Accumulation by Displacement Global Enclosures, Food Crisis, and The Ecological

Accumulation by Displacement: Global Enclosures, Food Crisis, and the Ecological
Contradictions of Capitalism
Author(s): Farshad Araghi
Source: Review (Fernand Braudel Center) , 2009, Vol. 32, No. 1, POLITICAL ECONOMIC
PERSPECTIVES ON THE WORLD FOOD CRISIS (2009), pp. 113-146
Published by: Research Foundation of State University of New York for and on behalf
of the Fernand Braudel Center
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Accumulation by Displacement
Global Enclosures, Food Crisis, and the Ecological
Contradictions of Capitalism*
Farshad Araghi
Capitalism is not even mathematically possible, let alone
biologically viable
topsoil are washed into the sea as a r

farming, which equates to the loss of
hectares of productive land. As a resu
current levels of food production onl
of phosphate, but phosphate reserves
hausted within 80 years. Forty per cent
produced with the help of irrigation;
fers are already running dry as a resu
-George Monbiot
[W]hat turns the soil into a prolongat
individual is agriculture.
-Karl Marx (196
When you put a man in a vacuum, yo
You do the same, when you take away
for you are putting him in a space v
leave him no way of living except acco
-Hippolyte Colins (1856), quote
Economist's (2007) food price index
story: Food prices today are higher tha
index was created in 1845. The United
* An earlier version of this article was presented at

tions of the World Food Crisis" conference, Cornell U
grateful for the helpful comments of Philip McMicha
working group on the global food crisis at the Depart
Cornell University. I also wish to thank Srabana Gupta
review, xxxii, 1, 2009, 113-46 113

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
1 14 Farshad Araghi
culture Organization
40% this year, compa
was already unaccept
U.N. agency (Rosent
for all of southern
New York Times head
ever, another Times
tion (Bruni, 2008), in
(It's Possible)." Half
induced food crisis b
ence report, with a h
global climate model
cost of deforestation
commissioned study
more money from t
current banking cr
veal a social relation
interrelating global
global inequality (W
tempt to explore the
I use the concept of
2000; 2003; cf. Harv
what I have called t
the ongoing massiv
the appropriation o
the accumulation of
ue-theoretic standpo
the groundbreaking
perspectives on the p
2000; Burkett, 1999; Clark & York, 2005; Clausen & Clark, 2005;
McMichael, 2006). I conclude that the food crisis today is an ex-
pression of the deep and generalizing crisis of capitalism or, what
is the expression of the same thing, the current crisis of capitalism
is fundamentally a crisis of global value relations expressed as the
end of cheap food.
1 1 will develop the concept of "surplus nature" later in this article.

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 115
THE LABOR IN NATURE PERSPECTIVE
Taken together, the emerging literature on ecological c

phasizes the internality of nature to social life and poses
mental degradation as the requisite dimension of how t
ings of capitalism disunifies "socio-ecological" existence.
follows Marx's caveat that:
What requires explanation is not the unity of living and ac-

tive human beings with the natural, inorganic conditions
of their metabolism with nature, and therefore their appro-
priation of nature; nor is this the result of a historic process.
What we must explain is the separation of these inorganic
conditions of human existence from this active existence, a
separation which is only fully completed in the relationship
between wage-labor and capital (1964: 86-87).
The term socio-ecological signifies the interwoven character
and the indispensable unity of social and natural life. To elabo-
rate, I distinguish among three discourses on the human-nature
relationships. The first discourse, "man" versus nature, permeated
Enlightenment thought and signified the way the emerging bour-
geoisies related to the natural world. This was an unmistakable
relationship of domination with strong patriarchal underpin-
nings, which became widely incorporated in scientific narratives
from Bacon and Descartes onwards. Through the use of science,
"men" (literally) were to become the "masters and possessors of
nature" (Descartes, 1968: 78). As Evelyn Fox Keller (1985: 33) has
shown, it was Francis Bacon who formulated an explicit relation-
ship between scientific knowledge and power where the aims of
science were distinctively defined as domination and control of
nature- a conception2 that also came to be adopted by classical po-
litical economy. The second discourse can be described as "society
and nature," a reformist revision of the domination of nature dis-
course. This perspective emphasizes the necessity of "coexistence"
2 Thus in C. P. Snow's The Masters, Luke, the young physicist who has just made a
discovery, expresses himself in this way: "It's wonderful . . . when you've got a problem
that is really coming out. It's like making love- suddenly your unconscious takes control.
And nothing can stop you. You know that you're making old Mother Nature sit up and
beg. And you say to her, 'I've got you, you old bitch.' You've got her just where you want
her. Then to show there's no ill-feeling, you give her an affectionate pinch on the bot-
tom" (1951: 320).

