3 TLEd205 Chapter1
3 TLEd205 Chapter1
Course Outcome 1:
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of agriculture and fisheries
concepts, situation, problems and prospects, statutes,
and its role in development
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION TO AGRICULTURE - FISHERY ARTS AND ITS PHILOSOPHY
Duration: 7.5 hrs
Introduction
Chapter I introduces you to the basics of agriculture and fishery as science, art, and business. Likewise,
the histories of agriculture and fishery, as well as the philosophy behind agriculture/food, in general, will be
presented to provide you insights on how they started and evolved. Basic concepts related to agriculture and
fishery will be mentioned/introduced as you go along with the lessons.
Learning Outcomes
References
Shawn McKenzie, 2007. A Brief History of Agriculture in A Brief History of Agriculture and Food Production:
The Rise of “Industrial Agriculture”; MPH Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
Wilfredo G. Yap. 1999. Rural Aquaculture in The Philippines. RAP Publication 1999/20
Lackey, Robert T. 2005. Fisheries: history, science and management. Pp. 121-129, In Water Encyclopedia:
Surface and Agricultural Water, Jay H. Lehr and Jack Keeley, editors, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Publishers,
New York, 7821 pp
Paul B. Thompson, 2012. Nature Politics and the Philosophy of Agriculture in The Philosophy of Food Edited by
David M. Kaplan, University of California Press
TLEd 205 - Agri-Fishery Arts Part I- Introduction to Agriculture and Fishery Arts
Lesson Outcomes
1. Enumerated and briefly described at least 10 fundamental concepts on agriculture and on fishery; and
2. Outlined and described briefly major events in the history of agriculture and fishery.
Lesson Content
Defining Agriculture
- The process of producing food, feed, fiber, and other desired products by cultivation of certain plants and the
raising of domesticated animals (livestock)
- Food, land, people
- History and cultures
- Commodities and crops; consumer choice; politics; waste management; land use; climate change, policy;
international development; ethics; population growth; rural families and communities; science; public health;
and distance education…
Origins of Agriculture
-Until 8,000 BC, nomadic hunter-gatherers
-Then people began to grow food, domesticate animals, live in settlements
- Why did humans move to agriculture?
-Population pressures?
“Industrial” Agriculture
- 1960—world population reached 3 billion
- Industrial methods in agriculture well established in U.S. and other Western nations
- Chemical inputs for agriculture greatly increased
- Mechanized methods of farming and food production became the norm
- Animal agriculture industry begins raising large numbers of animals confined in crowded indoor facilities
- Dramatic increases in yields—with significant hidden costs
The term rural aquaculture is broadly defined by Edwards and Demaine (1997) as “the farming of aquatic
organisms by small-scale farming households or communities, usually by extensive and semi-intensive low-cost
production technology appropriate for their resource base. The resource-poor base of most farms requires off-
farm agri-industrial inputs to intensify production. This implies the use of inorganic fertilizers rather than
formulated feed to provide low market value produce affordable to poor consumers”. At first glance the
definition seems unambiguous and self-explanatory. However, when taken in the context of the Philippines, a
country where fisheries is a very important industry and aquaculture is well established, where the
aquaculture production base is more coastal than inland, and which has an urgent need to address widespread
poverty and inequity not only in the farmlands but perhaps even more so in the coastal fishing communities,
the definition given becomes severely limiting. Within the Philippines rural aquaculture is not a distinct sector
or sub-sector as far as fisheries development planning is concerned. Aquaculture is recognized as an important
component of the fisheries industry and figures prominently in all fisheries development plan. Since
aquaculture production units are located largely in rural areas. It is merely assumed and accepted that
aquaculture development is part of rural development. Yet there is a clear need to recognize the “traditional
dichotomy of development: rural or agricultural and urban or industrial” as put forth by Edwards and Demaine.
This paper therefore is an attempt to provide a definition of rural aquaculture in the Philippine. The approach
taken in coming up with the definition was to review the Philippine aquaculture industry, species by species
and culture system by culture system. The purpose of the review is to identify which of the different culture
systems or species caught on or “clicked” into place and which failed and then to identify which can realistically
be promoted for the rural poor. The review included profitability, resource required (including specifically
land), technological level of development and technological skill required. On those bases a listing was then
made of possible culture systems that may be considered part of rural aquaculture in the Philippines. Lastly
possible rural aquaculture development projects are proposed.
