Throughstone #11: Capital Exchange

Intellectual ping-pong. In one conference session, a participant was blaming capitalism for our food system ills, while discussion in the next seminar focused on increasing farm revenues to enhance farm viability. I wondered if a lesson from years ago might somehow bring together these opposing world views–one focused on the capital strains of farmers and the other on eaters.

In 1983, just after exposing us to the butchering of a sheep by two Alpine farmers in the cellar of Brunnenburg Castle, our professor Dr. Siegfried de Rachewiltz used his next Agroarchaeology lecture to trace the “capital” to its Latin root “caput,” or “head.” Historically, how many head of livestock a person possessed indicated one’s wealth–hence, “capitalism.” 

As I ruminated on this visceral explanation of capitalism and how we might reconcile everyone’s “right to food” (according to nearly every world government, except __?__) with a farmer’s right to a sound livelihood, I began to see a way past the contradiction. If we’re willing to recognize that food is almost always transactional and involves an exchange–and that exchange can come in multiple forms–then perhaps we can bypass the binary choice of capitalism/no capitalism. 

We all live in different circumstances that dictate the currency of that exchange. We can agree on different forms of exchange. In fact, we need a diversity of currencies, ranging from cash to SNAP benefits to barter to pure generosity. Moving beyond the idea of one kind of currency brings us closer to a currency of kindness.

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Thoughts?? Your wisdom is appreciated in the "COMMENTS" box below!

“Throughstone 250” is a purposefully constrained blog project. As a long-winded Southerner constrained by Vermont’s limited porch season and the Yankee penchant for paragraphs of three words or less, I’ve opted to aim for semi-daily reflections of precisely 250 words for the foreseeable future.

250 means something right now. Maybe more than we anticipated. It’s symbolic but incredibly important…and a 250 word count seems much less constrained than a 5-7-5 syllable count for a haiku. 

Like many others, I’m struggling to make meaning out of these tumultuous days. I’ve always found it useful to try and write my way out of tough spots. Looking for throughstones is just one more effort to try and generate some meaning from the mayhem.

More free-ranging rambles here, if you’re so inclined: https://www.freerangeprof.com/blog