Agrarian Questions in the

Age of Globalization 1:
Agriculture and Food
Regimes in Global
Capitalism
Alf Gunvald Nilsen
SOS110/Spring 2013

ORIENTATIONS

With the worlds population at an

estimated 7 billion, hunger and
malnutrition affect 925 million people
that is, more than 13% of the
worlds total population, and almost
1 in seven people
In any given country, hunger and
malnutrition will be unevenly
distributed according to class,
race, gender and region
NB! Hunger and malnutrition are not
caused by a quantitative lack of
food World agriculture produces
17% more calories per person today
30 years ago, despite a 70 percent
population increase This is enough
to provide everyone in the world
with at least 2,720 kcal kilocalories
per person per day Hunger and
malnutrition are the outcomes of a
qualitative lack of access to food,
either through markets or cultivation

Even famines acute starvation associated

with a sharp increase in mortality are not a
result of a quantitative lack of food
Drought, floods and other climatic
abnormalities occur regularly, but are not
necessarily associated with famine
Amartya Sens comparative analysis of the
famines in Bengal (1943), Ethiopia (1973 and
1974), and Bangladesh (1974): Only in one
case was there a food availability collapse
but: in all cases, there was a substantial
loss of endowments, combined with
entitlement failures
And the endowment losses and
entitlement failures affected certain
population groups in certain occupations
more severely than others rural labour,
farmers, and pastoralists
Hunger, malnutrition and famines are social
phenomena produced in and through
relations of power, and across spatial scales

Late Victorian Holocausts the late

C19 was marked by a series of largescale famines across Asia, Africa and
Latin America (1876-79; 1889-91;
1896-1902) An estimated 30 to 60
million people perished
The famines coincided with El Nio
Southern Oscillations (ENSOs) but
cannot be explained simply by
reference to climatic abnormalities
ENSOs have been constant throughout
human history, but have not always
been associated with famines
What had changed in late C19 was the
situation of those most severely
affected by famine the peasantry
Millions died, not outside the modern
world system, but in the very process
of being forcibly incorporated into its
economic and political structures.
Mike Davis Late Victorian Holocausts

 the historic fact of depeasantization

See Mike Davis: Planet of Slums (Verso, 2006)

This means that if we are going to

understand the global dynamics of
hunger, malnutrition and food security,
we have to engage with the agrarian
question i.e what happens to
agriculture/agricultural producers, and
consequently to the production and
distribution food across the world-system
in the context of the historical
development of capitalism
We will use the concept of food
regimes to investigate how the
central dynamics of capitalism the
capital-labour relation, expanded
reprodution and generalized
commodity production, extensive and
intensive expansion shape the
global organization of agricultural
production, and how this impacts on
peasantries and on food security
across the world

FOOD REGIMES IN GLOBAL CAPITALISM

RECAP: PHASES OF/IN CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT

DOUBLE MOVEMENTS OF DISEMBEDDING/REEMBEDDING
?

Disembedding of
the market

LIBERAL CAPITALISM

Disembedding of
the market
ORGANIZED
CAPITALISM

NEOLIBERAL CAPITALISM

Reembedding of
the market

Food Regime
Stable periodic arrangements in the
production and circulation of food on a world
scale associated with the different epochs
of/in the development of historical capitalism

Liberal capitalism
(1780s-1940s)

The Colonial-Diasporic
Food Regime
(1870-1930s)

Organized capitalism
(1945-1970s)

The MercantileIndustrial Food Regime

(1945-1970s)

Neoliberal capitalism
(1980s-????s)

The CorporateEnvironmental Food

Regime
(1980s-????)

