6
Subtle Agroecologies
TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING THE COGNITIVE FACTORS
BEHIND THE INDUSTRIAL WORLDVIEW
Which other living creatures soil their own living spaces, food supplies and life support systems?
Environmentalist David Orr, who proposed the term ‘ecological literacy’ as the ability to understand the natural systems that make life on earth possible, explains the need to recognise the relationship between the disorder of ecosystems and a prior disorder of mind (Orr, 1991). Similarly,
Roszak (1992) believes that the environmental crisis is rooted in the extreme disturbance of a part
of human consciousness. Yet the views of Orr, Roszak and other ecopsychologists who connect the
way we treat nature as a refection of our own mental states have been more widely accepted by
environmental scholars (e.g. see Joanna Macy’s ‘Work That Reconnects’ (Macy and Brown, 2014))
than by those in agricultural disciplines. (One early exception was social ecologist Stuart Hill who,
with reference to agriculture in the Canadian Prairies, linked ecological with psychological prerequisites and identifed ‘distressed human states’ as resulting in unsustainable farming (1991: 34)). The
very act of separating farming from the environment is arguably a manifestation of such a disorder.
This disorder had been spotted long before by people from non-Western cultures. Indigenous
American peoples used the term ‘wetiko’ (from the Cree First Nation) to describe the mentality of
the arriving colonisers, defned as a type of cannibal sickness or mind-virus infecting people with
symptoms such as greed, ambition, materialism, arrogance or a split personality (Forbes, 2011). In
his book on the same subject, journalist Paul Levy (2013) draws on works from Jungian psychology as well as spiritual wisdom traditions to explain how this mind-virus operates at a covert level
through our unconscious blind spots, rendering us oblivious to our own madness and compelling us
to act against our own best interests.
A more in-depth understanding of this condition has been provided by acclaimed scholar and psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist. McGilchrist’s treatise (The Master and his Emissary: the Divided Brain and
the Making of the Western World, 2019) concerns the bihemispheric structure of the brain, with the
right hemisphere’s insightful and holistic approach moderating the left hemisphere’s reductionism. In a
healthy individual, he explains, the left and right hemispheres of the brain work together, with the right
(‘the Master’) taking the major decisions that the left (‘the emissary’) then carries out. The problem has
arisen that, rather than cooperating, these hemispheres have become involved in a power struggle and
this, McGilchrist asserts, has given rise to many aspects of contemporary Western culture.
The Master realises the need for an emissary to do certain work on his behalf (which he, the Master,
must not involve himself with) and report back to him. The emissary, however, knowing less than the
Master, thinks he knows everything and considers himself the real Master, thus failing to carry out his
duty to report back. The right hemisphere’s view is inclusive, ‘both/and’, synthetic, integrative, it realises
the need for both. The left hemisphere’s view is exclusive, ‘either/or’, analytic and fragmentary – but,
crucially, unaware of what is missing. It therefore thinks it can go it alone.
McGilchrist (2019: xxiv)
With the domination of the left hemisphere and the impact of its vision and priorities on human
action, the right is unable to function in its role of counterbalancing with the real world, because the
real world is now a manifestation of the left. The left meanwhile is incapable of making a paradigm
shift to resolve a problem: ‘There is a self refective hall of mirrors at work, where logic seems to
lead back to a solution within the system itself, rather than a need to break out of it’ (2019: xxiv).
Crucially, although the left hemisphere likes to believe it is more rational and thus more highly
evolved, it is in fact the right hemisphere that is in contact with both body and emotion and also
has more representation in the pre-frontal cortex which is the most highly evolved part of the brain.
Since it was frst published, McGilchrist’s treatise has received slight criticism, only for extrapolating on the implications for society which fall outside McGilchrist’s own area of expertise. From
the food and farming system perspective at least, he may be spot on. His explanation ‘The left hemisphere is not impressed by empathy; its concern is with maximising gain for itself, and its driving
Subtle Agroecologies
TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING THE COGNITIVE FACTORS
BEHIND THE INDUSTRIAL WORLDVIEW
Which other living creatures soil their own living spaces, food supplies and life support systems?
