heron on Twitter You can't eat profits: A democratic vision for England's tormented farmlands. The New Statesman. By Kai Heron, Alex Heffron and Rob Booth Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition.  Spectre Journal. Kai Heron and Jodi Dean ELMS description from DEFRA Indonesian farm workers in the UK and debt bondage History of the World in Seven Cheap Things WWF FOI on UK's climate targets Eric Ross, The Malthus Factor US food policy and Haitian rice Women: The Last Colony: Maria Mies,  Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Claudia von Werlhof The Classical Agrarian Question: Myth, Reality and Relevance Today: Sam Moyo On carbon markets and their overhype: The Value of a Whale, Buller Sustain on ELMs Climate apartheid Mark Fisher Capitalist Realism Rosa Luxemburg Reform or Revolution Nancy Fraser on Polanyi Maria Mies on subsistence Public Common Partnerships, Commonwealth Kai on the banana discourse Right to Roam campaign England Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus   Send feedback or questions to [email protected] Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

Episode Description Rescinding the practice of human-exceptionalism may be required to treat animals and other non-human species with more grace. But it might also be required to re-orient how we understand how the non-human world operates and thus the decisions we make that may disrupt the order of the multi-species communities we are all part of. Dr. Emma Gardner proposes an "ecological permission structure", or a parallel planning process that takes into account the needs and desires of multi-species communities.   Episode Notes Dr. Emma Gardner The Animals of Farthing Wood Watership Down Raymond Williams, Problems in Materialism and Culture: Selected Essays  Safina, C. (2015). Beyond words: What animals think and feel.  Toad Patrol Andrew Balmford's summary of land sparing Land sparers feel their oats Gardner, E., Sheppard, A., & Bullock, J. (2022). Why biodiversity net gain requires an ecological permission system. Town and Country Planning Association Journal, 391-402. Freedom of Movement: how do animals get around in our modern world? [Online Event] Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus.  Send feedback or questions to [email protected]. Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).