Fourier and Agriculture

Abstract

Charles Fourier has been disdained or ignored by social scientists. Some of his ideas were “mad,” but so many others were brilliant. Now we can see that even some “mad” ideas were simply premature, for example, global warming. His works are a “whole earth catalog” of solutions to today's most intractable problems, such as agricultural labor in a democracy, environmental degradation, consumerism, loneliness, the decline of the family, the gradual disappearance of nutritious meals (and shared mealtimes), eldercare, boredom at work, unemployment, and the fragmentation of communities by “identity” politics. In 19th-century United States, Fourierist and Owenite communitarian models for settling the country were taken very seriously by intellectuals, and more than 100 communities existed. In 1909, the US Commission on Country Life found persistent problems in our largely isolated farming system: the “idiocy of rural life” and environmental degradation. Yet despite reforms, the agricultural sector today offers few options other than self-exploitation family farms, chemicalized agribusiness, brutalized migrant labor, or those questionable imports. Furthermore, labor-saving devices have not eliminated the time and thought required to obtain and prepare nutritious meals; even the affluent often resort to junk food. Fourier's solutions illuminate our rural dysfunctions and also suggest some not-so-fantastic ideas for remediating the situation.