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From the Cancer Stage of Capitalism to the Political Principle of the Common: The Social Immune Response of "Food as Commons"

Background: Critical scholars agree that contemporary globalised and industrialised food systems are in profound and deepening crises; and that these systems are generative of accelerating multiple crises in the earth’s life systems. Why and how did we arrive at this point? This paper argues that, c...

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Autor principal: Rose, Nick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Kerman University of Medical Sciences 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9309977/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33904700
http://dx.doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2021.20
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author Rose, Nick
author_facet Rose, Nick
author_sort Rose, Nick
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description Background: Critical scholars agree that contemporary globalised and industrialised food systems are in profound and deepening crises; and that these systems are generative of accelerating multiple crises in the earth’s life systems. Why and how did we arrive at this point? This paper argues that, conceiving each individual human as one cell in the greater human body, we are afflicted by what John McMurtry termed ‘the cancer stage of capitalism.’ This provocative framing is adopted here in response to growing calls by climate, earth and physical scientists not to ‘mince words’ in the description and analysis of humanity’s current predicament, but rather ‘tell it like it is.’ Methods: Proceeding from McMurtry’s application of the seven defining medical properties of a ‘cancer invasion [of] an individual organism’ to the broader body politic and the earth’s life system, this paper draws on literature from diverse disciplines to investigate the fundamental cause of food systems crises. The paper references several empirical studies and meta-reviews that indicate the hastening decline in the integrity of human and ecological health, with a particular focus on the grain-oilseed-livestock complex and the accompanying social and ecological impacts on the southern cone countries of South America. Results: The cause of food system crises is to be found in the core logic of capital accumulation, the profit imperative, and the relentless and expanding processes of commodification and financialization. The key metric of ‘economic growth’ is problematised and discussed. An embryonic ‘social immune response’ is now observable, in the diverse practices of de-commodification, proposals for de-growth and commoning that together constitute an emerging ‘food as a commons’ movement. Conclusion: As currently framed, the Food as Commons proposal lacks coherence, rigour and a viable strategy to move beyond the current crisis. Its transformative potential can be strengthened through a more explicitly political grounding based on appeals to and support of anti- and post-capitalist movements and initiatives.
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spelling pubmed-93099772022-08-09 From the Cancer Stage of Capitalism to the Political Principle of the Common: The Social Immune Response of "Food as Commons" Rose, Nick Int J Health Policy Manag Original Article Background: Critical scholars agree that contemporary globalised and industrialised food systems are in profound and deepening crises; and that these systems are generative of accelerating multiple crises in the earth’s life systems. Why and how did we arrive at this point? This paper argues that, conceiving each individual human as one cell in the greater human body, we are afflicted by what John McMurtry termed ‘the cancer stage of capitalism.’ This provocative framing is adopted here in response to growing calls by climate, earth and physical scientists not to ‘mince words’ in the description and analysis of humanity’s current predicament, but rather ‘tell it like it is.’ Methods: Proceeding from McMurtry’s application of the seven defining medical properties of a ‘cancer invasion [of] an individual organism’ to the broader body politic and the earth’s life system, this paper draws on literature from diverse disciplines to investigate the fundamental cause of food systems crises. The paper references several empirical studies and meta-reviews that indicate the hastening decline in the integrity of human and ecological health, with a particular focus on the grain-oilseed-livestock complex and the accompanying social and ecological impacts on the southern cone countries of South America. Results: The cause of food system crises is to be found in the core logic of capital accumulation, the profit imperative, and the relentless and expanding processes of commodification and financialization. The key metric of ‘economic growth’ is problematised and discussed. An embryonic ‘social immune response’ is now observable, in the diverse practices of de-commodification, proposals for de-growth and commoning that together constitute an emerging ‘food as a commons’ movement. Conclusion: As currently framed, the Food as Commons proposal lacks coherence, rigour and a viable strategy to move beyond the current crisis. Its transformative potential can be strengthened through a more explicitly political grounding based on appeals to and support of anti- and post-capitalist movements and initiatives. Kerman University of Medical Sciences 2021-03-31 /pmc/articles/PMC9309977/ /pubmed/33904700 http://dx.doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2021.20 Text en © 2021 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Rose, Nick
From the Cancer Stage of Capitalism to the Political Principle of the Common: The Social Immune Response of "Food as Commons"
title From the Cancer Stage of Capitalism to the Political Principle of the Common: The Social Immune Response of "Food as Commons"
title_full From the Cancer Stage of Capitalism to the Political Principle of the Common: The Social Immune Response of "Food as Commons"
title_fullStr From the Cancer Stage of Capitalism to the Political Principle of the Common: The Social Immune Response of "Food as Commons"
title_full_unstemmed From the Cancer Stage of Capitalism to the Political Principle of the Common: The Social Immune Response of "Food as Commons"
title_short From the Cancer Stage of Capitalism to the Political Principle of the Common: The Social Immune Response of "Food as Commons"
title_sort from the cancer stage of capitalism to the political principle of the common: the social immune response of "food as commons"
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9309977/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33904700
http://dx.doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2021.20
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