Philippine Fisheries
Fisheries is a very important industry in the Philippines. Its importance is underscored by the fact that as of
1995 the Philippine ranks twelfth among the largest fish producer in the world. and ranks fourth in terms of
aquaculture production based on figures from FAO Yearbook, 1995. In terms of contribution to the national
Gross Value Added (GVA) in Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry in 1997, fisheries contributed 18.5 percent, at
constant prices, as against livestock and poultry which contributed only 12.1% and 10.3% respectively.
Fisheries was exceeded only by agricultural crops which contributed 54.1%. as shown in Table 3. In 1997 the
gross value at constant prices of fisheries suffered a slight decrease, at constant prices. This can be traced to the
47.4% drop in the production of black tiger shrimps, Penaeus monodon, from 76,220 mt in 1996 to only 40,102
mt in 1997. Meanwhile the volume of catch from capture fisheries increased by only 0.7% during the same
period, not enough to offset the serback suffered by prawn culture. The previous year, 1996, the gross value of
fisheries decreased by 0.48% when production from capture fisheries dropped by 4.1 percent over 1995 while
shrimp production declined by 14.6%. In spite of the recent production setbacks in fisheries the industry
continues to play an important role. The country’s archipelagic nature is only one of the reasons for its
importance. The other reason is the Filipinos’ great liking for fish. No meal is complete without fish. As a result
the Philippines has one of the highest per capita fish consumption in the world at 36 kg per year of fish and
fishery products (BFAR, 1997). Philippine fisheries production has always been categorized into three modes
of production for statistical and administrative purposes: commercial fisheries, municipal fisheries and
aquaculture. Commercial fisheries refer to fishing done in offshore waters using fishing vessels of more than
three gross tons. Municipal fisheries refer to fishing done in inland and coastal areas with or without the use of
a fishing boat of up to three gross tons. Aquaculture refers to production in enclosures whether ponds, pens,
cages or on substrates such as stakes, ropes, lines, nets, shells, or on a demarcated natural bed using seedstock,
which may be naturally occurring, or artificially produced in hatcheries.
Philippine fisheries production has been growing, in terms of volume, at an average rate of 2.2% during the last
ten years to reach 2.77 M metric tons in 1997. Of the three modes of production, aquaculture has the highest
annual growth with 5.42%, followed by commercial fishing with 4.47%. (See Figure 2). Municipal fisheries, on
the other hand, has been declining at an average rate of - 1.54%. As a result the contribution of aquaculture to
TLEd 205 - Agri-Fishery Arts Part I- Introduction to Agriculture and Fishery Arts
total fisheries production has jumped from only 26.4% in 1988 to a high of 34.6% in 1997. Similarly
commercial fisheries has also increased from only 26.4% ten years ago to 32 percent in 1997. In contrast the
contribution of municipal fisheries has shrunk from 47.2% in 1988 to only 33.4% in 1997. (See Figure 3).
Export of fisheries products reached 173,887 mt, valued at USD549.83 million in 1997. The main export
product in 1997 was tuna with 79,114 mt valued at USD171.72 million. Shrimp used to be the number one
export but has fallen to second place with 10,532 mt, valued at USD129.04 million due to production failures
which will be discussed in greater detail later. The third most important export is seaweeds that in 1997
reached 40,848 mt with an FOB value of USD95.1 million. In terms of volume, import of fisheries products at
295,016 mt was higher than exports, with only 173,887 mt. However by value, imports amounted only to
USD138.12 million, while exports amounted to USD549.8.. Imports consisted largely of low value item such as
fish meal which reached 120,056 mt in 1997. This was followed by frozen tuna, mackerel or sardines, which are
mainly for the canning industry. Thus the balance of trade in fisheries is still heavily in favor of the Philippines
as shown in Table 4. The number of persons working in the fisheries industry is estimated by the Bureau of
Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) at 990,872 as shown in Table 5. This can be an underestimate since
the number of persons employed in municipal fisheries is still based on 1980 census figures and those for
commercial and aquaculture on 1987 BFAR estimates. In 1980 the National Statistics Office (NSO) conducted a
fisheries census jointly with BFAR. It was a very comprehensive survey that unfortunately has not yet been
repeated. In 1990, only a census of population and housing was conducted. There was no special census to
cover fisheries.
