Assetization with care: intertwined valuation flows in the transition to regenerative barley production in Belgium

Short abstract:
Efforts to relocalize the production of malting barley reflect a shift toward regenerative agricultural practices. The separation of seeds and roots, which remain in the soil, responds to a new logic of ‘assetization with care’ where the sale of agricultural products intertwines with carbon markets.
Long abstract:
Facing climate change and attempts at ecological transition, new ways of accounting for nature in economic practices are emerging, such as natural capital accounting as a corporate strategy for rent-seeking (Levidow, 2020), advancing the idea that contemporary capitalism is experiencing a shift toward processes of assetization (Birch and Muniesa, 2020). However, a growing body of literature (Braun et al. 2021,2023; Delvenne et al. 2023) in STS has shown that when we view economic processes solely from the perspective of the economic logic that seems to prevail, we miss the more discrete changes that are evident when we observe the actual valuation practices of living things. The risk is to develop a research agenda that lacks some of the nuances needed to respond to techno-economic lock-in. Here, we focus on a project that aims to bring together Belgian farmers, agronomists, storers, and maltsters to relocalize the production of malting barley while striving for sustainability throughout the value chain. Cultivated barley quickly becomes entangled in a series of ‘regenerative’ agricultural practices and knowledge aimed at increasing soil fertility. The mature seed destined for malting is separated from the plant and turned into a commodity, while its roots are left in the ground to promote vegetation cover and become a ‘carbon store’. This carbon insetting scheme superimposes a logic of assetization in which land both enables commercial exchanges and generates income for farmers proportional to their efforts to transform their agricultural practices, while creating rents for companies active on carbon markets.