Abstract

SANDERS, Matthew. LONERGAN AND CORN: THE INDUSTRIAL FOOD SYSTEM AND THE LONGER CYCLE OF DECLINE. Univ. philos. [online]. 2012, vol.29, n.58, pp.109-135. ISSN 0120-5323.

This paper explores Michael Pollan's thesis in The Omnivore 's Dilemma that an inadequate industrial model imposed on the biological rhythms of agriculture and a shortsighted United States government policy of direct payment corn subsidies, perpetuates a non-sustainable food system that ramifies in ecological and social decline in the long term. Bernard Lonergan's heuristic account of the emergence of the good of order and the longer cycle of decline provides the philosophical framework to grasp the elements at play in the breakdown of these flexible circles of schemes of recurrence on the technological, economic, and political levels. At its core, the lack of harmonious development within the intelligent and intelligible three-fold levels of society lies in a failure (1) to integrate harmoniously the lower schemes of recurrence into higher orders and (2) to grasp the presence of group and individual bias in the vertical consolidation of food production, processing, and distribution into the hands of a few profit-driven corporations. After first exploring the myriad negative consequences, I recount Lonergan's notion of the development of the good of order in order to highlight the general bias operative in the current non-sustainable industrial food system. Finally, I consider the possibility of new emerging schemes of recurrence that seek to reverse the longer cycle of decline.

Keywords : good of order; general bias; sustainability; government policy; longer cycle of decline.

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