Agricultural Exceptionalism in Environmental Regulation: The Role of Social Constructions of Wilderness

• In Event: 046 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Food, Agriculture, and Environment

Abstract

Agriculture in the United States (US) represents a significant source of environmental degradation, especially water pollution. However, agriculture remains exempt from most environmental regulations. To better understand the current exempt or exceptional status of agriculture in US environmental policy I examine two historical social constructions of wilderness, one of which influences perceptions of farmers and the other of farmland. First, during early US settlement, wilderness was constructed in a Biblical context that placed farmers as a positive moral force–turning savage wilderness into civilized landscapes. The second construction of wilderness, which was based on the ideas of the sublime and the frontier, framed wilderness as an ideal landscape and has focused attention away from agricultural landscapes as a site for environmental intervention. These social constructions of wilderness help to explain the American reluctance to regulate farmers and to address environmental impacts on, and from, agricultural lands.

Author

• Riva C. H. Denny, Michigan State University