Own the means of production is still better than own land:
Whosoever owns the means of production owns the people
There’s a new trend in investment: don’t just bet on commodities, buy the infrastructure behind them (fertilizer, grain elevators, ethanol plants, barges, ships and farmland, lots of it). According to an article in Business section of the New York Times last week, big investors are cottoning onto the financial benefits of “owning structure…wherever the profit picture is improving.” We’re talking massive money here: The BlackRock fund group is adding $200 million to a $450 million pot that it plans on investing in fertilizer production, timberland and biofuels. Emergent Asset management is raising $450 to $750 million to invest in sub-Saharan Africa, where “land is very, very inexpensive…[and] there’s accessible labor.” Calyx Agro, a branch of Louis Dreyfus Commodities, is buying tens of thousands of Brazilian cropland acres. And on and on.
“Some traditional players in the farm economy, and others who study and shape agriculture policy, say they are concerned these newcomers will focus on profits above all else,” writes author Diana Henriques. Of course, the investors have pooh-poohed this, claiming that their acceleration of the development of infrastructure will lead to a bigger food supply, benefiting the consumer.
But because they are buying the actual means of production—all levels of them—rather than trading the intangible financials that are linked to the product, they’re suddenly in a position of much greater power. Now, they control supply and demand, and could, if they wanted to, hold stock back in order to play with prices. “Investment funds are seeing that this consolidation brings value to them,” said an executive a Washington ag consulting firm. “But I’m saying this brings value to everyone.”
Elanor of the Ethicurean responded to the article, and specifically this last idea, with a blistering jeremiad against this “rush to further corporatize the flailing food system.” She points out correctly that the current food crisis isn’t tied to an incapacity to produce enough food to feed the world. “Instead, it has a lot to do with price volatility driven by the antics of Wall Street speculators themselves, along with the opening up of ag markets to global multinationals who squeeze farmers out of their own domestic markets. Global governments have retreated from their responsibility to support local and regional food production.”
She’s right. And this is scary. |
