Agroenvironmental conflict and world food system theory: Sugarcane in the Everglades Agricultural Area

This paper presents a critique of the conceptualization of conflict over land-extensive rural production systems as presented by world food systems theorists. Two problems are identified. The first is historical; specifically, that the periodization of food regimes occludes Caribbean development and plantation agriculture, thereby missing the historical development of the social relations of certain commodity sectors. The second is geographical: that agroenvironmental conflict and sustainability are conceptualized either in terms of local/global (Friedmann, 1990, 1991) or in terms of North/South (Goodman and Redclift, 1991). The paper begins with a summary of the relevant arguments of world food theorists and then turns to the historical example of sugar production to examine its role in industrialization. The following section discusses arguments concerning agroenvironmental conflict that have emerged from food system theory, which emphasize contrasting ‘geographical’ components, either local/global or North/South. The limitations of this analysis are discussed with respect to the case of agroenvironmental conflict in Florida. Finally, a case study of the development of the Florida sugarcane industry is presented to illustrate a ‘First World’ environmental conflict over an agroindustrial production complex that cannot be categorized simply as a ‘consumption’ struggle.