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1 1 6 Farshad Araghi
of society and nature.

conservationism to ro
green and free marke
work of capitalism to
tions, technologies, c
goals of limiting and
on nature3 (Merchant
within "'man' and nat
such diverse thinkers
and Kropotkin, 1994
The epistemological
tence" discourses came
ship between humanit
in nature" and "natu
philosophy of labor in
its general and ahisto
ternalizing" (Entausser
trangement of labor f
Just as plants, anima
form a part of hum
they form a part of
physical sense, man
whether in the form
ter, etc. The universa
in that universality w
ganic body, (1) as a dir
the object, and the t
inorganic body- that
human body. Man liv
and he must maintai
not to die. To say that
s The latest variety of refor

Speth. Writes Sterling: ". . .
attractive, glamorous and sed
cial engineering. Society mus
ciety will eagerly consume
glamorous Green" (2001). Similarly but somewhat to the

acknowledges actually existing capitalism as the source
finding a "nonsocialist" alternative (2008: 194).

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
to nature simply means that n

apart of nature (1969: 112).
It was "estranged labor," not
mans from nature, i.e., prese
reckon with either via domin
tence (in the second discours
"tears away from him his sp
and transforms his advantag
that his inorganic body, natu
tion of the historical and soc
was later encapsulated in his
under capitalism which can b
{Money) + Z [Surplus Labo
-» (Surplus Money)
More systematically, it was t

power that allowed Marx to g
man/nature relationship. Na
becomes radically redefined
body of the individual" (Ma
duction process, "living labo
into the body of its soul and
dead" (Marx, 1973: 364). Ma
life=nature" was a profound
alism within capitalist moder
nature and labor, which no
but also mystified this duali
ture. On the contrary, in Gr
ing subject" repeatedly as th
for reproduction of labor "as
(1973: 488). This labor-oriente
human body, in its organic
of the physical nature (and
body) has yet to be recogni
sociology of the body4 (but
4 Primitive accumulation and displa

labor and the laboring body:
These men, suddenly dragged from
not immediately adapt themselves to the discipline of their new condition
Hence at the end of the fifteenth and during the whole

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
118 Farshad Araghi
terms Marx designa

as what makes the l
goes beyond the dou
thought, on the one
other hand between
THE NATURE OF VALUE AND THE VALUE OF NATURE
Under the hegemony of Cartesian dualism, however, M

to be interpreted as attributing no value to nature, a conce
is quite inconsistent with Marx's conception of nature as th
body of labor power. Foster (1997; 1999; 2000) and Burk
have already cogently critiqued the misconstruction of M
of nature as having no intrinsic value and as external to
process. What I would like to emphasize here, from a som
ferent angle, is the connection between the "nature in l
spective and what I have called the "global value relation
2003). This will relate to my analysis of "forced underc
tion" as I define it to include "ecological enclosures." I w
place the latter in the context of "accumulation by disp
a fundamental feature of the "globalization project" (M
2008a) and point out its consequences for the current g
crisis.
ries, a bloody legislation against vagabondage was enforced throughout West-

ern Europe
receive a beggar's license. On the other hand, wh

sturdy vagabonds. They are to be tied to the car
blood streams from their bodies, then they are
birthplace or to where they have lived the last t
selves to labour" (Marx, 1976: 896).
Marx's chapter "Bloody Legislation against the E
Fifteenth Century" is replete with historical accoun
ish." Compare this historically and spatially specif
labor power with what Foucault later puts in the a
force only if it is both a productive body and a sub
5 The separation of the intellectual and manual l
sion of estrangement. Labor energy takes mental a
and the mind. As Marx famously put it: "[W]hat di
the best of bees is that the architect builds the cell in his mind before he constructs it in
Wax. At the end of every labor process, a result emerges which had already been con-
ceived by the worker at the beginning, hence already existed ideally" (1976: 284).

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
My argument will be that

expression of accumulation
structuring of global valu
the global food crisis today
capitalism and its world-h
between food price and fo
are certainly affected by f
lated commodities and con
to see these as the root ca
crisis today expresses the
and in this sense is not "re
talism. This analysis rules
eralized crises, i.e., Keynes
consumption, because high
is neither theoretically par
nor is it a practical possibi
form of ecological crisis w
the crisis more rapidly and
1970's (Araghi, 2008).
GLOBAL VALUE RELATIONS AND REGIMES

OF FORCED UNDERCONSUMPTION
As I have argued elsewhere (Araghi, 2003), Marx's an

production of value in the first volume of Capital was no
be directly applicable to concrete world-historical regim
production. Specifically, in the context of his critique o
economy and his theoretical reformulation of profit as
mulation by capital of the labor time of the expropria
tions, Marx consciously made the theoretical assumption
all other commodities, labor power is exchanged at its
assumption, despite its severe restrictions, was indispens
Marx's theoretical problematic that the appropriation o
labor time (profit) did not theoretically depend on the e
unequal exchange relations in the labor market and/or
access to natural resources due to special geographica
After Ricardo, this latter was the prevalent moralistic e
of exploitation where capital forced workers to sell thei
low its value. This perception (1) missed the specificity

