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the capitalist state, state society relations and costly social programmes, the neo-liberal ideol-
a shift in the balance of power among differ- ogy that gained hegemony in the last two
ent social classes and groups (Araghi, 2003; decades of the twentieth century in the West
Barndt, 2002; Bonanno et al., 1994; Friedland, introduced a business-oriented vision of cor-
2004; Koc, 1994; McMichael, 2005; Moreira, porate and state restructuring; it also legit-
2002, 2004; Pritchard, 2005; Tilzey, 2006). A imized the social consequences of these
shift in international geopolitical alignments changes. Under the neo-liberal regime, the
after the end of the Cold War, the integration normal is identified as a decentralized and
of China into the global economy as a state deregulated liberal economy, where the local
capitalist nation, and the emergence of the state will create the services and infrastructure
EU as a new power bloc challenging the for the private sector, community groups will
hegemony of the US on the global economic supply voluntary services to replace or reduce
front, set the stage for a new international welfare costs and the locality will be attached
order. Competition for agricultural exports, to global networks through connections
the disruption of traditional trade patterns offered by transnational corporations (TNCs)
with developing countries and the increasing (Bonanno, 2004; Burch and Goss, 1999).
commercial power of agro-food corporations This process paralleled an increase in mil-
created new tensions between national and itary spending in the US in the 1980s (often
transnational capital. Trade disputes between called the ‘Star Wars’). With the end of the
the North and the South at the international Cold War in the 1990s, instead of fading
trade talks of the World Trade Organization away, this military tendency emerged as a
(WTO), international disputes around institu- ‘military Fordist’ accumulation strategy
tionalized food surpluses and the impacts of (Kaldor et al., 1988; Melman, 1985). Later it
farm subsidies, the formation of new regional was endorsed by neo-conservative unilateral-
trade blocs such as the North American Free ism, a derivative of the neo-liberalist ideology
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and ‘the war on emphasizing imperial hegemony through mili-
terror’ defined some of the general character- tary supremacy, regional wars, disenfranchis-
istics of this era. ing and exclusion (Durham, 2006; Kristol,
The response to the crisis of Fordist accu- 1995; Thornton, 2004).
mulation involved two potential courses. The global food regime (McMichael,
First, a more expansionist global Fordism 2005) emerged in the era of neo-liberal
(Lipietz, 1982) would spread the mass pro- restructuring in response to the accumulation
duction and consumption model to the semi- crisis of Fordism in the last two decades
periphery. Second, the intensification of the of the twentieth century. The corporate
process of accumulation in the capitalist food regime shows many of the general
centre, with the use of new information tech- tendencies of the previous food regimes –
2
nologies and automation, transgenics and albeit in an intensified way – and continues
corporate reorganization encouraged over- to introduce, on the other, new ways food is
consumptionism among certain segments grown, sourced, processed, marketed, dis-
of the population (Pianta, 1988). While the tributed and consumed.
first of these processes was only partially The productionist paradigm (Lang and
achieved, the latter resulted in significant Heasman, 2004) that emerged during the
transformation in the social organization of industrial revolution has continued to shape
labour, production and consumption patterns the Green Revolution and the genetic revolu-
in advanced industrial countries. tion, transforming the way food is grown
The social restructuring in the late twentieth (Busch and Bain, 2004; Goodman and Watts,
century was justified by the dominant neo- 1997; Kneen, 1999; Paul et al., 2003).
liberal ideology. Offering a populist critique Mass use of agrochemicals, hybrid plants, fac-
of state interventionism, regulation and tory farms, monocultures, intensive livestock