The contradiction between cheap food and negative value within the development of farm sistems and food supply in capitalism
Keywords:
Cheap food, World-ecology, accumulation, negative value, agricultural revolutionsAbstract
During the historical period of the longue durée, during the development of world-ecology, in addition to the need of political processes at global level such as the primitive accumulation, obtaining the cheap four, such as Moore called it, was essential. Within these, cheap food is presented through the different agricultural revolutions by a combination of technical development, coercion and taking advantage of a concrete balance between accumulation by capitalization and by appropriation of work/energy from different social formations. Although it is true, despite the different crises of these agricultural revolutions, due to the structural tendency of the profit rate to fall due to the increase in the organic composition of capital, this historical system has always overcome them by seeking for new borders; the food price crisis of the early 21st century seems difficult to follow this successful path. This analysis seeks to unravel the epistemological bases that lead Moore to this conclusion, taking negative value as the guiding thread and his approach to the Marxist concept of social metabolism as theoretical framework.
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