COVID-19 and Circuits of Capital

Wallace, Rob; Liebman, Alex; Chaves, Luis Fernando; Wallace, Rodrick

doi:10.14452/mr-072-01-2020-05_1

Cited by 141 publications

(125 citation statements)

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“…In addition to the food itself, this food culture destroys the ecosystem by seeking to produce more animal protein at the expense of the resources of the land and the natural habitats of wild animals, where some zoonoses are found. This is what has aptly been described by the evolutionary epidemiologist Rob Wallace (Wallace, Liebman, Chaves, Rodrick Wallace, 2020). The article discusses the idea that the Mediterranean diet would represent a food culture capable of stemming the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing the emergence of future ones.…”

Section: The Use Of Pesticides As a Factor In The Development Of Thementioning

confidence: 81%

Pesticide use and COVID-19: An Indictment of Global Agriculture and An Advocacy of the Mediterranean Food Culture

Othmani¹

2020

Preprint

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As an exploratory and theoretical reflection for future articles discussing the perceived green/health qualities of tunisian food as a tourist promotion argument, the article is based on the assumption that the COVID-19 pandemic would have more impact in countries whose population has an immune system weakened by food overtreated with pesticides, and that the Mediterranean food culture, which offers foods with little or no pesticide treatment, is the best diet to develop the necessary immunity to resist COVID-19 and, by extension, resist other pandemics. To demonstrate this, the thematic map technique was used to cross-reference several masses of official statistical data. The results suggest four main categories of countries in relation to the link between deaths from COVID-19 and the use of pesticides in agriculture. This study demonstrates, therefore, the weakness, if not the inaccuracy, of certain hypotheses which are circulating or have circulated in recent months and that attempt to explain each country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, assumptions such as the role of quarantine in containing the pandemic, the role of the BCG vaccine and the role of heat will prove unreliable. On the other hand, the hypothesis the paper will defend is that of the role of a healthy Mediterranean and flexitarian diet in strengthening the human immune system, which in turn counteracts the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This sanitary suitability would therefore be an argument for promoting and disseminating this culinary heritage throughout the world and thus contribute to its development as a tourist attraction.

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Section: The Use Of Pesticides As a Factor In The Development Of Thementioning

confidence: 81%

Pesticide use and COVID-19: An Indictment of Global Agriculture and An Advocacy of the Mediterranean Food Culture

Othmani¹

2020

Preprint

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“…It further needs capitalism's capacity to work through nature and nature's capacity to work through capitalism, as new agricultural frontiers, 3 in terms of space, in terms of nature, in terms of labour, and in terms of commodification, are enclosed and as the unpaid work of nature provides the energy upon which the capitalist world food system operates. It is this very logic that has created a food system that operates "as both propulsion for and nexus through which pathogens of diverse origins migrate from the most remote reservoirs to the most international of population centers" (Wallace et al 2020) as industrial agriculture expands, laying the foundations for the emergence of new pathogens.…”

Section: Zoonotic Diseases and The World Food Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary pathogens and the capitalist world food system

Akram‐Lodhi

2020

Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d'ét

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Zoonotic diseases like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, are human bacterial and viral infections that originate in animals and which cross the species barrier. Over the course of the twenty-first century, the process of viruses transiting across the species barrier appears to have accelerated as a succession of new diseases has emerged. This paper argues that the forces accelerating the emergence of zoonotics lie in the structural characteristics of the capitalist world food system, which is concerned with the production of commodities whose value can be realised through market sales that generate profits for the producer of the commodities. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the capitalist world food system onto the precipice of a crisis, if crisis is understood as an interruption in the process of capital accumulation, because the terms and conditions by which the capitalist world food system operates serve to simultaneously multiply and deepen threats to global health. In other words, there is a co-morbidity between COVID-19 and the capitalist world food system.

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“…As a result, viral contamination and mutations to more virulent organisms in unsanitary factory conditions have led to epidemics of swine flu, avian flu, and a variety of emerging influenza viruses. [2][3][4][5] Deemphasis on Agriculture in Public Health Do sources like WHO, CDC, and the Gates Foundation provide a complete picture? Some well-motivated people work for these agencies, and much helpful information is available.…”

Section: Upstream Causes In Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Confronting the Upstream Causes of COVID-19 and Other Epidemics to Follow

Waitzkin

2020

Int J Health Serv

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The upstream causes of the COVID-19 pandemic have received little attention so far in public health and clinical medicine, as opposed to the downstream effects of mass morbidity and mortality. To resolve this pandemic and to prevent even more severe future pandemics, a focus on upstream causation is essential. Convincing evidence shows that this and every other important viral epidemic emerging in the recent past and predictably into the future comes from the same upstream causes: capitalist agriculture, its destruction of natural habitat, and the industrial production of meat. International and national health organizations have obscured the upstream causes of emerging viral epidemics. These organizations have suffered cutbacks in public funding but have received increased support from international financial institutions and private philanthropies that emphasize the downstream effects rather than upstream causes of infectious diseases. Conflicts of interest also have impacted public health policies. A worldwide shift has begun toward peasant agricultural practices: Research so far has shown that peasant agriculture is safer and more efficient than capitalist industrial agricultural practices. Without such a transformation of agriculture, even more devastating pandemics will result from the same upstream causes.

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COVID-19 and Circuits of Capital

Cited by 141 publications

References 0 publications

Pesticide use and COVID-19: An Indictment of Global Agriculture and An Advocacy of the Mediterranean Food Culture

Pesticide use and COVID-19: An Indictment of Global Agriculture and An Advocacy of the Mediterranean Food Culture

Contemporary pathogens and the capitalist world food system

Confronting the Upstream Causes of COVID-19 and Other Epidemics to Follow

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