thinks that this represents an opportunity for the World Bank to regain some of its lost influence. As he told me, “For the World Bank, the food crisis comes at a perfect time.” With the credit glut and countries turning away from the Bank, “the challenge became how to get countries of the global south to borrow again.”
Rising food prices have fortunate effects for the Bank. As Holt-Gimenez continued, “The world food crisis solves both the problem of over-accumulation of finance capital and the problem of overproduction of grain, that neither biofuels nor the beef industry is capable of sopping up.”
Meanwhile, Holt-Gimenez expects the Bank to “prepare the field with its loans and conditions for the spread of industrial (GMO) seeds and inputs” – allowing corporations and the Bank itself to pose as “saviors” through the spread of high-tech methods. Echoing Klein, he calls this “Another fine case of “disaster capitalism” at work” as human misery prepares the ground for renewed capital accumulation, against the wishes of those it purports to serve.
– Sam Urquhart
Listen to Masta Killah, go veg!
