Makhoul N
Int J Health Serv. 1983;13(1):15-31. doi: 10.2190/A06B-VVUX-41ME-TKYJ.
A tentative theoretical explanation of modern nutritional vulnerability is derived from an original study of agricultural science as part of the social process in societies distinguished by the extent to which their form of production (specifically reproduction of labor) falls within or outside the world of commodities. The selected case studies--the United States, Israel, Brazil, and Cuba--are characterized also by advanced agricultural research, remarkable agricultural productivity, and, with the exception of Brazil, a satisfactory state of public nutrition. This particular selection thus lays the basis for a holistic investigation of malnutrition which considers the mode of production as the appropriate unit of analysis. As a theoretical, not statistical, account of nutritional status variations in a variety of social environments, the study employs a two-dimensional comparison of agricultural research orientation and impact, on the one side, and of predominant modes of reproduction of labor, on the other. It is proposed that, independently of agricultural productivity effects of research, structural nutritional vulnerability prevails where the strictly capitalist commodity--labor power--is sold below its value, and because, in the framework of capitalist production, science is biased against subsistence food crops that are used restrictively in reproduction of labor. This bias is rooted not in the nature of such crops, but in their role in determining the value of labor power, which as expressed by wage, stands in inverse proportion to profit.
对现代营养脆弱性的一种初步理论解释源自对农业科学的一项原创性研究，该研究是社会进程的一部分，这些社会的特点在于其生产形式（特别是劳动力的再生产）在多大程度上处于商品世界之内或之外。所选的案例研究——美国、以色列、巴西和古巴——还具有先进的农业研究、显著的农业生产力，并且除巴西外，公共营养状况良好。因此，这一特定选择为全面研究营养不良奠定了基础，该研究将生产方式视为合适的分析单位。作为对各种社会环境中营养状况差异的一种理论而非统计性描述，该研究一方面对农业研究方向和影响进行二维比较，另一方面对劳动力再生产的主要模式进行二维比较。研究表明，在严格的资本主义商品——劳动力——以低于其价值出售的情况下，且由于在资本主义生产框架内，科学偏向于对劳动力再生产中使用受限的自给粮食作物不利，因此，与研究的农业生产力影响无关，结构性营养脆弱性依然存在。这种偏向并非源于此类作物的性质，而是源于它们在决定劳动力价值方面的作用，劳动力价值以工资表示，与利润成反比。
