Araghi - Accumulation by Displacement
Araghi - Accumulation by Displacement
Araghi - Accumulation by Displacement
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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
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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.
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 115
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
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 117
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118 Farshad Araghi
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 119
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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
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 121
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
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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
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 123
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1 24 Farshad Aragh i
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 125
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126 Farshad Araghi
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 127
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128 Farshad Araghi
Table 1
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 129
Table 2
Total Urban Populations by Development Group,
Selected Periods, 1950-2003
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
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130 Farshad Araghi
Figure 1
Urban and Rural Populations of the World, 1950-2030
Table 3
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 131
Table 4
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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
agro-food capitals.19
a formative compone
global value relations
workshop of the wor
North (and the North
the attempt to mass
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 133
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134 Farshad Araghi
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 135
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.
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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
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 137
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).
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138 Farshad Araghi
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
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 139
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140 Farshad Araghi
28 "California, just finished with its second consecutive year of drought, might w
be facing a third
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 141
Figure 3
World Per-Capita Cereal Production
300 - jy^^K^/ *
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142 Farshad Araghi
CONCLUSION
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ACCUMULATION BY DISPLACEMENT 143
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