Agriculture and Monopoly Capital

Native Americans and the European settlers who subsequently occupied the territory of the United States developed an agricultural and food production system that was largely self-sufficient. Most families produced, processed, and consumed their own food. Families made many of the tools and produced most of the seed they needed, and raised their own animal power. Few items were purchased for food production and processing, but there was very little surplus food or fiber to sell. The family controlled its food system from seed to plate—the ultimate integrated food system. The purpose of colonies, however, was to send raw materials including food and fiber products back to the mother country. The industrial revolution and the development of industrial cities, first in England and then in the United States, required that farmers produce a larger and larger surplus of food for the growing urban market. Government policy encouraged farmers to produce an ever greater excess of food and fiber and to do so with less and less labor. Thus agriculture evolved from a subsistence agriculture to a commercial agriculture in which the role of the farm family was to produce for the market.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.