A vitalist approach to sugar-cane breeding in Barbados: In the context of the European Union Sugar Reform

作者：Richardson Ngwenya Pamela^*

来源：Geoforum, 2012, 43(6): 1131-1139.

DOI：10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.07.005

• Vitalism
• Materialism
• More-than-human geography
• Sugar cane
• Barbados
• The EU Sugar Reform

The European Union (EU) recently terminated the Sugar Protocol, which had provided a guaranteed minimum price for sugar exports from countries in the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group. Caribbean sugar producers have responded in a variety of different ways. This paper engages with the adjustment of the Barbadian sugar sector; in particular, the agronomic cane breeding and selection program currently underway.
This paper demonstrates the value that vitalist materialism, as a philosophical approach, has for understanding the situated practices and politics of cane variety selection in Barbados. Approaching agronomic practices from a more-than-human, vitalist perspective has political as well as practical significance, illuminating the lack of attention given to the specific material relations and temporalities of sugarcane in national 'adjustment' plans.

• 出版日期2012-11