Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis examines the system of food provision in Latin America in the context of hunger and environmental crises which have been brought about through capital accumulation. In analysing this crisis, I focus on the role of capital represented by agribusiness and the Latin American campesino. I ground my conceptual understanding of the food system through a Marxist approach that considers critical knowledge and practice specific to Latin America. My conceptual framework derives from a critical understanding of Harvey’s concept of accumulation by dispossession, and the mode of production approach. Accumulation by dispossession accounts for a dual character of capital accumulation prevalent in the food system. The first characteristic consists of the systemic features of ‘extra economic’ surplus extraction and the second characteristic considers the resistance to capital penetration and experiences of non-capitalist food provision. The mode of production approach links the systemic features of dispossession to the coexistence of capitalist and non-capitalist modes of production in capitalism. The concept of modes of production is combined with the metabolic rift perspective to account for the interaction of human and extra-human nature. This thesis demonstrates that the food system is a contested space between agribusiness and the campesino. I analyse how this contested dynamic has destructive consequences for human nature through the persistence of hunger, and on extra-human nature through the deepening of the metabolic rift. The thesis establishes that capital accumulation is destroying the social and natural foundation of production and reproduction. In this context, I argue that the campesino economy encompasses alternatives to the capital dominated food system, which has the potential to simultaneously feed the population and mitigate the degradation of nature.
Authors: Holz Carcamo, Raul Luis
Language: English
Subfield: Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Australian Government
OpenAlex ID: W3023766227