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
1 20 Farshad Araghi
power as a commod
for its own reproduc
within the context of
capital could eradicat
power is exchanged
duced) would also re
labor power is limite
ited, as Marx's analy
atic consideration of
egies.6 As Marx's mo
he was of course awar
are violated in a syst
the important part w
surplus value by push
value of their labor po
sidering it by our ass
power, are bought an
emphasis added). At
theory on the assum
its full value must a
long-term reproduct
in which labor power
formulation to world
"in practice" would r
value relations, to whi
By regimes of "forc
eras in which capital
a major component
torical regimes of f
production of absolu
normal limit" and "u
labor time." By cutt
power- that is, by p
level necessary for r
methods increase cur
6 Hence, as I show, the leve

the production of value mu
raphy of production, worl
2003).

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of premature destruction o
tions of its reproduction (i
inorganic bodies). These m
the long term and could be
increasing the current glob
slave trade and forced peas
depeasantization and infor
tion) at the expense of the
and (2) by a massive escalat
ecology of reproduction an
current usurpation of "sur
exhaustion of natural reso
spheric life, systemic food
overconsumption amidst w
By surplus nature I mean
labor time. Surplus nature
the future. Surplus nature
nature," which signifies s
or a sustainable rate of me
While Marx used the conce
his usage of these terms in
a deep humanist and enviro
fell prey to positivistic and
"labor against nature" disco
nities. The methodological
ignation of nature as "the
the "epistemic hierarchy" (
centric developmentalisms,
than a human relationship,
tion rather than as a relati
labor producing, and produ
Burkett's excellent analysis
use value of nature as a "fr
"labor in nature" presented
ue producing in that it dete
time and thus directly affect
To view nature as directly
7 In other words, the "greater the

the climate, the smaller the amoun
reproduction of the producer" (Mar

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
122 Farshad Araghi
problematic to devel
labor power only in
past and future rep
as the property of
651) emphatically pu
innate, occult qualit
Regimes of forced
that imdtfrreproduct
(often combined) ba
sanctioned systems
cialized underconsu
regimes), and ecolog
derconsumption ha
sumption of nature
juncture has been d
consequences of th
exchange between s
per rift," or the rif
the vicious interacti
the neoliberal mome
tions of nature and
formulation includes
sic problem of viewi
is that the direct pr
ogy taking place und
the basis for "cheap f
short run and (2) a f
in the long term.
Thus the nineteent
consumption, enfor
and a global (cheap)
ses and the Great D
forced underconsum
and the IMF/World
and the reconstruc
to the end of cheap
cal, food, and finan
were separated by a
and the "Developme

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
ing liberalism,8 in the cont

nialism, provisioned wage
externalizing the costs of
er words, precisely because
Keynesian solution (i.e., co
sence of social limitations
of wage contracts and food
at the expense of ecologic
strategy whose limitations
panded within the neolibe
food and ecological crises, o
of reproduction.
Global value relations ar
combination of food and o
relations (including ecologi
solute and relative surplus
the world market, governe
by definite hegemonic/glo
production of value depend
value relations under which
only through rising techni
importantly, through expa
tion based on "overconsum
ecology and labor power (i
bor, such as migrant labor,
bor, peasant labor, colonial
regimes of production of a
of relative surplus value pr
8 As I have argued in detail, neolib

century colonialism rather than a
tionism and the Development Com
not extend to global ecology; it was i
9 Rather than viewing the produ
dualistic, localistic, oppositional, or
tions highlights their dialectical/ r
1994), pioneering the world-histori
relations historically, (2) how to co
and (3) how to eschew the conflatio
also McMichael (1991).
10 Which is what Marx means by t
the wage-laborers in Europe neede
pedestal" (1976: 345).

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
1 24 Farshad Aragh i
nated the field of visi

food regimes and coe
graphical hidden abod
A key methodologica
cal procedure by placin
the center of the ana
to the fore: What are
plus value through un
There are two funda
increase in the supply
expanding "ecological
squandering of the ec
quired is "above norm
ic and inorganic form
"accumulation by disp
by displacement" (Ar
of "accumulation by d
Harvey's work; here I a
placement in value th
value relations of colo
al (late twentieth cen
Hence, my concepts o
possession by displace
the same phenomeno
tion by dispossession.
tion by dispossession
because he "relegate(
and violence to an 'ori
evant" (2003: 144). Th
elsewhere, and it repr
in Capital (Araghi, 20
session need not the
accumulation, becaus
11 Hence the periodic deba

work, and "the end of histo
sumption in the global Nort
12 By ¿/¿proletarianization
social compact, better know
see Breman (2009).

