集約式工業化農業之起源？19世紀英國高農業與牲畜育肥

The Origins of Intensive Industrialized Agriculture: High Farming and Livestock Fattening in Nineteenth-Century Britain

一般咸認集約式農業出現於二戰之後。然而，本文指出，早在19世紀，英國所推行的「高農業」（high farming）即堪稱其前身。此時，部分英國農場開始以工業化價值為典範，朝向高投資、科學化與機械化運作，以提升效率和產量。在動物飼育方面，也出現室內圈養與高效育肥（high fattening）等標誌性特色。本文以組裝理論，依序分析共構高農業實踐的異質組裝元素，包括啟蒙知識經濟學、商業資本文化、科學技術、物質原料、農舍設計、動物以及人類對於其之生命治理。藉此組裝式理解，本文突顯高農業結構的機遇性組合（contingencies），分析各異質元素交互影響下的發展特色，並探究其變遷。1870年代，高農業各構成元素之不穩定性，以及農業蕭條與國際競爭，使得其組裝暫時瓦解。這脆弱與易變的組裝也說明，今人習以為常的工業化農業並非固著不變，任何構成元素的變動，包括思想與意識形態、全球市場結構、科學技術的發滯、物質資源的豐匱，以及環境與動物倫理思考，都可能牽動結構轉變與解體。

It is commonly believed that intensive agriculture emerged first emerged after World War II. This paper, however, argues that nineteenth-century Britain’s“high farming”can be seen as an early form of this practice. During this period, certain British farms began to model themselves upon industrial values, pursuing efficiency and productivity through high levels of investment, scientific management, and mechanization. In animal husbandry, distinctive features, such as indoor confinement and high-efficiency fattening practices became increasingly prominent. Drawing on assemblage theory, this study examines the heterogeneous components that co-constituted the practice of high farming—ranging from Enlightenment political economy, commercial capitalist culture, and scientific and technological innovations, to material inputs, farm architecture, animal bodies, and human techniques of biopolitical management. Through this assemblage-based analysis, the paper highlights the contingent configuration of high farming, explores the dynamic interactions among its diverse elements, and traces the transformations that ensued. By the 1870s, the instability among these constitutive elements—together with the agricultural depression and intensifying international competition—led to the temporary disintegration of the assemblage. The fragility and mutability of this historical formation remind us that modern industrialized agriculture is far from immutable. Shifts in any of its constitutive components—ideational, economic, scientific, material, or ethical—may once again reshape or even unravel its existing structure.