Values of Organic Farming and the Establishment of a Local Circulatory Economy

Power related to agricultural production has become concentrated ever more rapidly as Neoliberalism becomes globalized. Industrial agriculture can be defined as an agriculture that is subordinated to capital for agricultural materials, production, and processing. In response to this current tendency, organic farming, which tries to restore a self-reliant system and recover the relationship between humans and nature, emerges as an alternative to industrial agriculture. However, thought is needed to determine whether organic farming has followed its fundamental values. Like industrial agriculture, the input materials of organic farming were replaced by external input materials that were produced by agribusinesses. One of the ways to overcome this conventionalization of organic farming and to realize the original values of organic agriculture is to combine organic agriculture with a local circulatory economy based on small-scaled family farming. As organic farming is an agriculture considering circulation, it would be difficult to maintain the values of organic farming solely through the efforts of organic farmers. It is also necessary to establish a local circulatory economy to restore the values of organic farming.