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
could force a retreat on cap

an and the Developmenta
It was in the 1970's, when
and Developmentalism em
unruly nationalisms abroad
nized under the rubric of
regime of forced undercon
sive return to a colonialist
ket ideology and military f
opment" through "financia
and the debt regime (McM
redistribution of global in
demand inflation for the g
deflation and demand com
2008: 108) were symptomat
overconsumption on the on
on the other hand. Thus w
doubled between 1973 and 1
ulation accounted for 86%
Nations Development Progr
profit by overconsuming th
panding deforestation (and
the global South), soil degr
of water resources, and bi
13 Capital retreated from depend

the demands of workers for wage
World peasantries for land reform
between 1945 and 1975). The worke
food (through food aid) coincided
dustrialization, but contradicted t
ricultures. Metaphorically speakin
nario. For details on the politics of
2009).
14 According to the United Nations Development Program report:
Since 1970 the world's wooded area has fallen from 11.4 square kilome-
ters per 1,000 inhabitants to 7.3. Only 40 years ago most deforestation was in
the industrial countries. Now it is concentrated in the developing world. Over
the past decade at least 154 million hectares of tropical forest- three times the
area of France- have been cut, and every year an area the size of Uruguay is
lost
billion hectares in Africa are moderately to severely deg

that together have two-thirds of the world's poorest people
tion, overgrazing and the felling of forests each account f

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
126 Farshad Araghi
here is not that ecol

ism, for the cheap oi
tion of agrochemica
ism, as a conjunctur
(Patnaik, 2008) dep
underreproduction a
ed in the escalation
mental regulations
deregulation15 in th
talism everywhere by
mass consumption o
Crucially, the neol
the supply of under
ized) labor power th
displacement." The
the dismantling of
subsidized proletari
Third World, (2) th
fare state and the c
ally similar to the l
(3) the reconstructi
dercut under natio
the developmentalis
corresponding agric
favor of globally ba
redistribution of pu
centralized, large-sc
damage- and overexploit

Development Program, 1998: 54-55).
15 A recent case in point is the Bush administration support for coal mining corpo-
rations' practice of mountaintop removal. As a Times article reported:
The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping
the rubble into valleys and streams. It has been used in Appalachian coal coun-
try for 20 years under a cloud of legal and regulatory confusion. The new rule
would allow the practice to continue and expand. . . . Environmental activists
say the rule change will lead to accelerated pillage of vast tracts and the oblit-
eration of hundreds of miles of streams in central Appalachia
to 2001, 724 miles of streams were buried under min

the environmental impact statement accompanying t
practices continue, another 724 river miles will be bu
says (Broder, 2007).

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
In other words, appropriati

er depended on massive and
enclosures, or "accumulation
this process was fivefold: (1
deproletarianization where (2
er provided the ground in w
below its cost of reproduction
plus nature were appropriate
by (agro) industrial capitals
tions provided the basis for n
tems where finance capital or
the last drop of their labor
migratory and undocumente
worker" regimes provisioned
underreproduced agrarian pro
point here, following the def
modate a guest worker regim
put in place new rules in De
bureaucratic burden on empl
workers." The new rules were
worker program and thus di
As the representative of an a
it: "Even if regulatory refor
on to the next administration
cultural labor crisis." Califor
peak labor force of 450,000. Ac
director of Farmworker Just
of the guest worker program b
with low wages and poor wor
2008).
The concept of "accumulatio
both the global appropriation
power predicated upon dispos
peasantries and the accumula
result, massive waves of dispo
16 A 2005 report by the International

between globalization, migration, labor
at least 12.3 million people are victims
are exploited by private agents, inclu
result of human trafficking" (2005: 10

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
128 Farshad Araghi
in the most recent e

slums, which puts th
billion, or about 32%
by displacement is c
value relations and
support my argumen
There was "no big c
to denote it," as one
2007 marked a demo
cance: The earth's po
became more urban
2004). It may be obje
increase may be due
rather than due to
To address this que
increase in the urba
1975-2000 that is in
data indicate (table 1
populations of the g
ment (that is beyon
the urban areas17).
Table 1
Rural Displacement in the Global South, 1975-2000
Period % Actual increase in % Increase Attributable to

Urban Population Rural Displacement
1975-2000 141.8 64.7
Source: Calculated from U

and World Population Prospe
Similarly, between 1950

are available) the percen
tion was more than two
population (table 2). Be
17 Further calculations indicat

due to rural displacement as a r
(in Latin America by about 14%

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
Table 2
Total Urban Populations by Development Group,
Selected Periods, 1950-2003
% Change in Total Average Annual

