Agrarian Extractivism, Peasant Culture and Law from Below

The current organisation of our food systems is embedded in a profoundly extractivist paradigm and its unviability has intensified calls for urgent transformation. The domination of agrarian extractivism in food systems has been a major driver of climate change and ecological harm. At the same time, agrarian extractivist processes have adversely affected peasant communities dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, which have experienced severe disruptions to their traditional farming practices, socio-economic structures and ways of life. Drawing on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas ('UNDROP'), this essay positions peasant culture as an alternative to agrarian extractivism. Following a short account of agrarian extractivism as the dominant modality structuring the organisation of our food systems, I shift attention to peasant communities and their culture by reference to their recent recognition under international law. I argue that the legal pronouncement of peasant culture under UNDROP - a normative development driven by grassroots politics - could contribute to a recalibration of the epistemological and ontological narratives that shape food systems and animate their future imaginaries.