Andrew L Ofstehage
Biographic Data
| ID | 174193 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrew L Ofstehage |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrew L |
| FAMILY NAME | Ofstehage |
| SIGNATURE | OFSTEHAGE A L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4502-364X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 102 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Gelasenheit in Goiás: A Mennonite political ecology
This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.In 1968 a group of nineAmerican-born Holdeman Mennonites purchased Cerrado land and later became someof the first farmers to produce high yields of corn and soybeans inSouthwestern Goiás. Today, the colony occupies a total of about 50,000 acres;the largest farm is 1440 acres. This paper analyzes how Mennonite theologyaffects the political ecology of their soy production…
Making soil in the Plantationocene
Based on 14 months of ethnographic research, this paper analyzes soil management within the plantation model of farmingin order to understand the extent to which life on large-scale monocultural farms can be controlled and directed toward extractiveproduction. Transnational soy farmers in Western Bahia Brazil 'correct' soils in the region to make them productive and marshal thisagronomic work to claim that they have added value to the land by 'bu…
The Plantationocene as analytical concept: A Forum for Dialogue and Reflection
This forum for dialogue and reflection invites empirical and theoretical inquiries that critically interrogate plantations in their myriad forms through the conceptual analytic of the Plantationocene. In doing so, we understand, and invite attention to, the Plantationocene, both as a key for interpreting histories of local to global development and for understanding the role of plantationlogics today. Not all contributors need agree that the Plan…
Tidy Fields and Clean Shirts: A Comparative Ethnography of Good Farming in South Dakota and Luis Eduardo Magalhães
North American farmers manage massive soy farms in the Brazilian Cerrado from the clean offices off the dusty streets of Luis Eduardo Magalhães, Brazil. As they delegate field work to farmworkers, they focus on paperwork, managing investment capital, and satisfying the investors that control that capital. This comparative ethnographic article considers the agrarian values and farm life of the author's childhood on a small South Dakota farm alongs…
Farming
Farming has become increasingly visible in recent years, following a growing public interest in how food is produced. Anthropologists have been studying farming since the founding of the discipline. This entry summarises the origins of farming and agricultural intensification before analysing three themes of the social anthropology of farming. First, farming is dependent on relations of power and capital. Second, farming is deeply engaged with so…
Farming out of place: Transnational family farmers, flexible farming, and the rupture of rural life in Bahia, Brazil
North American soybean farmers have responded to farmland inaccessibility in the US Midwest by purchasing and operating large soybean farms in western Bahia, Brazil. They have turned to "flexible farming" and flexible crops, labor, and land that are commodified, replaceable, and alienated from social and physical relations. Nevertheless, temporalities of farming survive, redefined in terms of progress and backwardness, and new materialities and m…
Financialization of work, value, and social organization among transnational soy farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado
This article describes the financialization of work, value, and social organization in a transnational community of soy farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado. This community originally migrated from the US Midwest to the Brazilian Cerrado in search of large tracts of cheap and productive land. While these farmers migrated to Brazil in pursuit of the reproduction of farming livelihoods and values, they adopted new forms of work, new values of farming, …
Farming is easy, becoming Brazilian is hard: North American soy farmers' social values of production, work and land in Soylandia
Since the late 1980s, North American farmers have been migrating to Brazil to produce soybeans and escape a general farm crisis in the United States. This paper analyzes their work, values, social relations and relations with the land in order to understand transnational farming and agrarian change from the perspective of transnational farmers. North Americans' migration to Brazil and soy production in Brazil can inform our understanding of the m…
The construction of an alternative quinoa economy: Balancing solidarity, household needs, and profit in San Agustín, Bolivia
NustaJuira's Gift of Quinoa: Peasants, Trademarks, and Intermediaries in the Transformation of aBolivian Commodity Economy
Farmers and activists in theLosLipez region ofBolivia have created a symbolic commons that links their identity, quinoa crop, and work. Since 2005, farmers have worked with regional activists and marketers to create a denomination of origin in order to project their work and connection with quinoa into international markets for their crop. Yet sales certified with the denomination of origin trademark have not significantly displaced other sales t…
The Plantationocene as analytical concept: A Forum for Dialogue and Reflection
This forum for dialogue and reflection invites empirical and theoretical inquiries that critically interrogate plantations in their myriad forms through the conceptual analytic of the Plantationocene. In doing so, we understand, and invite attention to, the Plantationocene, both as a key for interpreting histories of local to global development and for understanding the role of plantationlogics today. Not all contributors need agree that the Plan…
Farming out of place: Transnational family farmers, flexible farming, and the rupture of rural life in Bahia, Brazil
North American soybean farmers have responded to farmland inaccessibility in the US Midwest by purchasing and operating large soybean farms in western Bahia, Brazil. They have turned to "flexible farming" and flexible crops, labor, and land that are commodified, replaceable, and alienated from social and physical relations. Nevertheless, temporalities of farming survive, redefined in terms of progress and backwardness, and new materialities and m…
Farming is easy, becoming Brazilian is hard: North American soy farmers' social values of production, work and land in Soylandia
Since the late 1980s, North American farmers have been migrating to Brazil to produce soybeans and escape a general farm crisis in the United States. This paper analyzes their work, values, social relations and relations with the land in order to understand transnational farming and agrarian change from the perspective of transnational farmers. North Americans' migration to Brazil and soy production in Brazil can inform our understanding of the m…
The construction of an alternative quinoa economy: Balancing solidarity, household needs, and profit in San Agustín, Bolivia
NustaJuira's Gift of Quinoa: Peasants, Trademarks, and Intermediaries in the Transformation of aBolivian Commodity Economy