Region Urban Population % Change
1950- 1975- 1975- 1950- 1950- 1975- 1975-
1975 2000 2003 2003 1975 2000 2003
World Total 61.5 49.1 54.8 150.0 1.92 1.60 1.57
World Urban 108.0 88.2 100.0 316.4 2.91 2.53 2.50
Global North
Urban 62.8 25.7 28.6 134.9 2.00 0.91 0.90
Global South
Urban 161.0 143.2 165.4 593.0 3.91 3.55 3.55
Source: Compiled from United Nations Popu

ization Prospects: The 2003 Revision.
tion in the global South (less developed r

ing 593 percent. What is more, as the gr
tion in the global North (more developed
62.8% in 1950-75 to 28.6% in 1975-20
in the global South increased from 16
1975-2003. Figure 1 shows the growth p
populations of the world. Given that ur
lower rates of natural population growt
a shift in the structure of population f
deruralization as a result of both rura
formation of rural into urban areas).
of the peasant populations of the globa
der neoliberal globalization can be see
of urbanization in the global South an
periods: While in 1950-75 the rate of
times faster in the global South as com
in 1975-2000 the rate of urbanization was 4.3 times faster in the
global South. Despite reduction in birthrates in most areas, espe-
cially in urban areas, the global South experienced this high rate
of urban population growth specifically as a result of rural dis-
placement via out-migration. In other words, the urban areas of

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
130 Farshad Araghi
Figure 1
Urban and Rural Populations of the World, 1950-2030
Source: United Nations

lation Division, World U
Table 3
Rate of Urbanization in More Developed Regions

and Less Developed Regions
Region 1950-75 1975-2000 1975-2003

More Developed Regions 0.99 0.38 0.37
Less Developed regions 1.62 1.63 1.61
Source: Compiled from United Nations, World Urbani

2003 Revision.
the global South increasingly absorbed most of the growth in to-

tal world population as well as most of the population growth in
urban areas worldwide. The trend toward rural displacement can
be seen in table 4, which demonstrates that while between 1950
and 1975 the rural population of the global South decreased by
9% (from 82.1% of the total global South population to 73.1%),
between 1975 and 2000 it decreased by 13.6% (and showed a 15%

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
Table 4
Urban and Rural Population Distribution

of the World (Percentage)
Region 1950 1975 2000 2003

World Urban 29.1 37.3 47.1 48.3
World Rural 70.9 62.7 52.9 51.7
More Developed Urban 52.5 67.2 73.9 74.5

More Developed Rural 47.5 32.8 26.1 25.5
Less Developed Urban 17.9 26.9 40.5 42.1
Less Developed Rural 82.1 73.1 59.5 57.9
Source: Compiled from United Nations Population Divi

banization Prospects: The 2003 Revision.
decline between 1975 and 2003). Dramatically, the

rate of rural population growth in the global Sout
38% from 1975 to 199518 (United Nations, 2006).
This structural shift of the world urban populati
al South, particularly after 1970-75, can be seen in
it appears, between 1950 and 1955 the urban area
South absorbed only 56% of the annual incremen
urban population. But by 1995-2000 however, the
the global South were absorbing 92% of the annua
the world urban population, an increase of 36% (U
2004). Similarly, whereas 28% of total increase in
tion in 1950-55 was accounted for by urban pop
in the global South, this increased to 76% of the t
increase throughout the world in 2000-05.
As these data indicate, the process of accumulatio
ment, particularly during the neoliberal period, h
a global surplus of migratory labor power that dr
creased the supply of deproletarianized labor powe
time, rural displacements free up massive spaces of
formerly used for simple reproduction, for enclosure
18 This is consistent with my earlier analysis of "relative" versus "absolute depeasa

ization" in the two periods of 1950-75 and 1975-2000 (Araghi, 1995).

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
132 Far shad Ar aghi
Figure 2
Annual Urban Increment in the More Developed and
Less Developed Regions and Percentage of Total Urban
Increment Represented by the Urban Increment
of the Less Developed Regions
Source: United Nations

Population Division, Wor
agro-food capitals.19
a formative compone
global value relations
workshop of the wor
North (and the North
the attempt to mass
19 One use of such enclose

meatpacking industry. Follo
new plants to "small towns, a
workforce" (Rachleff, 2008:
grant workers in plants such
low wages among migrant w

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
power and surplus nature w

the neoliberal offensive (20
the expression of the fund
of our times. I will discuss this next.
THE END OF CHEAP FOOD
Global restructuring, at its core, was a historical res

of global value relations through the construction of
food regime (McMichael, 2005) that aimed at dismantl
colonial protection of national divisions of labor. As su
"denationalizing regime of dispossession" (Araghi, 199
jected millions of rural petty commodity producers in
to forced competition with heavily subsidized agribus
capitalized family farms in the North.20 The retreat f
velopment compromise thus involved abandoning the
ism within internationalism" model, or what was a case of
subsumption of markets to capital," in favor of corpo
ism and the "real subsumption of markets to capital."
adopting these concepts from Marx's distinction betwe
mal and the real subsumption of labor under capita
other words, the formal subsumption of markets to ca
subsuming markets as capital historically incorporate
date them under global circuits of exchange (e.g., und
developmentalism), while the real subsumption of mar
tal implies the construction of specific world markets
a global food regime that enforces asymmetrical glob
of labor (e.g., under liberal colonialism and neoliberal
The real subsumption of formerly protected home ma
neoliberal conjuncture was in this sense a component
turing of global value relations that involved the dest
social protection of agricultures and the peasantries in
As the U.S. secretary of agriculture, John Block, put
20 This also included corporate agriculture and large-scale capitalist f

South which benefited from cheap labor and land released through d
Throughout this article, I use the term "North" more in a metaphoric, rat
idly defined geographic sense, to note the enclaves of the North within
conversely, the South within the North (e.g., in the immigrant/ forced
Northern agro-industrial complexes, such as in Immokalee, Florida).

