Marxism and the Animal-Industrial Complex
Standing
Undergraduate
Type of Proposal
Oral Research Presentation
Challenges Theme
Open Challenge
Faculty Sponsor
N/A
Proposal
Technology can be seen as an extension of human beings. This is certainly Karl Marx’s position, whereby “the contemporary use of machines is one of the relations of our present economic system, but the way in which machinery is utilized is … distinct from the machinery itself†(Marx and Engels 1975, 33). Technology changes the relations between humans and the larger biophysical environment. In Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx introduces the term commodity fetishism to his theory. Marx believed that once a good is produced and enters the market, the monetary value that is ascribed to the product works to sever its ties from the production process. Potential buyers no longer equate the product with the work that was put into it. Instead, its value comes from its price tag. The consumer, in turn, sees only one glowing perspective of the product, while a veil is cast over the hard, sometimes dreary, labour that is put into it. Technology is a part of this alienating system. The main area where this is seen is the Animal-Industrial Complex (AIC). This paper will attempt to cohere an examination of the current production of consumer meat products, using a Marxist analysis.
Grand Challenges
Viable, Healthy and Safe Communities
Marxism and the Animal-Industrial Complex
Technology can be seen as an extension of human beings. This is certainly Karl Marx’s position, whereby “the contemporary use of machines is one of the relations of our present economic system, but the way in which machinery is utilized is … distinct from the machinery itself†(Marx and Engels 1975, 33). Technology changes the relations between humans and the larger biophysical environment. In Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx introduces the term commodity fetishism to his theory. Marx believed that once a good is produced and enters the market, the monetary value that is ascribed to the product works to sever its ties from the production process. Potential buyers no longer equate the product with the work that was put into it. Instead, its value comes from its price tag. The consumer, in turn, sees only one glowing perspective of the product, while a veil is cast over the hard, sometimes dreary, labour that is put into it. Technology is a part of this alienating system. The main area where this is seen is the Animal-Industrial Complex (AIC). This paper will attempt to cohere an examination of the current production of consumer meat products, using a Marxist analysis.