-
On changing their mind
In this sense, I think I was wrong to imply in Saying NO… that ecomodernism focuses on secondary managerialist goals like the efficiency of feedlots without speaking to the mysteries and passions of what animates life.
Chris Smaje
Social scientist turned small-scale farmer; wrote A Small Farm Future and argues against the case for feeding the world from factories.
Chris Smaje did not write this page. What is this?
It collects the places they publish and what they have said there, each linked to the source. They have no account here. Is this you? Claim it, correct it, or ask us to remove it from ppll.
Where they publish
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 10 beliefs, 1 changed mind — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Factory-made bacterial protein cannot feed the world, because meeting humanity's protein needs that way would take more electricity than the planet generates from renewables.
To meet the global population’s protein needs through factory-produced bacterial protein in 2024 would have used more than the total global electricity generated using renewable (hydro, photovoltaic and wind) energy
Saving the world from bad ideas: the continuing failure of food ecomodernism Said 30 Jun 2026
Farming is the one large sector still powered directly by free sunlight, and replacing it with factory food would spend the renewable electricity every other sector needs.
Agriculture is the only major sector that at present is significantly energised directly by zero cost and zero carbon sunlight.
Saving the world from bad ideas: the continuing failure of food ecomodernism Said 30 Jun 2026
"Food from thin air" is not from thin air: it runs on water, minerals, ammonia and industrial plant.
Another is that it isn’t ‘food from thin air’ as is often claimed – as well as the high energy use, it’s food from a lot of tap water, minerals, ammonia and industrial infrastructure.
Saving the world from bad ideas: the continuing failure of food ecomodernism Said 30 Jun 2026
Show 7 more
A future of constrained energy will need more people working the land, and that is not the same as going back to the past.
but I do think that in a future of probable energy constraint there will be a need for a more peopled agriculture, with populations spreading out to tap diffuse solar energy input.
Saving the world from bad ideas: the continuing failure of food ecomodernism Said 30 Jun 2026
Today's level of city living depends on cheap fossil fuels and is unlikely to survive without them.
However, in our non-ideal biophysical reality, present levels of urbanism are unlikely to be sustainable without cheap fossil fuels, and the human cost of that could be horrific unless we address it urgently.
Saving the world from bad ideas: the continuing failure of food ecomodernism Said 30 Jun 2026
Efficiency is the wrong measure of a food system; what matters is what it costs at a level of energy and materials that can be sustained.
a more relevant metric in the long term is the cost, not the efficiency, of food production methods at sustainable levels of energetic and material throughput.
Saving the world from bad ideas: the continuing failure of food ecomodernism Said 30 Jun 2026
Almost nobody makes a living from small-scale agroecological market gardening in a rich country, and there is a reason for that.
One clue to the difficulties I faced, if I hadn’t been too naïve to see it, is that almost nobody works in small-scale, local, agroecological market gardening in Britain and most other rich countries. There’s a reason for that.
Food, land, work and rent: the real story of Vallis Veg Said 9 Dec 2023
Fifteen years of running a small organic market garden in England returned its owners a few thousand pounds a year between them.
My wife and I have averaged a joint annual income of £5,500 from the market garden over the last ten years.
Food, land, work and rent: the real story of Vallis Veg Said 9 Dec 2023
A market economy rewards putting land under campsites and horse liveries rather than under food, and that is the wrong thing to reward.
In my opinion, normal market economics is incentivising the wrong things. I think its preference for horse liveries or campsites over vegetables and other local food production will lead us to disaster
Food, land, work and rent: the real story of Vallis Veg Said 9 Dec 2023
Food is grown wherever land, labour, energy and capital are cheapest, which is why the world now depends on a few vulnerable breadbaskets.
wherever in the world can be found the cheapest assemblage of land, labour, energy and capital to produce a given food commodity, that will be a preferential site of its production.
Food, land, work and rent: the real story of Vallis Veg Said 9 Dec 2023
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
30 June
From one piece Saving the world from bad ideas: the continuing failure of food ecomodernism 6 beliefs · chrissmaje.com
-
Their words
a more relevant metric in the long term is the cost, not the efficiency, of food production methods at sustainable levels of energetic and material throughput.
-
korrents.com
Today's level of city living depends on cheap fossil fuels and is unlikely to survive without them.Their words
However, in our non-ideal biophysical reality, present levels of urbanism are unlikely to be sustainable without cheap fossil fuels, and the human cost of that could be horrific unless we address it urgently.
-
Their words
but I do think that in a future of probable energy constraint there will be a need for a more peopled agriculture, with populations spreading out to tap diffuse solar energy input.
+ 3 more
-
korrents.com
"Food from thin air" is not from thin air: it runs on water, minerals, ammonia and industrial plant.Their words
Another is that it isn’t ‘food from thin air’ as is often claimed – as well as the high energy use, it’s food from a lot of tap water, minerals, ammonia and industrial infrastructure.
-
Their words
Agriculture is the only major sector that at present is significantly energised directly by zero cost and zero carbon sunlight.
-
Their words
To meet the global population’s protein needs through factory-produced bacterial protein in 2024 would have used more than the total global electricity generated using renewable (hydro, photovoltaic and wind) energy
9 December 2023
From one piece Food, land, work and rent: the real story of Vallis Veg 4 beliefs · chrissmaje.com
-
Their words
wherever in the world can be found the cheapest assemblage of land, labour, energy and capital to produce a given food commodity, that will be a preferential site of its production.
-
Their words
In my opinion, normal market economics is incentivising the wrong things. I think its preference for horse liveries or campsites over vegetables and other local food production will lead us to disaster
-
Their words
My wife and I have averaged a joint annual income of £5,500 from the market garden over the last ten years.
+ 1 more
-
Their words
One clue to the difficulties I faced, if I hadn’t been too naïve to see it, is that almost nobody works in small-scale, local, agroecological market gardening in Britain and most other rich countries. There’s a reason for that.
Nothing matches.
About the English under a post
Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.