Tensions between National and International Control of the World Food Order: Contours of a New Food Regime

The current crisis of the world political economy stems from the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, which was characterized by stable institutions of regulation of national capital accumulation within the Pax Americana. The resulting absence of rules governing international trade, reflected in rising (Northern) protectionism and anarchic competition for markets for agricultural commodities, underlies a dramatic restructuring of the world economy. Focusing on the world food order, this essay speculates about the characteristics of a new international food regime that could arise to match the growing power of transnational companies to restructure production and consumption relations on a global scale. It is argued that the recomposition of North-South relations means a new subordination of Southern political-economy by intensifying Southern food dependency. This is a prelude to the further centralization of Northern corporate power, and the possibility of a system of global regulation administered under the auspices of the IMF and the GATT.