Social Reproduction of Food: Risk of Hunger, Rural Transformation, and the Crisis of Care

Abstract

This paper analyzes the global food crisis as a structural expression of the social reproduction regimes of capitalism in general and neoliberalism in particular by interrogating the short-term policy recommendations of international organizations which view the crisis as a conjunctural supply-demand and consumption issue. The main argument of the paper is that the reason behind the global food crisis is neoliberal agricultural policies which have commodified food and encouraged the control of agribusiness in production, circulation, and provision of food. The paper interprets the current food crisis is a crisis of social reproduction for the classes of rural and urban labour who cannot produce and who cannot consume sufficient and healthy food.