From "Climate-Smart" to "Climate-Just Agriculture”
International Institutions and Challenging False Solutions to our Ongoing Climate Crisis
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:18th Jul '25
£39.99
This title is due to be published on 18th July, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Combining innovative social theory with ongoing policy discussions on climate change, this book analyzes past and present efforts at challenging global poverty through reforming the dynamics of worldwide agricultural production.
Focusing on the efforts of the World Bank and CGIAR research centers, particularly through research and projects that have been launched by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), "Climate-Smart" to "Climate-Just” exposes how neoliberal principles of limited government and individual entrepreneurship have expanded through the development of "Climate-Smart Agriculture." At the same, an alternative - "Climate-Just Agriculture” – is becoming possible as rightwing populists have disrupted international free trade orthodoxy, and social movement demands for food sovereignty gain traction in key international spaces.
As Pahnke explains in this innovative account, "Climate-Just Agriculture" includes structural changes to free trade agreements that would build from local and regional food systems to make them resilient in the face of the adverse effects of climate change. This resiliency, moreover, allows marginalized groups the capacity to create and participate in markets that allow for greater self-sufficiency as they push back on colonialism and imperialism.
Written in a clear and accessible style, this book will be essential reading to students and scholars of sociology, environmental studies, and politics, as well as policymakers and professionals involved with climate change policy and the agriculture and food industry.
Pahnke makes the case of “climate just” agricultural policies which put the interests of small holders and the environment over the merging strategy of “climate smart” policies, which center markets and growth. He makes a persuasive case that in the present period, where neo-liberalism is being challenged from both the right and the left, we should pair grassroots pressure with work to reform transnational institutions such as the World Bank.
Cynthia Kaufman, Director, Vasconcellos Institute for Democracy in Action, Faculty in Philosophy, De Anza College
This is an important and useful book. Anthony Pahnke is taking an innovative approach of trying to see how international institutions could be transformed in directions they have not gone previously. The issues he raises around markets and fairer participation are decisively important and may result in real reforms. The author has delivered a worthwhile, provocative read!
Molly Anderson, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Food Studies, Middlebury College
This book offers a useful and important contribution to the subject of climate change and agriculture. The most important contribution of the book is the analysis about climate just agriculture, as it offers a meaningful way to consider how markets and institutions may offer a fair return for workers. The work as a whole is a timely and relevant intervention into the world’s most pressing environmental problem.
Thomas Sadler, Professor of Economics, Western Illinois University
ISBN: 9781032760377
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 453g
188 pages