• lntl@lemmy.sdf.org
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    11 months ago

    Stakeholder of a variety of agriculture and food manufacturing corporations here.

    How 'bout nah? I’d rather make a profit and let the government also buy food from me to feed the needy if the government wants to do that this election cycle.

        • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Food is produced through agriculture.

          Food produced through agriculture within capitalist society is distributed such that some have plenty while others are needlessly deprived.

            • rockSlayer@lemmy.worldOPM
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              11 months ago

              I’m pepetuating a system that feeds billions

              The only thing you’re perpetuating is the exploitation of the working class on an item with inelastic demand that causes 9 million people to die per year due to a lack of that item. You don’t feed anyone, you don’t supply any labor in production, you extract profit from the labor and suffering of others.

      • Dewded@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        It’s the government’s responsibility to feed the people that elected them. This is not the responsibility of producers. Producers have a right to make money from their work.

        • rockSlayer@lemmy.worldOPM
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          11 months ago

          Let me repeat myself. Profit seeking in agribusiness kills 9 million people per year.

              • Dewded@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                How are they dying? Is it due to issues in quality control? Worker safety? Or are you attributing world hunger deaths to the agricultural industry? Big numbers are cool, but they’re awesome when they are elaborated.

                • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  Starvation, numbnuts.

                  People are dying of starvation.

                  Try to follow along. I know it’s hard, but please try.

                  • Dewded@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    That’s caused by things much bigger than the food industry. This has its roots deep in human psyche.

                    The uncomfortable truth is that we are all responsible for the food crisis. Inaction is the biggest cause.

                    Only by changing global and local policies will we begin to solve this.

                    Your method for changing them is yours to choose. History has shown a myriad of options. All stem from individuals teaming up, deciding a course of action and acting on it.

                    The first step to teaming up is learning social skills. Calling people names is very detrimental. Especially the people who might join you.

        • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          If you support the right of money to be earned by work, then why do support private owners claiming profit, by depriving workers of the full value generated by their labor?

          Is profit not antagonist to the values you espouse?

          • Dewded@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Farmers where I come from are generally the owner and the worker. They already get the “full” value generated.

            Funnily enough due to the government paying them, this allows the manufacturers and stores to drive down the price of goods (when bought from the producer).

            The main idea behind this was to drive down the value of goods for the consumer and to ensure the EU produces food locally, but it has created an ugly transfer of wealth where manufacturers and stores now earn more. Consumer barely sees the difference.

            So most likely something should change for manufacture and vendors as well if the system was to be made fair.

            Locking prices for manufacture and vendors is not a thing. Giving subsidies to them will stifle competition.

            Agriculture subsidies do help producers compete with China, US and other outside markets, but at the cost of reward for labor.

            I think the system is not oppressive, but it certainly is not fair. Issues crop up in the middle of the value chain and there are no easy solutions.

            • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              If farmers produce food by working lands they own, then they are not being exploited by land owners.

              However, as you observe, under our currrent systems, the value they realize from their labor is determined by food prices, as resolved by markets through which food is commodified.

              Businesses that exploit workers also participate in commodity food markets.

              Thus, as long as food is produced by profiting from worker exploitation, and is exchanged through commodity markets, all food production and distribution is bound to the profit motive, and therefore subject to distortion away from satisfaction of human need for survival and flourishing.

              I believe practices such as the one you describe, in principle may serve to mitigate some such distortions, and to advance the interests of the working class.

              Unfortunately, EU states, as other states around the world, have now fallen under neoliberalism, which simply exacerbates the wealth transfer from workers to large owners that is already inevitable as a structural consequence of relations under capitalist production and distribution.

              Now, you have not answered my question.

              Is profit not antagonist to the values you espouse?

            • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              The value of products realized at the point of sale, minus the costs of (non-labor) inputs and operating expenses, is the value generated by the labor of workers in a business.

              If a business is privately owned for the profit of its owners, then the profit is a share of the value generated by the workers, but claimed by owners, who contribute no labor toward generating the value.

              • lntl@lemmy.sdf.org
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                11 months ago

                Suppose there is a a construction company that wins a million dollar contract to build parking lots. How should the owner compensate workers? What about subcontractors and suppliers?

                  • lntl@lemmy.sdf.org
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                    11 months ago

                    That’s a common issue with arguments like this: no plan for implementation.

                    In life, it’s easy to point out the problems. Much harder to develop solutions, even harder to implement them.

                    Don’t do what is easy, play on hard mode. Play to win