The rise and fall of each food regime have been associated with
periods of crisis in global capitalism and with the emergence of
social movements pursuing anti-systemic political projects

The Colonial-Diasporic Food Regime (1870-1914)

The central historical fact of the colonial era was the violent
incorporation of colonial lands and peoples into an expanding world
capitalist economy driven by the process of commodification.
McMichael/Raynolds: Capitalism, Agriculture and World Economy

Extensive expansion
Colonial territories were subjected to
direct metropolitan control and a
reorganization of the use/control of
economic resources according to
metropolitan requirements
Agricultural production came to be
centred on expanding the supply of
tropical products to serve as (a) raw
materials for metropolitan industry
and (b) articles for mass
consumption for the metropolitan
working classes This is the historical
root of agricultural periphery/
industrial core relation

The emergence of settler colonialism

and settler states (e.g. USA, Australia)
as the new agricultural core within
the world system
The landscapes of diasporic settler
states were reorganized by imposing
a grid of homesteads through
railways and surveys A migrant
population was imported to work the
land
Specialization in the production of
temperate agricultural products for
metropolitan states

The emergence of settler states and the relocation of temperate

agriculture to these regions underpinned the consolidation of
the capital-labour relation and the creation of a system of
national economies governed by independent state

Large-scale provisioning for

metropolitian working classes
in response to the demands of
an increasingly organized and
powerful workers movement

European imports of wheat and

meat from settler states/exports
of capital and people to
organize production = Core of
the first food regime geared to
industrial capitalism Settler
family farm = Capitalist
agriculture

The settler states anticipated an

alternative organization of the world
economy, both in political and in
economic terms
Settler nations developed representative
governments which regulated the
national economies within their
jurisdictions Their relations to European
states and economies formed the basis
of the first real inter-national system
Major link Goods/regions of wage
labour + Settler agriculture
In C20 this link came to be
internalized within nation-states

NB! Recall: The emergence of the

1FR corresponds with the
devastating impact of the late
Victorian holocausts of 1876-79,
1889-91, and 1896-1902
There is persuasive evidence that
peasants and farm labourers
became dramatically more
pregnable to natural disasters after
1850 as their local economies were
violently incoporated into the world
market.
Mike Davis Late Victorian Holocausts

1) Incorporation of smallholder
production into commodity circuits
undermined food security
2) Terms of trade in world
commodity markets declined
3) Colonial state was unresponsive
due to laissez-faire ideology

The Mercantile-Industrial Food Regime (1945-1970s)

The first half of C20 witnessed the gradual decline
and eventual crisis of the first food regime parallel
with the crisis and decline of liberal capitalism
Anti-colonial movements
propelled decolonization and
the emergence of DFRs

In response to agrarian crisis in the 1930s,

farmers movements in metropolitan
countries e.g. USA demanded change

Decolonization and DFRs were

signficant for 2FR:

The response to agrarian crisis and farmers

demands was significant for 2FR:

a) A new generation of states

that needed cheap
foodstuffs to support
economic modernization
b) A geopolitical challenge for
the US how to contain the
spread of communism and
maintain/consolidate US
hegemony post-1945?

Systems of farm subsidies and market

protection were put in place first in US,
then in Europe which, combined with
improved technology led to the
production of agricultural surpluses
Surplus disposal through food aid enabled
the US to respond to the challenge of
decolonization and Cold War rivalry

The Food Aid Complex

Food aid was an important means by which free trade within the free
world was extended to underdeveloped nations, solving American
surplus wheat problems.
Harriet Friedmann: The Political Economy of Food

Public Law 480: Surplus agricultural stocks could be sold for foreign
currencies This enabled American grain to be imported by countries
that lacked foreign exchange for commerical purchases
The US govt would buy surplus grain from private grain companies and
then in turn sell this to DFRs (Friendly Countries) in return for (mostly
inconvertible) foreign currencies This money was held in bank
accounts in recipient countries and could be spent/lent without the
approval of Congress Local funds were used as (a) loans to recipient
governments, to fund development projects, (b) for payment of US
obligations to recipient governments, and (c) for procurement of military
equipment, materials and facilities

This was attractive for DFRs as it enabled them to feed an emergent urbanindustrial working class But: The long-term result was import dependency

The restructuring of the international grain trade around largescale shipments of surplus US wheat has had dramatic, and quite
contradictory, effects on the traditional agro-food systems and
corresponding class relations of the Third World.
McMichael/Raynolds: Capitalism, Agriculture and World Economy

Access to cheap food

underwrote the process of statebuilding in former colonies:
a) Subsidized consumption by
enabling provision of cheap
food
b) Supported purchasing power
of consumers recall ISI
c) Supplemented wages of the
workforce thus subsidizing
cost of labour for industry
But Import dependency and
erosion of local peasant
production/food self-sufficiency

Agricultural modernization was a

central part of developmentalism:
a) Land reform
b) Green revolution
The results were uneven between
regions and countries and also within
countries
Asia and to some extent LA have
gained Africa much less so
GR has been associated with increased
class differentiation/increased rural
income inequality
Depeasantization
See F. Araghi: Global Depeasan6za6on, 1945-1990

The 1970s was a decade of decline and crisis for 2FR

The success of American food aid in developing commercial markets
progressively made the policies redundant.

