Food Justice

The goal of the laborer is to get as much as possible, while the goal of the capitalist is to give as little as possible. This truth has remained prevalent in our society since the conception of capitalism, and it shows itself in many areas of our society, from political power to wages, especially in food. “Well, what do politics and economic systems have to do with my food and how I eat it?” I hear you saying, well, my dear reader, it has much more to do with it than what meets the eye.

I say this because food, just like any product that you can pick up at a grocery (or department store) is a commodity. A commodity is what is brought to the market usually by the capitalist, at the expense of the working power (most commonly called “labor power”) that the working class “sells” to the capitalist. These products are produced by the means of the “division of labor”, this means that commodities are able to be mass-produced on short notice. And just like commodities - such as toothbrushes, hairbrushes, clothing, and pillows -, food is ordered by the capitalist to be produced as cheaply and quickly as possible in order to turn a profit, and this can lead to a lot of harmful ingredients, chemicals, and preservatives that end up making their way into our foods. The food of the people. This is what drives me to write about how: the commodification of foods - due to capitalist greed - harms society.

When making food, preservatives are a must. Preservatives are utilized to prolong the shelf-life of food, and many other products, by preventing their spoilage. But, a large majority of preservatives found in our food(s) are very harmful to the human body, in that they (in the worst-case scenario) can have potentially life-threatening side effects.

Many of the preservatives used in our food products are artificial, meaning that they are mostly made up of chemicals. One chemical that we use to preserve our food is Nitrates, this chemical - often used to preserve meats and cheese - is converted into nitrites when ingested, this new chemical then reacts with the protein hemoglobin, creating methemoglobin, a substance that can cause loss of consciousness, death in infants, type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's, and even increased risk of death from Alzheimer’s.

These preservatives allow for the capitalist to keep this food out in the circulation of the market for a longer amount of time, and although this can be good for the consumer - in that it can prolong how long the food sits on their shelf - other less harmful preservatives can be used. It’s just that the use of those preservatives wouldn’t result in any gain for the capitalist Now, it is also to be said that food - like any other commodity - has a price, and this price is so egregious, that it leaves many without the necessary amount of food that is needed to keep them alive.

The people have little to no access to food, and this is because of the massive amounts of inequality that run rampant in our country. Whether it’s poverty, systematic discrimination, or homelessness, regardless, not one person should have to go to bed hungry, especially at the faults and bias of their government, but that, unfortunately, is still the case.

With the government trying to cut the funding of one of their largest social welfare initiatives - probably to put all that money into the military budget, or to fund another genocide - they will be leaving about 12.5% of Americans with less food in their household, that’s about 41.9 million people that rely on SNAP that will be left with a large sum of food missing from their households, and their stomachs.

It’s obvious that the capitalist would have no interest in giving out a product that could generate a great deal of profit for them for little to no amount of money. They would rather go against the teachings of their great Adam Smith who believed that “when something makes our fellows miserable, we are miserable, and when something makes them happy, we are happy” believing that the only thing that they need to care about is the profit that they can procure at the expense of their “fellows”.

There is no argument to be made that can justify the capitalist's greed. There is no counterclaim that can make me rethink my thesis. I find solidarity in my idea that the capitalist is the leech of society. And if someone can think up anything defending the capitalist, condemning their fellows to a life of hardships, then I hope the boot tastes good.

In conclusion, the commodification of food - due to capitalist greed - harms society and is a truth that can only last as long as we let it. People of the world unite.

CITATIONS:

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES AND RESEARCH. “ARTIFICIAL PRESERVATIVES AND THEIR HARMFUL EFFECTS: LOOKING TOWARD NATURE FOR SAFER ALTERNATIVES | INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES AND RESEARCH.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES AND RESEARCH | IJPSR, 13 Sept. 2023, ijpsr.com/bft-article/artificial-preservatives-and-their-harmful-effects-looking-toward-nature-for-safer-alternatives/#:~:text=Researchers%20have%20reported%20that%20artificial,hyperactivity%2C%20neurological%20damage%20and%20cancer.

Beshay. “What the Data Says About Food Stamps in the U.S.” Pew Research Center, 14 Apr. 2024, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/19/what-the-data-says-about-food-stamps-in-the-u-s.

Picchi, Aimee. “Food Stamp ‘Hunger Cliff’ Looms as 32 States Set to Slash Benefits.” CBS News, 27 Feb. 2023, www.cbsnews.com/news/food-stamps-snap-benefits-cuts-march-2023/#:~:text=32%20states%20set%20to%20cut%20food%20stamps%20in%20March&text=That%20means%20a%20family%20of,little%20as%20%2423%20per%20month.