Lesson Outcomes
1. Described one’s point of view on how to balance agriculture and environmental protection;
2. Discussed environmentalism as the underlying philosophy of agriculture to create balance or harmony;
and
3. Expressed own perspective on the agrarian philosophy of agriculture.
Lesson Content
The word "environmentalism" is often used to describe a loosely organized social movement that emerged in
the closing decades of the nineteenth century, leading to the formation of national parks and wildlife preserves.
The most active early period in the United States coincided with the terms of President Theodore Roosevelt.
The movement enjoyed a resurgence during the 1970s with the passage of key environmental legislation such
as the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection: Agency. It has reemerged in recent
times in connection with opposition to globalization and response to climate change. The idea of sustainability
has considerably broadened the concerns of the environmental movement at the same time that it has helped
bring environmentalism itself into the mainstream. Popular books such as Michael Pollan's Omnivore's
Dilemma have brought questions of diet and farming practice under the umbrella of sustainability and have
successfully. made agriculture into a focus of the environmental movement.1 But do these popular treatments
have a philosophy?
Agriculture is an almost ideal subject matter for examining the interface between traditional political theory, on
the one hand, and the newly emergent ideas of environmental philosophy, on the other. By the early decades of
the twentieth century, industrialization and the rise of the factory system had already given rise to competing
philosophical visions of political life. Some of these visions stressed the efficiency of market processes for
allocating the productive resources of society and advocated a vigorous defense of private property as both a
key to this efficiency arid a brake on state tyrannies that threaten individual freedom. Other visions
emphasized the continually worsening condition of the poor and working classes arid advocated principles for
inclusion of their interests and voices in political decision makjng. These latter views would eventually
recognize that race, gender, and sexual orientation had also been used as forms of exclusion that deprive
marginalized people of their political rights. But prior to World War II, the focus was on working people and
urban areas. Works of social theory by writers such as Karl Kautsky2 and novels such as John Steinbeck's
Grapes of Wrath extended the terms of these political debates to the countryside. Capitalist exploitation could
apply to rural as well as urban labor, and on-farm industrialization was likely to involve wasteful and
destructive exploitation of nature, as exemplified by· the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s. A left-leaning
critique of exploitative farming practices was thus in place well before anyone had thought up the idea of
"agribusiness," and this critique had an explicitly environmentalist dimension.
That is, agriculture is seen as a part of the industrial economy just as surely as factories or urban sprawl. Given
this orientation, the goal of an ecocentric Muir style environmental philosophy is to protect n ature from
agriculture. The planting of a field is seen as just another impact on the environment and as a failure typical of
TLEd 205 - Agri-Fishery Arts Part I- Introduction to Agriculture and Fishery Arts
Pinchot-style utilitarianism. For their part, even the followers of Pinchot have typically Adaptation a "weak
anthropocentrism" that advocates protection of wild areas "because we love them" or, alternatively, for the
appreciation and edification of future generations. Even here, the emphasis on wildness leaves an agricultural
field out of the picture. (It is, perhaps, worth mentioning that this tendency is far more evident in North
America than in long-settled areas such as Asia and Europe, where farms are much more likely to be seen as
part of the environment.) This approach lines up well enough with standard political theory when it is large
companies and the interests of capital that are doing the farming (e.g., exploiting), but there are tensions
created when protecting the property rights of small farmers seems to be at issue. Are they just exploiters too?
The other extreme is in evidence when people (not just philosophers) presume that traditional small farms or
organic methods are just as "natural" as a genuine wilderness. This kind of thinking leads to the conclusion that
these farming methods are just fine already from an environmental perspective. The possibility that
desperately poor farmers or organic growers might collectively engage in exploitative destruction of nature
never comes up. Notice that, in this view, farming is seen as a part of the natural environment that needs to be
protected from industrialization. In either case it becomes altogether too easy to overlook hard questions about
the productivity of a given farming system and its ability to meet the needs of both farmers (often themselves
quite poor) as well as those in extreme poverty who depend on the productivity of the system in order to meet
their needs for food.
