College of Agriculture

According to the Wyoming Business Council, “Wyoming culture is steeped in ranching and farming… Agriculture is the state’s third-largest industry, contributing $1.8 per year to the Wyoming economy.” Wyoming, of course, has historically been associated with agriculture. The number of cowboy references on campus and throughout the state should reassure any doubters of this fact. It should be no surprise, then, that the University of Wyoming offers a robust Agriculture Department with the largest Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management Degree programs in the country.

Agriculture and Posthumanism may seem somewhat antithetical. As mentioned earlier in the tour, Posthumanism refuses anthropocentrism, which is a world-view that is centered solely on the human experience. Agriculture seems to uphold an anthropocentric perspective; it is, after all, the practice of mastering the environment for the benefit of humans. Yet, agriculture is an ideal example of how humans are an amalgam of nature and culture. Just as we’ve learned to control our own bodies, we’ve learned to control plant and animal life. Furthermore, agriculture shows that humans do not live in a vacuum. That is, humans – or, posthumans I should say – are part of a complex ecosystem of plant and animal life. While we have a tendency to place ourselves at the center of such this ecosystem, our reliance on plants and other animals seems to challenge notions of anthropocentrism.

Most importantly, though, our use of science and advanced technology in order to feed ourselves illustrates how our very existence relies on use of prosthetics or tools.

For information about the College of Agriculture, visit http://www.uwyo.edu/uwag/