Reconsidering the “Nature” of Agriculture: Racial Capitalism, H-2A Labor, and Political Ecologies of Extreme Heat in Georgia

Abstract

This article synthesizes literatures on political ecology and racial capitalism to interrogate the historical development and contemporary conditions of extreme heat and farm labor in Georgia. Challenging the extent to which agriculture is considered “naturally” exceptional as an industry, I argue that ecological volatility has been discursively deployed to justify Georgia’s racialized, devalued agricultural labor regime. Drawing on Du Bois’s concept of “the shadow,” I link early settler anxieties about extreme heat, violent nature, and the ideal settler-subject to current demands for immigrant farm labor through the H-2A temporary agricultural guestworker program. Although the exceptional “nature” of agriculture is overstated, the biophysical realities of extreme heat pose embodied risks for farmworkers who are treated as disposable in a constructed labor system dependent on exposure and vulnerability.

本文综合了政治生态学和种族资本主义研究, 审视了格鲁吉亚极端高温和农业工人的历史发展和当代条件。通过质疑农业在多大程度上是一个“本质上”特殊的行业, 我认为, 生态变化被无端用于证明格鲁吉亚种族化的、廉价的农业劳动力制度的合理性。根据杜波依斯的“阴影”概念和H-2A农业临时雇工计划, 我将早期定居者对极端高温、暴力本质和理想定居者的焦虑, 与当前对农场移民工人的需求联系起来。尽管农业的特殊“本质”被夸大了, 但极端高温的生物物理现实对农场工人构成风险。在依赖于暴露和脆弱性的劳动力体系中, 这些工人被视为一次性劳动力。

Este artículo sintetiza las literaturas sobre ecología política y capitalismo racial para interrogar el desarrollo histórico y las condiciones contemporáneas del calor extremo y el trabajo agrícola en Georgia. Retando el grado con el que la agricultura es considerada “naturalmente” excepcional como industria, arguyo que la volatilidad ecológica se ha desplegado de manera discursiva para justificar el régimen laboral agrícola racializado y devaluado de Georgia. Basándome en el concepto de “la sombra” de Du Bois, vinculo las ansiedades de los primeros colonos sobre el calor extremo, la naturaleza violenta y el poblador ideal, sujeto a las demandas actuales de mano de obra agrícola a través del programa de trabajadores agrícolas ocasionales invitados, H-2A. Aunque la “naturaleza” excepcional de la agricultura es exagerada, las realidades biofísicas del calor extremo plantean riesgos encarnados para los trabajadores agrícolas que son tratados como desechables en un sistema laboral construido que depende de la exposición y la vulnerabilidad.

Key Words:

• agriculture
• heat
• labor
• political ecology
• racial capitalism

关键词:

• 农业
• 高温
• 劳动力
• 政治生态
• 种族资本主义

Palabras clave:

• agricultura
• calor
• capitalismo racial
• ecología política
• trabajo

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Josh Barkan and Nik Heynen for their generous feedback on earlier drafts of this article. I am also grateful to Cindy Hahamovitch, Don Mitchell, and Jenn Rice for constructive comments on the dissertation on which this article is based. Thank you also to the editor and anonymous reviewers whose feedback greatly improved this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caroline Keegan

CAROLINE KEEGAN is an Accountability, Climate, Equity, and Scholarship (ACES) Faculty Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research focuses on the farm labor system and low-wage worker organizing in the United States through the lenses of racial capitalism and political ecology.