Farmers and activists in theLosLipez region ofBolivia have created a symbolic commons that links their identity, quinoa crop, and work. Since 2005, farmers have worked with regional activists and marketers to create a denomination of origin in order to project their work and connection with quinoa into international markets for their crop. Yet sales certified with the denomination of origin trademark have not significantly displaced other sales t…
Financialization of work, value, and social organization among transnational soy farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado
This article describes the financialization of work, value, and social organization in a transnational community of soy farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado. This community originally migrated from the US Midwest to the Brazilian Cerrado in search of large tracts of cheap and productive land. While these farmers migrated to Brazil in pursuit of the reproduction of farming livelihoods and values, they adopted new forms of work, new values of farming, …
Tidy Fields and Clean Shirts: A Comparative Ethnography of Good Farming in South Dakota and Luis Eduardo Magalhães
North American farmers manage massive soy farms in the Brazilian Cerrado from the clean offices off the dusty streets of Luis Eduardo Magalhães, Brazil. As they delegate field work to farmworkers, they focus on paperwork, managing investment capital, and satisfying the investors that control that capital. This comparative ethnographic article considers the agrarian values and farm life of the author's childhood on a small South Dakota farm alongs…
Making soil in the Plantationocene
Based on 14 months of ethnographic research, this paper analyzes soil management within the plantation model of farmingin order to understand the extent to which life on large-scale monocultural farms can be controlled and directed toward extractiveproduction. Transnational soy farmers in Western Bahia Brazil 'correct' soils in the region to make them productive and marshal thisagronomic work to claim that they have added value to the land by 'bu…
NustaJuira's Gift of Quinoa: Peasants, Trademarks, and Intermediaries in the Transformation of aBolivian Commodity Economy
Farmers and activists in theLosLipez region ofBolivia have created a symbolic commons that links their identity, quinoa crop, and work. Since 2005, farmers have worked with regional activists and marketers to create a denomination of origin in order to project their work and connection with quinoa into international markets for their crop. Yet sales certified with the denomination of origin trademark have not significantly displaced other sales t…
The construction of an alternative quinoa economy: Balancing solidarity, household needs, and profit in San Agustín, Bolivia
Farming is easy, becoming Brazilian is hard: North American soy farmers' social values of production, work and land in Soylandia
Since the late 1980s, North American farmers have been migrating to Brazil to produce soybeans and escape a general farm crisis in the United States. This paper analyzes their work, values, social relations and relations with the land in order to understand transnational farming and agrarian change from the perspective of transnational farmers. North Americans' migration to Brazil and soy production in Brazil can inform our understanding of the m…
Farming out of place: Transnational family farmers, flexible farming, and the rupture of rural life in Bahia, Brazil
North American soybean farmers have responded to farmland inaccessibility in the US Midwest by purchasing and operating large soybean farms in western Bahia, Brazil. They have turned to "flexible farming" and flexible crops, labor, and land that are commodified, replaceable, and alienated from social and physical relations. Nevertheless, temporalities of farming survive, redefined in terms of progress and backwardness, and new materialities and m…
Financialization of work, value, and social organization among transnational soy farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado
This article describes the financialization of work, value, and social organization in a transnational community of soy farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado. This community originally migrated from the US Midwest to the Brazilian Cerrado in search of large tracts of cheap and productive land. While these farmers migrated to Brazil in pursuit of the reproduction of farming livelihoods and values, they adopted new forms of work, new values of farming, …
Farming
Farming has become increasingly visible in recent years, following a growing public interest in how food is produced. Anthropologists have been studying farming since the founding of the discipline. This entry summarises the origins of farming and agricultural intensification before analysing three themes of the social anthropology of farming. First, farming is dependent on relations of power and capital. Second, farming is deeply engaged with so…
Tidy Fields and Clean Shirts: A Comparative Ethnography of Good Farming in South Dakota and Luis Eduardo Magalhães
North American farmers manage massive soy farms in the Brazilian Cerrado from the clean offices off the dusty streets of Luis Eduardo Magalhães, Brazil. As they delegate field work to farmworkers, they focus on paperwork, managing investment capital, and satisfying the investors that control that capital. This comparative ethnographic article considers the agrarian values and farm life of the author's childhood on a small South Dakota farm alongs…
Making soil in the Plantationocene
Based on 14 months of ethnographic research, this paper analyzes soil management within the plantation model of farmingin order to understand the extent to which life on large-scale monocultural farms can be controlled and directed toward extractiveproduction. Transnational soy farmers in Western Bahia Brazil 'correct' soils in the region to make them productive and marshal thisagronomic work to claim that they have added value to the land by 'bu…
The Plantationocene as analytical concept: A Forum for Dialogue and Reflection
This forum for dialogue and reflection invites empirical and theoretical inquiries that critically interrogate plantations in their myriad forms through the conceptual analytic of the Plantationocene. In doing so, we understand, and invite attention to, the Plantationocene, both as a key for interpreting histories of local to global development and for understanding the role of plantationlogics today. Not all contributors need agree that the Plan…
Gelasenheit in Goiás: A Mennonite political ecology
This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.In 1968 a group of nineAmerican-born Holdeman Mennonites purchased Cerrado land and later became someof the first farmers to produce high yields of corn and soybeans inSouthwestern Goiás. Today, the colony occupies a total of about 50,000 acres;the largest farm is 1440 acres. This paper analyzes how Mennonite theologyaffects the political ecology of their soy production…
Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development (7 works) · Agriculture (6 works) · Business (6 works) · Economics (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Economy (4 works) · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact (4 works) · Organic Food and Agriculture (4 works)