Where Environmental Policy Is Social Policy: Nature, Food, Society, and Metabolic Processes

Abstract

Thanks in large part to the work of John Bellamy Foster, the concept of metabolism is understood to embody the ecological orientation deeply embedded in Marx’s critique of the relationship between nature and society that exists in capitalist society. The modern epoch is seen in terms a metabolic rift, in which the employment and product of human labor (in agriculture and industry) is no longer compatible with the normal cycles of nature. The result is ecological crisis and unsustainable development.

At the same time, critiques of the contemporary farm and food system have fueled social movements that call into question the sustainability of “factory farming,” commodity agriculture, and the consumption of unhealthy foods creating simultaneous crises of obesity and food insecurity. These movements draw attention to the likelihood that a commodified, industrialized system of food production produces “food” that is progressively incompatible with the metabolic processes of the human body.

While a deep critique calls into question the long-term sustainability of a capitalist social order, in the short run social and environmental policy choices regarding issues surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of food can be formulated strategically to move society toward repairing these metabolic rifts in nature and human health. Healing the nature/society metabolic rift with respect to the food system in ways that address social equality and social justice has positive implications for both social and environmental sustainability, if environmental policy is formulated as social policy and social policy incorporates environmental sustainability among its goals.