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
134 Farshad Araghi
"[T]he idea that dev

anachronism from
food security by re
available in most ca
Thus, while the str
Bank and the IMF en
markets in the Sout
ber states increased
of the food crisis w
prices increased by
U.S. senate passed th
married farmers w
and individual farm
off the farm) still q
sidies will go to far
European Union's e
the same logic, desp
(Kanter, 2008). As B
tural subsidies in th
decade earlier. At th
the world's poor ear
Union, which receiv
Griffith, 2002). To c
via free trade and c
above, is a euphem
ket competition am
central to understan
episodic, but rather
An important outc
tal through disposse
destruction of simp
forms and peasantiz
Through the massi
nonmarket access to
self-reproduction g
the market mechan
tion of value whose contradictions have now become evident. Thus
while from a Eurocentric perspective the fact of overconsump
in the North gave the appearance of food abundance in the p
thirty years, from a value-theoretic point of view this affluence

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
precisely a form of transf

sessed, and repressed labor
consumption. The concept
labor power and from sur
the theoretical perspective
The triple concepts of "di
2000), "accumulation by di
mulation by encroachment
cal specificity and the pred
processes under neoliberal
as I do to the concepts of
derconsumption regimes m
acteristically a regime of
the dispossessing dispositio
that it is the political org
in crisis. As the state of c
egy of neoliberalism is red
ductive, fragmenting rath
than inclusive. There is a
of "financialization" can be
liberalism, insofar as we c
strategy through which fi
via macro and micro lendin
tion, the sense of prosperi
credit is similar to the ap
privileged consumers in th
trend in world per capita
a telling picture: While be
cereal production increas
decreased by 7.7 percent.
creased by another 1.6%
Dyson, 1999). That there w
pluses in a period when pe
ing goes to show the hege
in this period. As Chand p
result of rapidly declinin
21 That the food crisis and the credit crisis have been coterminous is an indication
of their deeper structural roots. My point is not that the credit crisis caused the food
crisis, but that they are diverse expressions of the deeper global crisis of neoliberal
value relations.

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
136 Farshad Araghi
deterioration of the
liberalization enforc
productivity decline
of Keynesianism, w
regime and fueled b
With the crisis of
duction by ever-inc
shifted the epicente
to finance (Krippn
mulation by encroac
brought austerity,
for the classes of la
labor and surplus na
middle classes in th
analysis of the bifurc
tinct (corporate) br
poor customers acro
roots in the global v
count Friedmann's a
in shaping the histo
the neoliberal period
food regime for the
for a bifurcated foo
whatever their conc
a component of the
neoliberal belle époq
tion differentiation
the U.S. and Europe
alization for the expa
global transfer of val
one billion people, wh
the world (who are d
Monbiot (2007) astut
22 The percentage of U.S

2002-03 to 24.6 in 2007-08
USDA's planned estimate (
23 "The food crisis conti
ger. People in poor countr
started to rise, the numb
almost one sixth of the w

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
That competition will nece

The reason for that is that,
enough to run cars are ric
of dying of starvation. Alre
world's transport fuel comi
bling in the price of corn a
wheat. And this is having
world
on rainforest land or land which had other

on it. And what we're seeing there is a m
just on biodiversity and on local habitat
but also on climate change. In Malaysia a
the planting of palm oil for the biofuel ma
cause of deforestation. And one recent st
cause you are cutting down tropical fores
it and draining peaty soils in order to pla
of palm oil produces up to ten times as m
as a barrel of gasoline. Palm oil and most
actually worse for the planet than petrole
This is a more drastic version of Thomas
scenario involving, metaphorically speaking
cannibalism" whereby affluent consumpti
Similarly, the globalization of the American
volves a "food for feed" change in dietary
a form of value transfer from surplus nat
to the more affluent customers. With the U.S. conversion ratio of
7 kg of corn to produce 1 kg of beef, the globalization of cat

production has led to land concentrations (and consequent
possessions), overgrazing, deforestation, and desertification25
have devoured the world's cropland. Hence in the past deca
available grainland per person has declined by more than 50%
more than 25% of Central American forests have been cleared for
24 Which is why it makes sense to call it "a crime against humanity" as did U.N.
Special Rapporteur Jean Ziegler on the right to food.
25 "Uzbekistan ... is home to one of the biggest man-made disasters in history.
For decades its rivers were diverted to grow cotton on arid land, causing the Aral Sea,
a large saltwater lake, to lose more than half of its surface area in 40 years . . . cotton
is still king and the environmental destruction continues unabated, cutting into crop
yields. Uzbekistan is the world's second-largest cotton exporter after the United States,
drawing a third of its foreign currency earnings from the crop" (Tavernise, 2008).

