Article ID: CBB464398977

Wild Harvesting, Self-Sown Crops, and the Ambiguous Modernity of Australian Agriculture (2019)

unapi

The beginning of European-style agriculture in Australia, following colonization by Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, occurred at the height of the Industrial Revolution. Australian agriculture developed a precocious global export orientation along with a broad uptake of scientific methods and new agricultural technologies. We argue that although Australian agriculture was “born modern,” its modernity was ambiguous, as sitting beside its conventionally modern attributes were practices such as the harvesting, by farmers, of wild plants and animals as well as self–sown cereal crops. These practices were widespread and contributed significantly to the operation of the farm and the broader agricultural economy. The ubiquity and importance of these practices challenge conventional understandings of the modernity of Australian agriculture by disrupting ideas of the supremacy of the export economy, the ubiquity of scientific agriculture, and the displacement of human control from its position at the center of modern agriculture.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB464398977/

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Authors & Contributors
Christina Harrison
Doyle, Aunty Kerrie
Grace Karskens
Anja Timmermann
Sale, Kayla
Monica Keneley
Concepts
Great Britain, colonies
Agriculture
Colonialism
Industrial agriculture
Botany
Natural history
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
17th century
20th century, early
20th century
Places
Australia
Great Britain
Europe
India
Atlantic world
Missouri (U.S.)
Institutions
Natural History Museum (London, England)
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
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