Faculty of Higher Education, William Angliss Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Int J Health Policy Manag. 2021 Dec 1;10(12):946-956. doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2021.20.
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.'
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.
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.
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.
批判性学者一致认为，当代全球化和工业化的食品体系正处于深刻而不断加深的危机之中；这些体系是地球生命系统中加速出现的多重危机的根源。我们为什么会走到这一步？本文认为，将每个个体人类视为更大人类身体中的一个细胞，我们受到了约翰·麦克默特里（John McMurtry）所谓的“资本主义癌症阶段”的影响。在应对气候、地球和物理科学家越来越多的呼吁时，采用了这种挑衅性的框架，这些呼吁是不要在描述和分析人类当前困境时“拐弯抹角”，而是要“直言不讳”。
本文从麦克默特里（McMurtry）将个体生物体的“癌症入侵”的七个定义医学特性应用于更广泛的政治和地球生命系统出发，借鉴了来自不同学科的文献，以调查食品系统危机的根本原因。本文引用了几项表明人类和生态健康完整性迅速下降的实证研究和元综述，特别关注谷物-油籽-牲畜综合体以及对南美洲南部锥体国家的伴随而来的社会和生态影响。
食品体系危机的原因在于资本积累、利润冲动的核心逻辑，以及商品化和金融化的无情扩张过程。“经济增长”的关键指标受到质疑和讨论。一种初步的“社会免疫反应”现在可以观察到，表现在去商品化的各种实践中，以及去增长和共有化的提议，这些共同构成了一个新兴的“食品作为共同财产”运动。
按照目前的框架，“食品作为共同财产”提案缺乏一致性、严谨性和可行的战略，无法摆脱当前的危机。通过更明确地基于对反资本主义和后资本主义运动和倡议的呼吁和支持来进行政治基础，可以增强其变革潜力。
