CCF215 | Capital and Food : Making of Culture and Politics

“Hunger is hunger, but the hunger gratified by cooked meat eaten with a knife and fork is a different hunger from that which bolts down raw meat with the aid of hand, nail and tooth. Production thus produces not only the object but also the manner of consumption, not only objectively but also subjectively. Production thus creates the consumer.” ~Karl Marx, Grundrisse.

In all societies, food must have constituted the most fundamental condition of human existence—more primary than language or sex. What, then, makes food a particularly critical site of inquiry for grasping the dynamics of the contemporary moment? For Marx, the answer is that food acquired a historically specific logic and trajectory only in the age of capital. Humans no longer consume what has been ‘naturally’ provided or ‘culturally’ produced; instead, they actively produce their own nature and culture to obtain the specific foods required by the logic of the time. For instance, a long-term trend in the industrial age of capitalism was the production of food according to the principle of ‘more calories, less labor time.’ In other words, it was widely believed that increasing caloric or energy intake among human populations would enhance work efficiency and contribute to the cheapening of labor. The historical specificity of food lies not just in how it is produced or what is consumed, but also in the way it is eaten—a manner or social behavior that is itself produced. Hence, in the age of capital, food acquired its own specific cultural meaning and political significance.

Firstly, this course offers a comprehensive exploration of the philosophical perspectives, linguistic dimensions, and lived narratives surrounding new forms of food. Secondly, it examines how modern food production and consumption have reproduced social hierarchies across different regions of the globe—shaped by class, race, slavery, gender, and caste—thereby generating new political dynamics around the concepts of power and freedom. The course leaves students with critical reflections on the potential crisis of capitalism, particularly the apparent impossibility of producing cheap food in the context of climate change, which has been a fundamental aspect of sustaining surplus labor for capital. (The week-by-week themes and readings, along with a brief description, are provided below.)