The Green Revolution Under Critique: How AGRA is Deepening the Global Metabolic Rift

___________________________________________________________________________________Julia Ruff University of Freiburg Global Studies Programme (Master of Social Sciences) Joint-degree with the University of Cape Town & Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok)

New Green

Revolution

Marx‘s Theory of

the Metabolic Rift

?

AGENDA

1. Marx‘s Theory of the Metabolic Rift 2. The (New) Green Revolution & AGRA 3. AGRA’s Campaign Revealed4. Effects on Social-Ecological Metabolism5. What’s next? – Master Thesis

“Capitalism undermin[es] the original sources of all wealth – the soil and the worker” (Marx, 1976)

“[Soil] fertility is not so natural a quality as might be thought; it is closely bound up with the social relations of the time” (Marx, 1963)

Conflict unbalanced flow of nutrients (urban vs. rural)

Culprit capitalism + urbanization

Human/Nature divide = “irreparable rift in the interdependent process of the social metabolism” (Marx, 1981)

“It [the labor process] is the universal condition for the metabolic interaction […] between man and nature” (Marx, 1976)

1 | Marx‘s Theory of the Metabolic Rift

Clark/Foster: Global Metabolic Rift

- centre vs. periphery: f.ex. trade on Peruvian guano- ecological imperialism

“the extraction and export of natural resources from peripheral countries involved the vertical flow of not only economic value, but also value in terms of energy and matter”

(Clark & Foster, 2009)

1 | Marx‘s Theory of the Metabolic Rift

2 | The Green Revolution

2.1 | The Green Revolution in Africa

“Africa missed the first Green Revolution” or

“The Green Revolution missed Africa”

WHY? – Because of…• “one-size-fits-all technology package” (Daño, 2007) • missing infrastructure for seed distribution, low population density • lacking money for seed banks

2.2 | The New Green Revolution

UN, African governments, transnational organizations + private-philanthropic foundations

byrestructuring agricultural relations, agrarian policies + market mechanisms

2.2 | The New Green Revolution

*2006

3 | AGRA‘s Campaign Revealed

(African Centre For Biosafety, 2007)

(Reed, 2007)

4 | Effects on Social-Ecological Metabolism

• loss of ecological material in: fertility + biodiversity + recreational capacity of seeds and plants

• Vandana Shiva: GR = dramatic privatization of nature

• Clark/Foster: GR = “new social metabolic order that shaped the interpenetration of society and nature [in the] logic of accumulation (Clark & Foster, 2009)

deepening the global metabolic rift = North-South divide

4 | Effects on Social-Ecological Metabolism

- indirect privatization of land through the seed

- “Nowhere in the process of crafting solutions are the voices and experiences of Africans, especially African farmers, included” (Mittal & Moore, 2009)

- Muhatma Gandhi: “ecological and social sustainability follow from social arrangements, not the technologies developed” (Berger, 2000: p. 67)

- Karl Marx: change in fertility provoked by social change

5 | What‘s next? – Master Thesis

Re-Generation: A Mindset Analysis of Young Regenerative Farmers on The Example of South Africa

WHY?: Social change needs a change in mindsets

NEED: Young regenerative farmers in SA for interviews!

Contact: juruff@gmx.de