• BanMeFromPosting [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    16 days ago

    That’s also not the Irish famine though.
    Irish peasants grew potatoes because it was more or less the only thing nutrient dense enough to sustain them, due to ever decreasing lot-sizes. Then potato blight + English landlords forcing continued export of food, despite an ongoing famine.

    Arguing that someone is willing to pay for food, thus all crops are cash crops is like arguing capitalism has been around forever because people traded in the middle ages

    • LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins [none/use name, any]@hexbear.net
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      16 days ago

      No don’t you understand, potatoes are just a cash crop because they were sold for cash! I blocked the guy

      Arguing that someone is willing to pay for food, thus all crops are cash crops is like arguing capitalism has been around forever because people traded in the middle ages

      fucking exactly, this definition of cash crop literally would define any surplus of any crop as a cash crop. Your farm produces enough rice to sell? Ah you’re growing cash crops!! I’m getting angry that i even need to argue this

    • nohaybanda [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      16 days ago

      Irish tenant farmers grew potatoes as a subsistence crop, while the wealthy landlords grew wheat and oats as a cash crop to export. It is in fact a great illustration how growing food by itself will not stave off a famine when the social relation demands that thousands must starve for a few to get even wealthier.

      Re: your last point, I have been careful not to blame capitalism specifically in this thread. Wheat was grown as a cash crop in Ancient Rome. The development of the slaver latifundia system leading to the economic marginalisation of the plebeians was a major source of class conflict in their society.