Geography Dictionary:
productivist
Describing an agricultural system which is intensive, expansionist, and based on the expansion of world trade in food, ever increasing farm sizes, and the use of technology to increase output; factory farming and agribusinesses are both examples.
This regime is associated with environmental degradation; in Brittany, for example, increasing field size by the removal of hedges has increased evaporation and run-off, and thus decreased infiltration and groundwater storage. Heavy use of fertilizers increased nitrate levels in surface waters fivefold between 1960 and 1980, and the excessive production of slurry from livestock has added to pollution (