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
138 Farshad Araghi
grazing.26 The food t

the "rising prosperi
now frequently off
current food crisis,
superficial if we com
India, China, and th
2004 and 2006 the
tion was about 40.2
India, 5.3; for China
is, while the U.S. pe
average, and China's
the world average,
eight times lower th
the case that China'
effect on higher wo
however, could be m
mand for meat was
for the whole popu
conversion of food to feed as a form of value transfer could have
consequences for rising levels of world hunger and undernutritio
But attributing the current food crisis to the rising consumer d
mand in India and China serves more as a discursive strategy to
divert attention from the growing food for fuel industries than
an explanation for the present food crisis.
As related issues, the end of cheap oil (Roberts, 2004; Goodstein
2004; Middleton, 2007; Hicks & Neider, 2008) and the rising cost
26 "Brazil's economy has taken off- largely because of businesses that are claimin
more of the Amazon's land for crops and livestock, and more of its trees for logging
The space agency, known as INPE, reported in January t

estimated 4,300 square miles between August and Decem
continues, the yearly total for deforestation would jump; th
6,900 square miles from August 2006 to August 2007" (B
puts it: While "American consumers saved, on the avera
hamburger imported from Central America, the cost to t
overwhelming and irreversible. Each imported hamburger
square yards of jungle for pasture" (1993: 193).
27 Hence, responding to President Bush's assertion that
ing middle class contribute to rising food prices, one Indi
Americans "slimmed down to the weight of middle-class
Saharan Africa would find food on their plate." This in co
affluent consumption, that is food waste, as "Americans w
food- an estimated 27 percent of the food available for co

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
of energy are indispensabl

costs, as capitalist agricultu
building farm machinery
and pesticides, to irrigatio
transportation, and deliver
Keynesian era was founded
the end of that cheap oil
volatility in food markets
even after the sharp price
to a new (higher) equilibriu
stayed at that level, albeit w
than had been the case in
surge in 2005, however, th
prices. Even with the burs
nomic downturn since the
and strong deflationary p
global food prices have not
ing to the Consumer Price
2008 as compared with a 4.
food prices rising 6.6% in
in 2007 (U.S. Department o
increases were the largest
2009), and this despite th
sharply by 21.0% over 20
addition, according to a W
prices are projected to con
Table 5
Index of Projected Real Food Crop Prices (2004=100)
2007 2008 2009 2010

Real Prices
Maize 141 179 186 176

Wheat 157 219 211 204
Rice 132 201 207 213
Soybeans 121 156 150 144

Soybean Oil 138 170 162 153
Sugar 135 169 180 190
Source: World Bank (2008).

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
140 Farshad Araghi
likely to remain wel

food crops" (World
jor difference betw
crisis is that the pre
single cause, but rat
(figure 3), while th
free market discour
A further indication of the structural character of the current
food crisis is the declining stock-to-use ratio of world cereal cr

Forecasted by the FAO to fall to 18.8% this year, it is the lowes
three decades. As FAO's Crop Prospects and Food Situation war
"supplies are not sufficient to meet demand without a sharp dr
down of stocks, the main reason for the drop in the stock-to-
ratio. The ratio for wheat is forecast to fall to 22.9%, well under th
34% level observed during the first half of the decade. The ra
for coarse grains is put at only 14.5 percent" (Food & Agricult
Organization, 2008: 10). What makes the end of cheap food qui
likely is not only the past, but also the discounting of the ecologic
future through overconsumption of surplus nature that has b
the other side of forced underreproduction of surplus labor po
during the past thirty years. The effects of accumulation by
placement in the neoliberal conjuncture and in the context of
long-term "de-naturing" of agriculture- or what we have term
the "rift within the metabolic rift"- include dramatic changes
climate, growing water scarcities,28 soil loss and depletion, and
netic mutations29 in response to biogenetic interventions (i.e., "
enclosures").
28 "California, just finished with its second consecutive year of drought, might w
be facing a third
in 2007, it was 53 percent of normal" (Barringer, 2009).

