High Modernity, New Agriculture, and Agricultural Cooperatives: A Comment

The rational, consuming individual is from within a particular historical era- high modernity. The collective rationally of his or her consumption drives the larger socio-economic culture in profoundly irrational ways: through personal anxiety, questionable sustainability, and loss of value and community. The industrialization of agriculture extends these dynamics in a manner that fragments more grounded aspects of the larger culture, including family farms and rural communities. Intrinsic to its very nature, the agriculture cooperative is embedded in its member-user-owners like no other business organization. The uniqueness gives it a comparative advantage to mollify some of the disruptive aspects of high modernity