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Book Review
Corporatisation trade-offs
PROMODE KANT
SICK PLANET — The Impact of Corporate Food and Medicine: Stan Cox; Harper Litmus, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers India, A-53, Sector57, Noida-201301. Rs. 295.
Stan Cox, in his new book, Sick Plant—The Impact of Corporate Food and Medicine focusses on Marx’s insight into what capital and its relentless pursuit does. A noted plant geneticist and a well-known author on environmental and agricultural issues, Cox argues that class exploitation and ecological devastation go hand in hand, and that the capitalist economy can survive only on continuous growth and to expe
ct anything else is like expecting “the solar system to hold together without gravity.”
Capitalism seems to be able to adapt itself to all conditions, perhaps because it responds to the deepest biological urge to dominate others. The basic human needs are inherently limited but the created needs know no upper limit. Amassing capital is quickest through creating relative wants and then quenching them at prices of one’s own choosing.
Created wants
And, Cox argues, the food and medicine empires set up now fulfil essentially these created wants that keep expanding in service, not of humanity, but of capital. Sustainability is the resource continuity between the dead and the unborn and in the past the civilisations that ensured this continuity unbroken over a hundred mothers in succession endured. There were nations that had a future and ones that didn’t, and the sustainability of their resource use decided that. But now this distinction might be on its way out for unsustainable actions can no longer be boxed in geographical limits. The earth has the same gift to offer — death and decay — to all.
But is the factory line food production, with all its consequences, all due to capitalist greed? At least we in India know that our Green Revolution came about not due to the capitalist greed but the crying need of the growing numbers of human stomachs to feed. Cox may not find many takers for his view that “low wage industries simply could not accept policies that would limit human population.”
Brown cloud
He recognises the central role high population growth plays in unsustainable growth patterns but argues that it would decline once a certain level of development has been reached. Empirical evidence does suggest so but then there are also the examples of Kerala and Cuba which have defied the commonly accepted wisdom.
The population rates will slide down with economic development effortlessly but if efforts are made to control it then the same results need not wait till the high mountain of development is climbed first.
The chapter on the brown cloud, the cause of local dimming of sunlight over the Indian subcontinent, predicts drier times ahead for the parched fields of India. Cox says these are caused by sulphur pollution from the increasing use of fossil fuels in Indian industry and agriculture, and that it is going to become worse as India chugs along on its heavy growth path. But in reality it is the inefficient burning of woods and cow dung which is the primary cause, and while serious, it is a short-term local problem that is relatively easy to address compared to global warming. Arresting of economic growth in India is, therefore, not needed for wetter monsoons.
Growth unsustainable
Cox’s central thesis that unending growth is unsustainable and that sharp reduction in economic growth would be required to deal with the problems of global warming is very well presented throughout the book. But his attempts to arrive at this conclusion through his critique of the food and medicine empire is not convincing. These are essentially two separate themes where the primary link is the limitless population growth. Most demand for food and medicine originate in basic human needs of the ever increasing population not the relative wants created by industry. Doubtlessly, chemical wastes from drug factories clog the Patancherus of India with untold harm to the unsuspecting citizens but these are instances of massive failure of governance.
Cox’s dogmatic approach in putting all blame on the ever expanding economies while swimming the population waters with the caution of a consummate politician weakens his case as an impartial observer of scientific facts.
But then this is only a small flaw in an otherwise excellent book. It is a very deeply researched work that should serve as a standard reference to researchers, and yet his exceptionally-honed skills as a communicator of science to the laypeople bring this book within the reach of all who care for our planet.
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