Vladimir Iowa Lenin, Part 2: On Rural Proletarianization and an Alternate Food Future

ABSTRACT

In the second of our two-part review of Vladimir Lenin’s 1917 study of American agriculture, we extrapolate upon Alexander Chayanov’s neoliberal appropriation, Giovanni Arrighi’s treatment of partial proletarianization, the propagandistic “family farm,” agribusiness’s fluctuating territorial embeddedness, agriculture as an industry, and land and rent as commodities themselves. We finish by deploying Lenin’s alternate history as a Benjaminian détournement in the face of what now appear insurmountable obstacles. An alternate food future is not only possible, it is already underway.

KEYWORDS:

• Agribusiness
• Lenin
• peasant studies
• rural proletarianization
• Walter Benjamin

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.