School of Social and Political Science

Description

As the global environmental crisis worsens and becomes ever-more apparent, scholars working in the Global Value Chain (GVC) tradition have begun discussing possibilities of ‘environmental’ upgrading within GVCs. Whilst representing a belated recognition of GVCs’ roots in the natural environment, for the most part this literature ignores capitalism’s systemic drive to expand and accumulate through the appropriation of the natural environment.

Consequently, notions of environmental upgrading fail to grasp the enormity of GVCs’ contribution to global environmental destruction, and are politically timid. In this presentation Benjamin Selwyn deploys a critical political economic framework to discuss how the expanding and highly environmentally destructive Soy-Beef complex represents a paragon of value chain capitalism. He also discusses how corporate veganism represents a false alternative to corporate meat, and argues for the de-commodification of food and labour.