29 The story of the brown plant hopper is a case in point
The insect is not a new problem. In the 1960's, the r
neered ways to help farmers grow two and even three
of one. But with rice plants growing more of the year
longer to multiply, and became a bigger concern. The
by testing thousands of varieties of wild rice for natur
ers found four types of resistance and bred them into
by 1980. But brown plant hoppers adapted swiftly, and
started losing their effectiveness in the 1990's. An impor
punch, too, as the hopper developed the ability to withstand
that used to kill it (emphasis added, Bradsher & Martin

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
Figure 3
World Per-Capita Cereal Production
Kgs 400 -i « annual production
300 - jy^^K^/ *
250 - ' ' ' ' | ; ' ' i | rTT~i )• nn j » ; i i

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Year
Source: Dyson, Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences of the

United States, "World Food Trends and Prospects to 2025."
It is important to distinguish this analysis of the food crisis from

the neö-Malthusian and the Club-of-Rome perspectives (e.g., Sachs,
2008), which will inevitably link the food crisis, as expressed in de-
clining per capita production, to population growth (despite the
fact that in the period under consideration the world population
growth rate was actually declining). Food crises do not happen in
the abstract two-variable economic models of the rate of food out-
put versus the rate of population growth; they happen within par-
ticular, complex historical systems and express the contradictions
of relations of production, distribution, and consumption within
such systems. To be sure, there is a crisis of sustainability that is
historical and rooted in the accumulation strategy, which is based
on upward redistribution of value and the systematic overconsump-
tion of labor and nature. As McNeil (2008) points out: "Right now,
there is enough grain grown on earth to feed 10 billion vegetar-
ians
protein world, which are in turn guzzled b

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
142 Farshad Araghi
CONCLUSION
Using the "labor in nature" perspective, this article

global food crisis in connection with the crisis of ecolog
as the historical expressions of the restructuring of glob
lations under the neoliberal counteroffensive. The latter resorts to
present-day forms of extraction of absolute surplus value thro

forced underconsumption, that is, underreproduction of labor
nature, which deepens the long-term contradictions of capital
and nature. The precondition for global value relations center
on forced underconsumption is global enclosure, through whi
capital seizes surplus labor time and surplus nature. Global enc
sures of our times take multiple forms (from land enclosures
ecological enclosures to bio-enclosures) and express the predom
nance of "accumulation by displacement" (be it displaced la
power, displaced genomes, or displaced food crops), or what h
also been described as accumulation by dispossession or accumu
tion by encroachment. As such, global value relations of neolib
globalism are relations of upward redistribution of value that d
place, more than produce, value via a bifurcated food system b
on "cheap reproduction" and coerced underconsumption on
one hand, and privileged consumption (green or otherwise) on t
other hand. I locate the roots of the present food crisis precis
in this historical context and show that despite the appearanc
abundance from the perspective of cash- or credit-rich food c
sumers in the global North, the food crisis has been in format
for decades, as witnessed by the billion human beings in the gl
South (36 million of whom live in the United States, an examp
of the South within the North). Hence, rather than ahistorica
defining "crisis" in its narrow and "sudden" sense, I contextua
the food crisis as a process and relation that has been developi
within the neoliberal phase of contemporary capitalism. The f
crisis, in this sense, did not just "happen" in 2006; it has been h
pening for three decades, even though its contradictions, in t
form of food riots and social disruptions, are now forcing its
ibility. This analysis of the extended history of the food crisis lead
to the conclusion that if it did not suddenly happen, it will not su
denly end either, as its future end is entangled with the end of
history that brought it to existence.

132.174.250.76 on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:46:49 UTC
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Accumulation by Displacement Global Enclosures, Food Crisis, and The Ecological

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Accumulation by Displacement Global Enclosures, Food Crisis, and The Ecological

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Accumulation by Displacement: Global Enclosures, Food Crisis, and the Ecological

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40647791

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topsoil are washed into the sea as a r

* An earlier version of this article was presented at

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1 1 will develop the concept of "surplus nature" later in this article.

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THE LABOR IN NATURE PERSPECTIVE

Taken together, the emerging literature on ecological c

What requires explanation is not the unity of living and ac-

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of society and nature.

s The latest variety of refor

glamorous Green" (2001). Similarly but somewhat to the

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to nature simply means that n

More systematically, it was t

4 Primitive accumulation and displa

Hence at the end of the fifteenth and during the whole

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terms Marx designa

THE NATURE OF VALUE AND THE VALUE OF NATURE

Under the hegemony of Cartesian dualism, however, M

ries, a bloody legislation against vagabondage was enforced throughout West-

receive a beggar's license. On the other hand, wh

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My argument will be that

GLOBAL VALUE RELATIONS AND REGIMES

As I have argued elsewhere (Araghi, 2003), Marx's an

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6 Hence, as I show, the leve

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7 In other words, the "greater the

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ing liberalism,8 in the cont

8 As I have argued in detail, neolib

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nated the field of visi

11 Hence the periodic deba

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could force a retreat on cap

13 Capital retreated from depend

billion hectares in Africa are moderately to severely deg

tion, overgrazing and the felling of forests each account f

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here is not that ecol

damage- and overexploit

to 2001, 724 miles of streams were buried under min

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In other words, appropriati

16 A 2005 report by the International

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in the most recent e

Rural Displacement in the Global South, 1975-2000

Period % Actual increase in % Increase Attributable to

Source: Calculated from U

Similarly, between 1950

17 Further calculations indicat

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% Change in Total Average Annual

World Total 61.5 49.1 54.8 150.0 1.92 1.60 1.57