3W states were transformed

from self-sufficient agrarian
societies to national
economies dependent on
imports This was a market
opportunity for an US-based
agribusiness
Winding down of food aid and
concessional sales Domestic
subsidies maintained, but
coupled with export incentives
and promotion of commercial
sales Liberalization of
agricultural trade

The terms of trade for 3W agricultural

products were further undermined by
industrial substitution of tropical exports
The prospects for nationally integrated
and regulated agriculture was eroded
transnational restructuring of agricultural
sectors:
a) Agricultural specialization
integration of crops/livestock into
agro-food chains dominated by TNCs
b) Shift in agricultural products from final
use to industrial inputs for manufactured
goods

The Corporate-Environmental Food Regime (1980s-????)

The concept of world agriculture refers, not to the entirety of
agriculture across the earth, but to a transnational space of corporate
agricultural and food relations integrated by commodity circuits.
3FR entails the privatization of food security Food security is to
be provided through the workings of the global marketplace
SAPs were the main vehicle of the
first phase of the emergence of 3FR:
1) Liberalization = Further opening of
market to imports/inability to
compete with 1W farmers
2) Cuts in public spending =
Reduced levels of rural
development spending/input
subsidies
3) Reduced levels of state
intervention = End to price
controls

These changes were then

consolidated through the WTO
framework, which aimed to
institutionalize corporate power in
the world food system:
1) Pushing through further trade
liberalization Agreement on
Agriculture
2) Institutionalizing corporate
property rights TRIMS/TRIPS
Current WTO impasse Private
regulation takes over

How is the emergent 3FR structured?

2 key global production/commodity chains
A shift from food aid to
commercial dumping 70% of
countries in the global South are
net food importers This is a
market created by the food aid
complex
Transnational agribusiness
corporations sell surplus cereal/
staple foods on a large scale to
countries in the global South
2 key problems:
1) Inability to compete =
Dispossession of peasants
2) Food security depends on
purchasing power

A reorientation of agriculture in the

global South towards agro-exports:
States in GS have promoted the
expansion of non-traditional export
commodities - (a) speciality
horticultural crops, (b) off-season fruits/
vegetables, (c) ornamental plants for
affluent global markets (GN)
The production/distribution of agroexports is organized through
agribusiness TNCs this sometimes
entails incorporating small farmers on
tenuous contracts, at other times
outright dispossession
This further weakens local food
production and peasant farming

The 3FR is problematic in relation

to food security because:
a) Food security comes to depend
on purchasing power
This can become a key barrier to
survival needs in connection
agflation: 2007 global food
prices + 24%; Jan to Sep 2008 +
52%; from 2005 to 2008 + 83%
b) Local food production is
undermined and urban poverty
expands as peasants are
dispossessed.
Between 1975 and 2000, the rural
population of the global South
decreased by 13,6% - Since WTO
was established, + 30 million
peasants have lost their land
Regimes of forced
underconsumption (F. Araghi)

The restructuring of global agricultural

production and trade have increasingly
been integrated with market-based
approaches to climate change
Green Capitalism + Climate
Capitalism
The agrofuels/biofuels project:
One market-based approach to climate
change is to substitute fossil fuels with
biofuels (sugar ethanol from Brazil, palm
oil from Malaysia and Indonesia, soybean
for biodiesel from Argentina etc.)
The expansion of the biofuels project has
been associated with large scale landgrabs and the conversion of land-use
from food production to fuel production
Offset value is unclear
WB: 65-75% of agflation is due to
expansion of agrofuels
Argentina: The Bad Seeds