WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS WITH OUR CAPITALIST FOOD SYSTEM?
In our last shareout from the book, A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism by Eric Holt-Giménez, we learned about the historical emergence of our food system through centuries of privatization, colonization, and imperialism. In this shareout, we clarify the numerous problems with our capitalist food system and counter some common capitalist talking points.
The Metabolic Rift
Karl Marx argued that capitalism robs both the workers and the soil. In addition to being exploitative, Marx believed that capitalist agriculture was irrational, as it separated people from land and nature. We call this separation the “metabolic rift.”
The metabolic rift was created due to the development of capitalism directing goods from the countryside into cities. This one-way flow of goods greatly depleted the countryside’s land nutrients and forced farmers and peasants to the city in search of work — a destructive and dispossessing process essential to capitalism.
Attempts to mitigate the metabolic rift have been incredibly short-sighted and harmful, to say the least. Capitalists colonized and conquered other lands for natural resources and nutrients (such as guano) to restore overfarmed soil.
The contradictions of capitalism and the interests of the people and the land become clearer as we dive deeper into how our capitalist food system harms both the land and the people.
The Land and Environment
Under capitalism, the land is not only overfarmed and depleted of its natural resources but also made into a “fake commodity” through privatization and financialization. Capitalists treat land more like a stock than a productive asset, meaning they can buy land to sell at a profit later.
Large-scale monoculture farming (such as soybeans, maize, and wheat) provides a much more consistent profit margin for capitalist agriculture than diverse farms that use agroecological practices (sustainable farming practices). Monoculture farming continues to deplete the soil, reduce crop agrobiodiversity (rendering crops more susceptible to diseases and natural disasters), and rely heavily on synthetic fertilizers which are not sustainable for the environment.
Agriculture, livestock, deforestation, and related industries are responsible for almost a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Large-scale capitalist farms make up the majority of these emissions. Even amid climate catastrophe, many capitalists see climate change as a potential investment opportunity!
The People
The problems of our capitalist food system are felt most acutely by working-class people. Capitalist seizure and privatization of land create a destitute landless class as rural populations are pushed to urban areas. The dispossession of local peasants is replicated by an international division of labor. By design, capitalist agriculture inflicts immense harm on farmers and local economies in the Global South.
Increased consumption of “trendy” foods impacts supply and demand as consumers in affluent countries in the Global North demonstrate a higher willingness to pay for certain food products. For example, the rising demand for quinoa in the Global North in the early 21st century drove prices up and made it too expensive for local communities who relied on it for nourishment. Mass production of quinoa also pushed traditional farmers out of the market as it became farmed as a corporate monocrop.
Overproduction is an indispensable – and seemingly counterintuitive – feature of capitalism. Capitalism pressures farmers to overproduce to secure income and increase profits. Overproduction of crops lowers the prices of agricultural commodities as products oversaturate the market. Farmers try to produce more to make up for receiving less income due to lower prices, reinforcing a negative cycle of excess production and falling profits.
In a strategic move to capitalize off of the seemingly unprofitable practice of overproduction, the Global North exports the financial fallout of overproduction to the Global South. By exporting overproduced crops to other countries, governments in the Global North drive down the prices of local products there. Small local farmers are eventually driven out of business — but this, too, is a business opportunity for the Global North. The Global North then exports farming inputs (genetically modified seeds, fertilizer, machinery, etc.) and more crops, locking the Global South into agricultural dependence.
Agricultural production and processing in the United States and Western Europe largely depend on the labor of immigrants, many of whom are undocumented. Holt-Giménez notes that “[t]he low cost of immigrant labor works like a tremendous subsidy, imparting value to crops and agricultural land. This value is captured by capitalists across the food chain, but not by the worker” (66).
Capitalist landowners maintain their exploitation of undocumented farmworkers through threats to their legal status. These farm workers are also disproportionately subjected to dangerous working conditions, low pay, and other labor violations that capitalists often get away with. Racism compounds the economic exploitation working-class people face at the hands of their employers.
The systemic nature of racial and class oppression in our capitalist food system affects every aspect of our relationship to food–especially food access. Food deserts are geographic areas where people have limited options to secure affordable and healthy foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables. The growing prevalence of food deserts is not just a problem of convenience and access. The author urges us to reject capitalist agriculture and turn to systems that govern food distribution in ways that truly meet the material needs of working people.
Countering Capitalist Talking Points
Despite the enormity of the problems caused by our capitalist food system (depleted soil, crop vulnerability, weaponized overproduction, farmworker exploitation, food deserts, etc.) that devastate the land and the majority of people, the bourgeoisie stands in staunch defense of capitalism. Unfortunately, it’s not only the ruling class that defends capitalism; much of the working class still believes in the capitalist system. The author breaks down some of these capitalist talking points and visibilizes the fallacies in each of them:
(1) “Capitalism allows for free markets!”
“Free markets” are free for large corporations to produce. We see monopolies consolidate more and more businesses. Many small businesses are driven to bankruptcy and are forced to sell out to large corporations.
As Eric Holt-Giménez says:
These policies encouraged the rule of what mainstream economists like to call the "free market:' that is, the freedom for huge corporations to produce what and where they want, import from where they want, and stash profits where they want, all the while evading tax obligations and transferring huge environmental and health costs to society. (15)
(2) “Well if you don’t like the system, vote with your fork to change it!”
Most people do not have the luxury of choosing between local organic brands. As Eric Holt-Giménez says: consuming differently “doesn't change the basic commodity relations of value in the food system” (71). Basically, a personal consumer decision will not be able to change the overall capitalist system. A personal choice to go vegan to reduce your carbon footprint will unfortunately not stop the climate catastrophic impacts of the capitalist meat industry.
(3) “Profits are a return on the capitalist’s investment!”
When capitalists invest their capital or money, this capital has to come from somewhere! As we talked about in the last shareout, the emergence of capitalism was founded on patriarchy, colonialism, and slavery. All capitalist initial wealth comes from the exploitation of women, colonized people, and lands. And once the corporation is up and running, capitalists often hire middlemen such as managers to do their work for them! Many do not even oversee their day-to-day operations and yet they reap all of the profits.
(4) “Workers sell their labor out of their own free will!”
As we examined in the last shareout, the emergence of enclosures dispossessed peasants of their land and created a destitute and landless class, forcing former peasants to work for meager wages to survive.
As the author says:
Nothing remained for them but their ability to work for wages. And the British Poor Laws (that criminalized the unemployed) tried to make sure that they would be willing to sell their labor to capitalists . . . Ever since then, ensuring that workers are dependent upon wages [has been] pretty central to capitalism; so for most people, this is not a choice but a condition. (77)
Now that we have a stronger understanding of the problems and fallacies in our capitalist food system, we are one step closer to truly understanding how we can change our capitalist food system. For our next shareout, we will be diving into some of the basics of capitalism so we can better understand the political economic system that underlies our food system.