What we call “cheap nature” included not only forests and fields and streams, but also the vast majority of humankind. Markets for grain made it possible for meat not just to become cheap food, but also to back financial instruments. Hegemony over workers has been aided by cheap food, and the promise of a chicken in every pot. Instead, they funded the development of crops that would grow abundantly enough to provide cheap food and curb urban hunger. Given consistently low wages in the neoliberal era, it mak0es sense to look at cheap food as cheap not merely relative to wage costs but directly in terms of price.

Source: The Guardian May 08, 2018 04:52 UTC