Rural industry

Industrialisation has led to the spectacular growth of cities in the 19th century, to the extent that industrialisation and urbanisation are often considered inseparable, the one automatically leading to the other. The conceptual merging of industrialisation and urbanisation ignores the longstanding connection between agriculture and industry, and keeps us from imagining industrialisation as a rural phenomenon. In the Westhoek however, rural industrialisation is beyond dispute. Whether large companies like Picanol or Clarebout, or SMEs like Made in Inox, almost all industrial production has its roots in or is still intensely connected to agriculture-related activities. 



Whereas in Northwestern Europe cities have gone through a long period of de-industrialisation, rural industries have had the chance to maintain themselves, some even growing into international players. In this region of the world, a division of labour seems to pit the countryside as the place of essential, productive activities such as agriculture and industry, against cities, increasingly home to consumption and what David Graeber has called unnecessary "Bull Shit Jobs". The post-productive countryside seems to be a mirage.



The ties between industry and agriculture are age-old. In Mesen for instance, you still find the remnants of brick factory Dumoulin. The company started right after the Great War to produce brick products for the reconstruction of the frontline region. Particularly important were the brick tubes. These were used massively for drainage of the farmland. The brick tubes could not compete with the plastic tubes of which production started in the 1970s, and Dumoulin was closed, after 50 years of success. This was not the end of industrial production in Mesen though. The Mesen slaughterhouse, part of the Belgian Pork Group remains active next to the Dumoulin heritage site.

Comments

  1. Bern ParetJune 30, 2021 at 4:08 AM

    Is there a need for new rural industrial enterprises and if so, where can they start? In old farm buildings or on specific industrial sites?

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    Replies
    1. Maarten LoopmansJuly 11, 2021 at 8:47 AM

      I believe there is mainly a need to support the development of existing industrial enterprises in rural areas, in balance with the needs of other actors and economic sectors. This means indeed finding the necessary sites for expansion (e.g. abandoned farm buildings), but also adapting infrastructures and selecting locations so that nuisance, pollution and other negative externalities can be avoided (e.g. heavy traffic through village centers or damage to the environmental or touristic potential of landscapes). Above all, it requires recognition of the fact that large scale farms themselves have more in common with industrial enterprises than is often acknowledged.

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