In fact, many of agriculture's environmental impacts should not be thought of as consequences, outcomes, or
endpoints that are the result of human action. They are better understood as components in dynamic feedback
systems that regulate both ecosystem processes and a wide range of human interests. In this connection, it is
useful to recall the difference between moral philosophies that emphasize case-by-case decision making and
the pattern of moral thinking characteristic of classical Greek philosophy. For the Greeks, human activity is
thought to reflect and be shaped by the social and natural milieu. It is impossible to be a good person in a bad
society, and the place and manner in which one derives a living plays a large role in making a society good.
Victor Davis Hanson, a contemporary scholar of the ancient Greeks, believes that philosophers such as Socrates,
Plato; and Aristotle must be read in light of agrarian ideals that were the foundations of life throughout Greek
city-states. His book The Other Greeks argues that the Greek worldview incorporates both nature and society
into an enveloping environment that aids or inhibits action in a selective way.6 Human goodness involves the
realization of potential that is latent in human character, but the character and potential for this realization is
not wholly under any individual person's control. One will develop virtues and vices as a result of the way that
one's environment rewards or penalizes patterns of conduct in a systematic way. There is, to repeat, no good
person without a good environment. And for the Greeks a good environment was not a pristine environment
but a farm environment.
This type of thought places individuals within concentric webs: family, community, and nature. These webs
work as interacting hierarchies to establish feedback loops, ensuring that individuals internalize the
consequences of their actions into habits of personal character. It is not that one stands back from the impact of
one's conduct and wonders how to value the outcome, as a contemporary economist might. Rather, one sees
the whole organic situation as creating more specific value commitments, understood as virtues that integrate
and preserve the whole. Families provide an environment for the growth and development of children, but
communities, in turn, provide an environment that can either help or hinder the proper functioning of family
life. Communities themselves take on unique characteristics of the regional environment in which they exist. In
an integrated and healthy moral environment, tensions between family loyalty, citizenship, and stewardship
are actually a creative and positive force. They counterbalance one another and prevent the exclusive or
obsessive development of any one character tendency over others. A balance or harmony of the virtues signals
right action. Decline occurs when otherwise virtuous conduct tends toward excess, veering in the direction of
vice. In Hanson's view, the polis or city-state typical of ancient Greece had a social organization that depended
on a type of agriculture that had theretofore not been seen. Relatively ·small family units formed households,
generally supported by family labor and that of a small number of slaves. These household units were mainly
self-supporting, but they did produce enough extra food and fiber for the support of craftsmen and artisans,
whose skills vastly improved the quality of life (and also made the agriculture itself more productive). Previous
agricultures had been organized around large-scale public works for irrigation and distribution of harvests.
TLEd 205 - Agri-Fishery Arts Part I- Introduction to Agriculture and Fishery Arts
They demanded massive numbers of slaves as well as a highly stratified elite (the priesthood) to manage the
system. The unique mountainous geography of Greece was not only suited to such large-scale, top-down
irrigated agriculture; the nature of Greek soils and rainfall permitted the cultivation of a broader variety of
crops, including olive trees and grape vines. But these tree and vine crops in turn required lifetime investments
of labor and maintenance. The farming people (including household slaves, by the way) thus gained an interest
in maintaining long-term control over their lands that slave laborers in Egypt or China never experienced.
This was, in Hanson's view, the root of mutual self-interest binding a number of households into a community.
Each household had more autonomy than anyone (save the emperor or pharaoh himself) in a top-down
agriculture, but each also was highly dependent on the community as a whole. Hanson emphasizes the way that
this interdependence played out in the emergence of a unique military innovation, the phalanx, and
subsequently in the emergence of citizenship, relative equality, and limited democracy throughout the
Peloponnesian Peninsula. The Greek polis; the Greek ideals of citizenship, equality, and freedom; and the Greek
conception of morality all rest, in Hanson's view, on the unique organization of Greek agriculture.
Notice how criticisms leveled against industrial agriculture take on a different meaning when framed within the
context of an agrarian mentality. Advocacy of local food is a particularly salient example. In stressing the energy
costs associated with long-distance; transport of foods and the role that this ecologically needless expenditure
of carbon plays in global warming, the force of the criticism is to suggest that a more comprehensive accounting
of environmental costs associated with industrial farming would produce a different verdict in terms of ethics.
