Life itself under contract: rent-seeking and biopolitical devolution through partnerships in California’s strawberry industry. Guthman, J. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 44(1):100–117, Routledge, January, 2017. _eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1217843![Life itself under contract: rent-seeking and biopolitical devolution through partnerships in California’s strawberry industry [link]](https://bibbase.org/img/filetypes/link.svg "link")
Paper doi abstract bibtex Following the legal demise of sharecropping in California’s strawberry industry, shippers and other intermediaries began to forge contractual ‘partnerships’ with former farmworkers and ranch managers, providing financing and market access, while giving these new growers responsibility for hiring labor and paying other expenses. Within an array of contracting arrangements, these operate in the worst of all worlds with many expenses returning to the shipper and little possibility of upside reward. Yet these arrangements are touted in the name of helping former farmworkers become farmers. Building on the literature on contract farming, this contribution discusses the ability to obtain rents as an under-recognized advantage of contracts for shippers, which further compromises the livelihoods of growers, especially those in ‘partnership’ arrangements who are particularly squeezed. This paper then suggests a further advantage to shippers: the ability to devolve biopolitical responsibility to growers. Growers are put in the impossible position of having to produce healthy berries at low cost while protecting human health through enhanced fumigant regulation. Partner-growers who tend to farm in poor ecological conditions are in the worst position to meet these competing imperatives. Shippers, however, are able to take the high road by claiming to move beyond pesticides.
@article{guthmanLifeItselfContract2017,
title = {Life itself under contract: rent-seeking and biopolitical devolution through partnerships in {California}’s strawberry industry},
volume = {44},
issn = {0306-6150},
shorttitle = {Life itself under contract},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1217843},
doi = {10.1080/03066150.2016.1217843},
abstract = {Following the legal demise of sharecropping in California’s strawberry industry, shippers and other intermediaries began to forge contractual ‘partnerships’ with former farmworkers and ranch managers, providing financing and market access, while giving these new growers responsibility for hiring labor and paying other expenses. Within an array of contracting arrangements, these operate in the worst of all worlds with many expenses returning to the shipper and little possibility of upside reward. Yet these arrangements are touted in the name of helping former farmworkers become farmers. Building on the literature on contract farming, this contribution discusses the ability to obtain rents as an under-recognized advantage of contracts for shippers, which further compromises the livelihoods of growers, especially those in ‘partnership’ arrangements who are particularly squeezed. This paper then suggests a further advantage to shippers: the ability to devolve biopolitical responsibility to growers. Growers are put in the impossible position of having to produce healthy berries at low cost while protecting human health through enhanced fumigant regulation. Partner-growers who tend to farm in poor ecological conditions are in the worst position to meet these competing imperatives. Shippers, however, are able to take the high road by claiming to move beyond pesticides.},
number = {1},
urldate = {2025-04-07},
journal = {The Journal of Peasant Studies},
publisher = {Routledge},
author = {Guthman, Julie},
month = jan,
year = {2017},
note = {\_eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1217843},
keywords = {biopolitics, contract farming, pesticide use, sharecropping, strawberry production},
pages = {100--117},
}
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