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indigenous smallholder farming, and the imposition of large-scale, export-oriented, industrial farming. It requires commoditized land markets
to facilitate foreign investment or land-grabbing. Insofar as land-grabbing involves wealthy states concerned about food and energy security
and seeking to bypass global markets, it represents a shift towards security mercantilism (McMichael 2013) and the emergence of a post-neoliberal, imperialist food regime. Given the dependence of industrialised
agriculture on fossil energy, this new regime will become increasingly
unsustainable as we enter the post-plateau decline.
The Transition Movement and Food-System Resilience
The transition movement broadly includes those who subscribe to peak
oil theory and advocate energy descent transition strategies. Their proposals for a more resilient food-system include: a shift from industrial, chemical-intensive farming to organic agriculture; downscaling
from large, capital-intensive to smaller labour-intensive farms; a return
to mixed farming and a diverse farm sector to recreate self-reliance in
sourcing fuel, fertilizer, and feed; and on-farm generation of renewable
energy (Heinberg and Bomford 2009; Pfeiffer 2006; Pinkerton and Hopkins 2009).
The Transition Towns network in the UK is actively promoting re-localisation of food production, processing and consumption. The most
promising initiative, in terms of strategic potential an B(