Food Wars

In: Monthly review: an independent socialist magazine, Band 61, Heft 3, S. 17-31

Abstract

After outlining the 2006-2008 world food price spike & consequent shortage, factors driving the crisis are identified: commodities & commodity futures speculation; diversion of foodstock for agrofuel or biofuel, eg, ethanol; & long-term structural & policy dimensions, particularly structural adjustment. To illustrate the deleterious impact of structural adjustment programs, attention is given to the Mexican tortilla crisis, the rice deficit in the Philippines; & the African food deficit. The centrality of capitalism to these crises is noted, asserting that the capitalist industrial agriculture model is a threat to the peasant mode of production. However, the emergence of an international peasant movement against the hegemony of capitalist industrial agriculture is acknowledged. The implications of the current global economic crisis on the long-term displacement of peasant agriculture by capitalist agriculture are touched on in closing. Adapted from the source document.