Popular Agrarian Reform: An Alternative to the Capitalist Model

[TBF]

Popular Agrarian Reform: An Alternative to the Capitalist Model
Written by João Pedro Stedile and Osvaldo León
Monday, 07 July 2014

Since the 1980s, we are living in a new phase of capitalism, marked by the hegemony of finance capitalism and transnational corporations, which have gained control of the production of the principal commodities and world trade, generating structural change in agricultural production.

This control over goods by financial capital that circulates in the world in proportions five times greater than their equivalent in actual production (255 billion dollars/year in currency, for 55 billion dollars/year in goods), transforms natural assets – such as land, water, energy, minerals – into mere commodities under its control. And due to this, there is an enormous concentration of property in land, natural assets and food.

In effect, at the present time, close to one hundred food and agriculture transnationals (such as Cargill, Monsanto, Dreyfus, ADM, Syngenta, Bunge, etc.) control the greater part of world production of fertilisers, agrochemicals, pesticides, agro-industries and the food market. This is because foods are now sold and subject to speculation in international markets, like any raw material (iron, petroleum, etc.), and the big financial interests acquire millions of tons of food for speculation. Millions of tons of soya, maize, wheat, rice, even harvests not yet planted, for the year 2018, are already sold. That is to say, millions of tons of grain that do not exist already have owners.

This production model that capital is now establishing in the whole world is known as agribusiness, and this basically involves organizing agricultural production in the form of monoculture on an ever increasing scale, with the intensive use of agricultural machinery and toxic chemicals, along with the growing use of GM seeds.

Thus this productive model of agribusiness is socially unjust, since it tends to expel the workforce from the countryside, it is economically unsustainable, since it depends on the import of millions of tons of chemical fertilizers; it is subordinated to large corporations that control seeds, agricultural inputs, prices, the market and are left with the greater part of profits from agricultural production. It is not environmentally sustainable, since the practice of monoculture destroys naturally-existing biodiversity, the irresponsible use of toxic chemicals destroys the natural fertility of soils and their microorganisms, contaminates the environment, and above all, contaminates the food produced, with grave consequences for human health ...

Much more here: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/4924-popular-agrarian-reform-an-alternative-to-the-capitalist-model

[Joe Shlabotnik]

1. Here is North America,

I think the production of our food flies well below the radar of most people. But upon even slight investigation multiple cans of worms are opened, from GMO's, fossil fuel use, disastrous and unsustainable land and water management, animal cruelty, huge sums of money changing hands through lobbyists, and farm subsidies, cropland used for biofuels.... etc, etc etc.

I think the next popular battlefront could or should be against agribusiness for food sovereignty. But challenging agribusiness would be as daunting a task as challenging Wall street or the MIC. Right now we have splinters of groups each fighting for individual causes, but the root of all of these problems is the concentration of power and its long tentacles of influence by a handful of huge multinationals.

[TBF]

2. This is exactly right -

"Right now we have splinters of groups each fighting for individual causes, but the root of all of these problems is the concentration of power and its long tentacles of influence by a handful of huge multinationals."

I do think folks see the problem (at least the ones who aren't watching FOX news) - but are confused or unsure as to how to actually fight back in a serious way. Petitions and even boycotts seem to have little effect.