Sleepless Land, Fossil People

Before the Green Transition there was the Black Transition. In this dissertation project, I explore the transformation of the landscapes as agriculture was mechanised in the last third of the 19th century. Steam ploughs, migrant labour and artificial fertiliser replaced fallow and were the inevitable companions of sugar beets that was the first heavily industrialised crop in Scandinavia: The sleepless land was born. Suddenly, agriculture was not only the business of farmers, but also of industrialists, investors and migrant labourers who struggled to tame the multi-germinating beet.