Environmentalist David Orr, who proposed the term ‘ecological literacy’ as the ability to understand the natural systems that make life on earth possible, explains the need to recognise the relationship between the disorder of ecosystems and a prior disorder of mind (Orr, 1991). Similarly,
Roszak (1992) believes that the environmental crisis is rooted in the extreme disturbance of a part
of human consciousness. Yet the views of Orr, Roszak and other ecopsychologists who connect the
way we treat nature as a refection of our own mental states have been more widely accepted by
environmental scholars (e.g. see Joanna Macy’s ‘Work That Reconnects’ (Macy and Brown, 2014))
than by those in agricultural disciplines. (One early exception was social ecologist Stuart Hill who,
with reference to agriculture in the Canadian Prairies, linked ecological with psychological prerequisites and identifed ‘distressed human states’ as resulting in unsustainable farming (1991: 34)). The
very act of separating farming from the environment is arguably a manifestation of such a disorder.
This disorder had been spotted long before by people from non-Western cultures. Indigenous
American peoples used the term ‘wetiko’ (from the Cree First Nation) to describe the mentality of
the arriving colonisers, defned as a type of cannibal sickness or mind-virus infecting people with
symptoms such as greed, ambition, materialism, arrogance or a split personality (Forbes, 2011). In
his book on the same subject, journalist Paul Levy (2013) draws on works from Jungian psychology as well as spiritual wisdom traditions to explain how this mind-virus operates at a covert level
through our unconscious blind spots, rendering us oblivious to our own madness and compelling us
to act against our own best interests.
A more in-depth understanding of this condition has been provided by acclaimed scholar and psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist. McGilchrist’s treatise (The Master and his Emissary: the Divided Brain and
the Making of the Western World, 2019) concerns the bihemispheric structure of the brain, with the
right hemisphere’s insightful and holistic approach moderating the left hemisphere’s reductionism. In a
healthy individual, he explains, the left and right hemispheres of the brain work together, with the right
(‘the Master’) taking the major decisions that the left (‘the emissary’) then carries out. The problem has
arisen that, rather than cooperating, these hemispheres have become involved in a power struggle and
this, McGilchrist asserts, has given rise to many aspects of contemporary Western culture.
The Master realises the need for an emissary to do certain work on his behalf (which he, the Master,
must not involve himself with) and report back to him. The emissary, however, knowing less than the
Master, thinks he knows everything and considers himself the real Master, thus failing to carry out his
duty to report back. The right hemisphere’s view is inclusive, ‘both/and’, synthetic, integrative, it realises
the need for both. The left hemisphere’s view is exclusive, ‘either/or’, analytic and fragmentary – but,
crucially, unaware of what is missing. It therefore thinks it can go it alone.
McGilchrist (2019: xxiv)
With the domination of the left hemisphere and the impact of its vision and priorities on human
action, the right is unable to function in its role of counterbalancing with the real world, because the
real world is now a manifestation of the left. The left meanwhile is incapable of making a paradigm
shift to resolve a problem: ‘There is a self refective hall of mirrors at work, where logic seems to
lead back to a solution within the system itself, rather than a need to break out of it’ (2019: xxiv).
Crucially, although the left hemisphere likes to believe it is more rational and thus more highly
evolved, it is in fact the right hemisphere that is in contact with both body and emotion and also
has more representation in the pre-frontal cortex which is the most highly evolved part of the brain.
Since it was frst published, McGilchrist’s treatise has received slight criticism, only for extrapolating on the implications for society which fall outside McGilchrist’s own area of expertise. From
the food and farming system perspective at least, he may be spot on. His explanation ‘The left hemisphere is not impressed by empathy; its concern is with maximising gain for itself, and its driving