Author Identifier
Date of Award
2026
Keywords
sustainable agriculture, agricultural sustainability assessments, food security, sustainability indicators, agroecology
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Integrated)
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
First Supervisor
Stephanie Godrich 
0000-0003-3067-8253
Second Supervisor
Pierre Horwitz 0000-0002-8689-7888
Third Supervisor
Amanda Devine 0000-0001-6978-6249
Fourth Supervisor
Ros Sambell 0000-0002-8799-3441
Abstract
A constellation of crises intertwined with agrifood systems is reaching a point of conjuncture and threatening human and planetary health in manners that can no longer be contemplated in isolation. This thesis illustrates how agriculture has become objectified and abstracted from its role in healthy social reproduction. While monitoring and measuring agriculture via sustainability assessments is often posited to support sustainable agricultural transitions, assessing sustainability with the same objective lens will continue to neglect the externalities found throughout wider agrifood settings. This thesis argues for comprehensive sustainability assessments to address the constellation of crises and support the transformation necessary across all food system aspects, including addressing institutionalised norms in addition to agricultural practice shifts.
To inform agricultural transitions, a systematic scoping review (ScR) identified extant and applied Comprehensive Assessment Instruments (CAI) for agricultural sustainability. While ScR results revealed a plethora of instruments, only seven met criteria for comprehensiveness and evidence of application. The subsequent thesis chapters are arranged by Maria Puig de La Bellacasa’s ‘Neglected Things’, which describes Matters of Fact, Concern and Care. ‘Matters of Fact’ presents findings as they appear through an objective lens, drawn directly from applying a mixed methods CAI composed of an agroecological survey plus wider sustainability indicators (e.g., wellbeing, vegetative cover, production etc.). The CAI was implemented collaboratively with participating farmers in case studies (n=13) in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, approximately 300-450 kilometres southeast of the capital city, Perth. Instrument application was followed by evaluation and recommendations for future CAI use. Place-based considerations, barriers and enablers to local sustainable agriculture production were also identified.
‘Matters of Concern’ demonstrates a critical reflection on changes needed across policy and practice before sustainable transitions for agriculture can be achieved. Results show cases (n = 11) displayed high agroecological alignment; all cases (n = 13) showed an array of sustainable attributes including high wellbeing, high vegetative cover, low post harvest losses, and prudent input use, yet were challenged with financial viability concerns to varying degrees. Barriers and enablers to sustainability were predominantly structural rather than individual considerations for farmers and included access to and affordability of land and labour; colonial legacies and altered landscapes; governance concerns; and market factors.
Results informed pragmatic and actionable recommendations, guided by an external advisory group of agriculture and sustainability interest-holders. Sustainability assessments must incorporate wider landscape and structural level indicators to address identified place-based drivers. Policy, practice and research recommendations suggest: improve and develop local physical and social infrastructure; preserve place-based knowledge including First Nations, family farming and historical government reports; actions to facilitate food community connectedness including strengthening relations between consumers and producers; integration of landscape scale projects and indicators that intersect across comprehensive sustainability considerations (e.g., First Nations, social connectedness, ecological and hydrological indicators etc.).
‘Matters of Care’ outlines how care-based actions for community and nature, undertaken by ‘care-taker’ farmers can support local, resilient food reproduction. This section asserts that enactive, embodied and relational aspects are necessary to nurture the things (externalities) neglected by objectified agriculture within institutionalised capitalist structures. This objectification is further perpetuated by business-as usual sustainability assessments. Matters of Care is a conceptual offering based on a diversity of relational thinking, arguing that care-based actions in multi-species agricultural settings can build community resilience to live through capitalist induced crises.
Access Note
Access to this thesis is embargoed until 7th November 2029
Recommended Citation
Voisin, R. (2026). Critical sustainabilities for reproductive agriculture: Horticulture, capitalism and care. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/3ehb-2360