This is a perspective that can accept the claim that low food prices associated with an industrial food system
are ethically good things for all the reasons noted by Jeffrey Sachs. Yet it also holds that when long-term
environmental costs associated with energy consumption are factored into the equation, we see that the cost-
benefit ratio is not so attractive. Someone inclined to a libertarian way of thinking might say that these benefits
to present-day consumers are being obtained by imposing costs and risks on future generations, generations
that have necessarily been unable to give or withhold their consent to this "bargain." Either way, we can
generate an ethical critique of industrial food production without abandoning the principles of an industrial
philosophy. But an agrarian is more concerned with the way that a local food system embeds people in
practices where their commerce with nature and with each other will create an enduring sense of place. Even
people who buy most of their food in farmers' markets or through cooperative arrangements will encounter the
same people repeatedly, week after week. They will build bonds with them, and the need of honesty and mutual
respect is critical in such repeated encounters. Furthermore, the people they encounter are either the people
who are actually growing the food or they are but one step removed from them. Consumers learn the rhythm of
the seasons, and they will know what grows well under local conditions. They can inquire about the condition
of the land and animals under the farmer's care. The agrarian hope is that these kinds of localized transactions
will gradually develop into an affection for the people and the place in which one lives and that this affection,
this sympathy, will in turn mature through the constant repetition of these rhythms into full-fledged habits of
character-virtues, if you will.
The overriding moral concern that emerges from the agrarian mind-set is thus one focused on the way that
quotidian material practices establish patterns of conduct that are conducive to the formation of certain habits.
These habits become "natural" to people who engage in them repeatedly and become the stuff of personal
moral character. When such habits are shared throughout a locale, they form the basis for community bonds
and become characteristic of people living within that locale. Food production and consumption has been one
of the activities most strongly tied to repetitive material practice. Furthermore, these localized practices are
shaped by tradition and geography, by soil, water, and climate conditions. It is therefore not surprising that
moral philosophies focused primarily on the emergence and stability of virtues, community, and moral
character would converge with a mind-set that takes agriculture to have special moral significance.
In point of fact, many of the_ criticisms noted above as focused on the true costs of food can be reframed in
agrarian terms. Concerns about the long-term fertility of soils and for the ecologically adaptive characteristics
of plant and animal varieties can be understood as an expression of the stewardship or husbandry that
TLEd 205 - Agri-Fishery Arts Part I- Introduction to Agriculture and Fishery Arts
characterizes a well-functioning agrarian economy. To fault industrial systems for paying too little heed to the
human practices that safeguard fertility and genetic diversity, as Vandana Shiva does, can be understood as a
claim focused not on the impact for future generations but on the need to preserve habits or virtues dedicated
to land stewardship and animal husbandry. Concerns about the distorting effects of subsidies can be
reconfigured as complaints' about the way that repetitive material practices (the purchase and consumption of
food) have themselves become warped by a dysfunctional economic environment.
It is worth noticing how warnings about the dire consequences straying from agrarian habits and character are
wholly consistent with the agrarian mentality. Hesiod's poem "Works and Days" is full of warnings for fools
who neglect their farms and engage in "grabbing" or indolence. This was not because Hesiod was encouraging
his audience to better calculate the true costs of these vices. The entire concept of a rationally calculating,
economizing mind-set was wholly foreign to his outlook. Indeed, it would be more accurate to say that rational
calculation amounts to the same thing as "grabbing"_ for Hesiod. Those who operate outside the place laid for
humanity are simply fools. The bad outcomes they experience are evidence of their foolishness, events that
confirm the flaws of their character. Impacts and outcomes are signs of an inner virtue for Hesiod, not factors to
be counted up and totalized in a rational calculation of costs and benefits. In fact even good farmers can have
bad luck-though in their case bad consequences do nothing to controvert their basic righteousness. This proved
to Hesiod that calculating costs and benefits has very little to do with morality. Only a grabbing fool would try
to outmaneuver the gods! However strange this kind of thinking may sound today, it is important to pay
attention to the way that Hesiod associates bad outcomes with bad behavior but without also suggesting that
·these bad outcomes are the reason for thinking that the behavior is bad.
TLEd 205 - Agri-Fishery Arts Part I- Introduction to Agriculture and Fishery Arts
Activity/Performance Task
Activity/Performance Rubric
Learning Check
Self-Reflection